2012-11-07-Enternal Now & Personality
Marin – MAR #220
Contents
• 1 Heading
o 1.1 Topic: Eternal Now & Personality
o 1.2 Group: Marin TeaM
• 2 Facilitators
o 2.1 Teacher: Michael
o 2.2 TR: JL
• 3 Session
o 3.1 Opening
o 3.2 Lesson
3.2.1 Moment
3.2.2 Time
o 3.3 Dialogue
3.3.1 Destiny
3.3.2 Evolution
3.3.3 Co-creation
3.3.4 Experience
3.3.5 Discernment
Topic: Eternal Now & Personality
Group: Marin TeaM
Facilitators
Teacher: Michael
TR: JL
Session
Opening
Dear Michael and Mother Spirit, welcome. It’s good to have you in our midst tonight. There’s a kind of group consciousness that does happen and I often wonder if it’s your Spirit of Truth, that each of us has individually within us. When we get together like this, this is the spirit that we share. It’s curiosity and your wonderful orientation to what is true, especially on these occasions when we really cannot anticipate what you have for us.
Your spirit encourages us to be open-minded and suspend our dis-belief for a while, and entertain as best we can what you have for us. Later on we’ll have plenty of time to analyze it and dissect it to get a secondary response as to whether it is true or not.
But for now, let us enjoy the ride you take us on. It’s a good exercise of our trust in our abilities to respond, for it’s that responsibility that gives us the power to determine our own lives. We thank you for being in each of us, and among us. Amen.
MICHAEL: Good evening. This is Michael, and Mother Spirit and I return your welcome. We welcome you to be with us any time, any time at all that it occurs to you–day or night, no matter what you’re doing. Well, I’ll amend that to: if you’re driving your car through some busy traffic, better keep 100% of yourself there.
Lesson
But given the opportunity we’d love for you to have these little mini-meditations, maybe only five minutes just say hello and see if you can feel us. Spend some time with our presence within you. Be still of all your busy lives–kind-of settle down. Open yourself to the realm of greater spirit for here is where you can renew yourself. Here’s where you can take a break from all your necessary plans and just be.
Moment
The eternal now and personality
Be here and now in the present moment. Then you can get some sense of what we mean by the eternal now that is all that is. It contains all that has ever been and the promise of all that will be, but has as yet to happen. This is our very special awareness of time that we’d like to share with you.
One aspect of Deity, one aspect of God is his omniscience, his all-knowing. We see that too as existing here and now. We’ve given it the name of a Personality Circuit whereby God experiences, personally, what every personal being that he has created experiences. These personal beings are quite beyond number, even beyond any comprehension shy of God’s alone, for he alone experiences everything.
When we say, “God sees the end from the beginning,” this is because nothing of any subordinate personal being can exist outside his parameters of reality itself. This has been expressed as, “In him we live, and move, and have our being.” Yet too there is this thing of personality, this cosmic reality of unique, free-willed beings with no duplicate anywhere in all of creation.
It is God who endows his personal beings with a measure of his own creative spirit. As you go through your life you not only encounter this whole world, this whole physical cosmos that he created, you yourself have creative spirit. You are literally, moment by moment, co-creating yourself and everything you experience, even though it is truly “out there” and apart from you with its own life. If you will, your co-creativity is your subjective reality. It’s how you–as a subject in the cosmos–it’s how you interpret everything. It’s how everything impinges upon your unique being, even my voice right now, or these words as you come to read later.
It is in your creative ability, this creative spirit you have, my children; it is in this that you most resemble our Father. This is the way you were made in his image. This is what he shares with you, this most critical, important, powerful aspect of his being. You are personal, a personal being, and you are endowed with creative spirit.
It’s part of you; even–if you will–an inescapable part of you, though so few are fully aware of it. Indeed, in your busy lives where you have to be 100% focused on what’s happening to you–shall we say wheeling your car through heavy, fast traffic–you’re also blessed with the ability of self-forgetfulness. You can be totally unaware that you yourself are co-creating this experience of yours. You can forget yourself and take in another person totally, be totally wrapped up in someone else and what they’re doing, what they’re saying. This too is a glory–being able to give yourself away, just as our Father also gives himself away. He gives himself to you to the fullest extent of your ability to feel him, to experience him within you.
So you have not only this innate ability of your own–your creative ability that you’re constantly exercising–you also have the ability–and this is an acquired ability–to be aware of us, our spiritual presence within you. God’s presence is called a Thought Adjuster because it is literally his presence within you, doing its best to spiritualize your very thoughts by directing them towards that which is spiritual–all-encompassing.
Understandably, it’s very akin to my Spirit of Truth which is an orientation towards that which is greater than you. In fact, we can lead you, entice you, and tease you into a greater truth, a greater understanding. For you, my dears, are just putting one little toe on an endless path, an endless journey that will take you clear across all you know of as the universe, and then beyond that. You are just starting out on an eternal journey and you are given the means by which–the ability–to respond to all that is in you and outside of you.
This is where your creativity comes in for without this, without you yourself being a creative component, you would just be re-active, a cog in some cosmic machine. There would be no true free will. You would not have the ability to originate right out of yourselves what to do next. So by no means is this putting any limit upon God’s ability to know the end from the beginning, for he himself has created you and given you this freedom.
Time
The future has not happened yet. It has no existence whatsoever. It is merely, but totally, a projection within this eternal now in which you live. Some of it, like the exact moment the sun comes up each day, can be calculated for a hundred years from now fairly accurately. But as to the exact thoughts you might have five minutes from now? That other part of your reality is still open. If you have the discipline you can decide, shall we say for the next ten minutes, what you’re going to work on–what subject. But your own exact thoughts coming out of your own unfathomable creativity are not so foreseeable. This is the cosmic reality you are involved in, this eternal now in which you breathe and your heart keeps beating.
This is why it is so critical for you to stay open-minded to embrace this unknowable quotient that awaits you. We can only assure that this is truly God’s plan. This is God’s notion of how to raise his children, in such an enormous encompassing that you’re constantly teased out of yourself and left standing there, awestruck with wonder. So I invite you, my children, to feel yourselves this way, to realize–to make real within your heart–you are this creative spiritual being taking each unknowable step at a time with courage and wonder. Now let me practice what I preach and open the floor to your questions or comments that I cannot anticipate.
Dialogue
Student: I have a question.
MICHAEL: Certainly.
Student: There are some schools of thought that the future has already happened, and we just step into different realities of that future. I mean, I don’t know how to put it. If we are creating what we don’t know, and what is not known, how do… Is there such a thing as predestination, or destiny, or is it all just chance?
Destiny
Fatalism
MICHAEL: Yes, my dear. I think, philosophically, you call this sense of the future somehow already existing, almost like a railroad track on into the future that you are riding along with only the illusion of free will and choice; I think it’s what you call Fatalism–that you really have no choice. Somehow or another however you choose, or only think you are choosing, it’s already happened in some way. You can even predict to a great degree what’s personally going to happen to you.
Insofar as you have your God-created personality, and then you have your body and your mind, and a soul you are building up by all your human experience; by all this you do have potential. As you learn things you are increasing your potential. Your free will is getting more abilities, genuine abilities of what you can do. As you know, both physically–in terms of heredity, and from the moment you were born–absorbing the culture into which you were born: these do have some determination on who you are and who you feel yourself to be, even perhaps your interests that you want to pursue.
These are determinisms. They especially determine you to the very degree that you’re unconscious of them. Yet you are free within these determinations to the degree that they are conscious and you can choose. You can exercise your free will and set a whole new course, and enjoy a completely different future than if you were unconscious of all these parts that make you up. It’s why we teach so many lessons on all your different parts—your personality, your body, your mind, your spirit, your soul. This is how we see determinism.
Student: Thank you.
MICHAEL: Do you have any other questions about that?
Student: Well, you mentioned that we’re just starting out on a path. Is that just this universe, or are there, you know… Is this just the beginning path of like different spiritual realities? I know there’s been some talk for many, many years about the Age of Aquarius, that humanity can be raised up. So is this just kind-of like a birthing point for, I guess… I don’t how to explain what I’m asking. I see what I know; I just don’t know how to put it into words.
MICHAEL: My dear, we’ve taught many lessons on the very complex notion of reincarnation, as to whether or not you–your unique personality–had some previous existence. In this we say no. The essence of who are, created by God, did have its beginning here with the union of a sperm and an egg, which is also a physical uniqueness. Irrespective of how many bothers and sisters you have, even physically you have a certain uniqueness. So yes, you began here.
Evolution
Personal and general evolution
The other things you mentioned are people’s interpretations and philosophies about what Mother Spirit and I claim to be is an ongoing evolution for you personally. You’re growing a soul of your human experiences. You are evolving, and you do have a life after this one. Your life is truly just beginning on an eternal path. Expressed worldwide, you get into notions, as you say, of an Age of Aquarius where people feel the whole planet’s humanity is going through evolutionary stages. This corresponds to some of your political and social evolution. To a degree these notions are all correct, just as reincarnation is true to the degree that you inherit from the past a physical body from your parents and grandparents and great grandparents. You inherit a whole culture that has been thousands and thousands of years in the development. In this sense yes; when you are born you are born with and into a situation that has all kinds of pre-determinants. Does that help explain the situation?
Student: Kind-of. I guess what I’m asking is… I guess what I’m seeing is that there is the beginning of a certain evolutionary path, but there’s multitudes of those, I guess, in different ways, on different levels?
MICHAEL: Yes. We say there are a thousand possibilities swarming around every moment. Yet of all these thousands of possibilities, there is only one reality happening. In other words, your human life as you live it is constantly resolving all these swarming possibilities into the one thing happening to you. Say you had a choice of vocations at a certain time, and you chose one over the others. They all existed there in potential, but you actually lived only one of them. Do you have a sense of all these possibilities? Do you have a sense of your own free will, that you are choosing–to the degree you can choose–what is happening to you?
Student: I do. I guess I’m just curious about why I would choose to come here, why I would choose to start on this path. (laughter) Not here to this place. I’m talking about earth in general, or this lifetime in general.
MICHAEL: Yet by that you are positing an existence before this. When you say, “Why did I choose to come here to this place?”–that means you had some previous existence in which you chose to come here and have this human life. This is, again, a general meaning of reincarnation. Well, think about these for a while. Let’s let another student have a chance. You can come back in again, if you want. Be in my peace.
Student: I wanted to ask a question, Michael.
MICHAEL: Certainly.
Student: We talk a lot about co-creating reality, you know, with God? I want to know specifically how can we co-create reality with the Lord? Is that something that we listen to, and it just comes through us? Or are there other ways besides just listening?
MICHAEL: Yes, my dear. It starts with what we mean by personality, personhood, this essence of yours that is unique in all creation. We’ve teased you with the idea that only God has a sufficiency of infinity, if you will, to create unique personalities by the trillions of trillions of trillions, in thousands of different orders of personal beings—human beings, angels, Melchizedeks; even myself, a Creator Son.
Co-creation
Co-creativity
This personality that you are is creative. In other words, a lot of what you are experiencing, my dear, is coming from your own unique being. Psychologically, you call this subjectivity. In other words, this is distinct from the objective world that you all share and is undeniable as the very fact of things.
We’ve given the example of two people looking at a painting on a wall. It’s definitely there, but each person can actually see something different in terms of their whole experience–how they understand it, how they value that thing hanging on the wall, that painting, that objective reality there. They can each have a completely different take on it. And, as you know, they can argue about it endlessly as to what it actually is if each doesn’t realize that the other person is also unique. Each one is creating their own subjective experience of this objective reality.
It’s in this sense we say that you are co-creating. You have your own subjective inside uniqueness of being that sees, hears, tastes, touches, experiences reality unique to you. This is what you have to share among yourselves.
Your greatest artists have two facilities. Number one, they have this uniqueness of seeing things. They’re like no other. Shakespeare’s not like Milton. Picasso’s not like any other painter. They have this uniqueness of vision and expression. Yet at the same time they are lucid. They have the phenomenal ability to express themselves in such a way that they can be experienced by others. True, in one way everyone makes their own little mud pie unique from all others. But the great artists have the ability to be not only unique, but to share, to present their subjective reality in such a way that others can enjoy it.
It is in this sense that you are co-creating your experience, your human experience. It’s not only what you’re presented with–this whole world around you including your own body, your own mind, the culture in which you are raised; it’s how you are taking them. This is a creative action that gives you the possibility of free will. So, my dear, it’s what’s coming right out of you.
Student: Thank you.
MICHAEL: The trick is, in terms of social and political realms of people getting along together: how can you convince people to take responsibility for what they themselves are co-creating, when they’re totally unconscious of it? They will not only argue about what is, they will go to war and kill, or terrorize others into accepting that their version of things is the only one. Far beyond simple thieving and stealing, whether objects or land; beyond that you have the ideological warfare that people have been involved in now for thousands and thousands of years, perhaps because people will not let others have their own unique take on things. The only way to peace is open-mindedness, of actually delighting that each of you is unique and has your own unique contribution to the group. So thank you for your questions, my dear, and be in my peace.
Student: Thank you.
Experience
An enormous experience
MICHAEL: By the way, I might add it is an enormous experience in your life–called by different religions, different words like enlightenment, or satori, or nirvana, or samyak sambodhi–when you are suddenly aware that this whole world in which you are living, and you have known all your life; you are literally co-creating all of it moment by moment. It’s a rather awesome and humbling experience.
Student: Yes, Michael. I just had this image of a gigantic crayon box with seven billion colors creating this masterpiece that we all are. There’s the essential reality that we all are, but we have our own unique expression of that one reality. When we allow ourselves to be still and be silent, to rest as our essential being, then we are in harmony. Then all our colors mesh together.
What I was thinking about on my way here, and you brought it up about the future, there’s been some dialogue among some of the Teaching Mission community about what’s supposed to happen on December 31st of this year: that there’s supposed to be these dramatic goings-on. This was kind-of prophesied in one of these discourses. I won’t go into it, but some stuff’s supposed to happen and an entity called Monjoronson is supposed to appear; and all that kind of stuff.
Anyway, there’s been a lot of feedback among other celestials about using discernment and being–as you brought it up–being in the present. Because I’ve experienced in the past similar kinds of discourses and prophesy which more or less haven’t occurred. There may be certain things that did happen, but the prophesy didn’t occur. My concern is, sometimes with human beings our imaginations tend to go a little wild. It seems you talked about how all our unconscious fears, or desires, or yearnings, or dreams, come forth in our imagination of what we would like, or what we fear; and so we predict them out into the future.
We seem to forget that all we have is right here and now, this moment. And this moment right here and now, beyond the appearances that occur, is natural perfection. This all we have, right here and now. If we allow ourselves to dwell in this place, this space, this spaciousness of perfect natural love, natural joy, and natural abundance, then of course our future will reflect that.
What I’ve learned when I hear these prophesies: they may happen for all I know, but all I have is now. Right here and now I’m sitting here among all these people, and this is where I am. And this all I have; but I have a lot, you know. I have the infinity housed within me and within all of us. We need to look at ourselves in a more exalted way, but tinged with humility, obviously, because we’ve seen the other spectrum of that. So I thank you for bringing all this up tonight, and the questions that have related to that. Well, so: that’s my spiel.
MICHAEL: Yes, my son, the tricky part of what your psychologists call projection is that, from the standpoint of the individual, especially the young and immature ones who haven’t reflected on this a lot, or studied a lot of different philosophies trying to explain it, is that you encounter yourself. Shall we say you have a certain notion of what is beautiful and what is not. You literally experience encountering beautiful people and others who are not quite so beautiful. Their beauty appears to be objective reality because that’s how you experience them.
Discernment
You encounter your own values, etc.
It is only after a great deal of reflection and experimentation trying different things, entertaining different philosophies to see which ones really resonate within you, that you can begin to see how the way in which you were raised–the parents you had, the culture, your friends, the schooling you had, the very country in which you were raised–how these influence your take on things.
What you talked about, my son, is the wonderful ability of being open-minded, of being strong enough and confident enough in yourself, in your continuing reality if you will, that you don’t feel threatened by that which is completely antithetical to you. You may have a certain religious feeling about things, and you encounter another religion that is exactly opposite.
We talk a lot about reincarnation and the fact that a great percentage of the human race believes in it in the fundamental sense of having a continuous number of human lives. They are trying to point out some continuity, some imperishable quality of your personality that exists even from one lifetime to another. We merely say that that is true, but that it starts here. You will go on into eternity going through enormous changes of which your first death is only the beginning.
This is what open-mindedness is all about. It’s literally the ability to take in what is not-you, especially all these folks around you, because this is what really feeds your soul. This is what becomes a rich and rewarding life. So thank you for your observations.
Student: Thank you. The thing is, too, we do have choices in how we act. I’ve always tried to impress upon my children and my grandchildren, even though they’re really young, is sometimes we react too rapidly and we get ourselves into trouble that way. Instead we could take a step back to rest and just kind-of allow everything to be as it really is. I know it’s something easier said than done, but I’ve learned. This is something I learned through my own experience. Instead of getting caught up in all the stories and appearances, and even cultures and things, you kind-of take a step back and relax. You’d be surprised at any animosity you may have, or any confusion you may have, or conflict; it just dissipates. It doesn’t mean you don’t act, but it comes from a place of authenticity and, as you say, truth and reality. You’re able to be there for the other people in your life in a more wholehearted and open-minded way.
I’ve been looking at this idea of non-action, how spacious that can be when we allow ourselves to simply be and see everything, as you say, from a perspective of a grander, more open-minded vision. That’s where we’re at now. I know my own life, and that’s all I can express. Last week my truck broke down in Mill Valley; it just stopped. Fortunately it didn’t stop in the middle of Shoreline Highway, because that would have been really big problems; but it just stopped. I was on my way to a job. I could have sat in my truck and gotten all upset and said, “What’s going to happen? I’m missing out on some money, and all that kind of stuff!” And I had a worker with me as well.
But we just sat there and waited for AAA. The thing is, everything got taken care of. I actually had the funds to take care of it, and it all worked itself out. I didn’t get all upset. In fact, I kind-of laughed about it–where we were. It all kind-of flowed. So that’s how I’ve learned to live. It’s day to day, moment to moment.
There are some circumstances rising for me where I’m going to have to move in two months because my landlady, and some medical conditions that came upon her, is forced to sell. I’ve been in this place for fifteen years, raising my children, and now my grandchildren. But I also know from past experiences that the most beneficial occurrence will be open for me, for what I am to do. I do what I need to do, but I also have this kind of understanding of my own nature, of what is possible. That’s what I’m opening up to.
So that’s where I’m at right now. There’s that sense of anticipatory excitement, tinged with a little anxiety because it is a new beginning. It will be interesting to see how it all unfolds, because I have no idea. But I also know that it will be–in my case, and for the people around me, my family–for the greater good. Thank you.
Earning your abilities
MICHAEL: Yes, my son. You’ve got some hard-earned confidence there because, true enough, you do have to earn this. You’re all aware of those whose experiments ended in disaster, in lives cut short too soon, or those who chose to get caught up in such unhealthy ways of living that their lives were terribly stunted. These are all the possibilities that you have to choose among as best you can. The more conscious you are of all that goes into your choices, and then being open to what happens next–how did these things work out?–this is what fills your soul. This becomes another genuine ability that you can count on. Thank you for your examples. Be in my peace.
Student: I have a question.
MICHAEL: Yes.
Student: Can we actually, by changing the way we live on this planet, alter the thing called global warming?
MICHAEL: In short, yes. In other words, how you are getting–but even more than that, how you are using your energy? How extravagantly or frugally are you are living your lives with respect to the energy it takes? Yes, very much so.
Living your lives—energy wise
Always keep in mind too the generations to come–in what you are doing. How far-sighted is it? So, yes. How are you living your lives, and how extravagant you are with these truly finite sources of energy? This has a great deal to do with life on your earth. But also, my dear, there are, shall we say, extra-planetary causes and effects as well, mainly being that big star that you’re circling. That sun you see coming up every morning has its long changes, its periods of fluctuations. All this is much in play; yet even the quality of the air you breathe has a lot to do with how you are living your lives. Definitely, you are finite economic beings. It does take a certain amount of material and energy to keep you going in terms of food, shelter, transportation.
Once again I will recommend for those of you who have a Urantia Book, to read the chapter called Life on a Neighboring Planet where they’ve had continuous high celestial beings right on their worlds—a Planetary Prince, an Adam and Eve–that you are deprived of. It gives examples how they are living their lives in a more full and energy-conservative kind of way. Because insofar as you are an individual with economic determinisms right in your own individual life, you tend to go until you’re stopped. You tend to continue doing what you are doing until you are made to do otherwise.
The only way out of this situation is by reflection, by wondering what could be a better life for you and all your others. Then you do your best to live that life, to see if it does work, before you recommend it to others. It all comes back to you, my dear, and your experiments with your own life. Student: Well, how did that… What do you have say about the people who are in charge, who are utilizing the natural resources because of economic reasons, rather than using solar or wind to be cleaner, creating less of an impact on the earth and the atmosphere? If I sit there and I lower my heat, it seems like it’s going to be insignificant in the big picture–if you have Obama or whoever else is in charge wanting to dig more coal and not utilize just wind and solar that’s so simple and clean.
MICHAEL: My dear, your whole society is no more than each of you deciding whether or not to turn the heat up or down, whether to have a more efficient car or not, whether or not to vote for those people who represent what you think is the better situation. There is no other reality than all of you individually. In other words, you have to start with you.
Student: So, you’re saying the “you’s” (sic) have to get together and tell the minority what to do, the minority who is in charge?
MICHAEL: Well, insofar as you have a relatively free democracy where all these points of view are being expressed, and you have fairly honest and open elections, you do have majority rule. I mean, you do have the ability. Look at the way your society has changed in recent times to acknowledge these things. Yet you also have a mass culture which is the result of hundreds and thousands of years coming down to this moment, of how people have used energy. You have the situation as it is, and then you have how you would change it for what you see is the better way. You can get with those of a like mind and do your best to change things toward your ideal. That is what will happen.
Student: So this whole December 21st date that people are getting all up in the air about, do you think there’s a significant change that’s going to happen on the planet that will affect all of us? Or is it more of a symbolic gesture on the part of people that are hopeful?
MICHAEL: That, my dear, I will not answer. I will be very, as you say, upfront with you and refuse to answer that question. We can only suggest that you keep an open mind about all these possibilities and weigh them for yourself as to their origin and what they proclaim. It is up to you to decide how much weight to put on these things.
Student: Thank you.
MICHAEL: Certainly. These are profound questions. Mother Spirit and I can congratulate you on your recent elections. I’m sure you’re all very spiritually exhausted in terms of evaluating everything through all the long processes you have of choosing your leaders on the national, state, and local level, and all the different ballot initiatives that you are deciding upon as a group.
(Transparent elections)
As long as the process itself is transparent, and becoming more so; as long as your elections are free and secret so no one can tell exactly who voted for what–in terms of intimidation; and you all are determined to go with the results of these elections: you’re still way ahead of other societies where bullets rather than ballots are determining who is in control. On your earth you still have the truly obscene violence of people who are incapable of taking into themselves these “others”–these other viewpoints, but would prefer the power to simply silence them one way or another though outright murder or intimidation. There still is that question going on in your world, so you are to be congratulated for having fairly open and honest processes and elections to determine these things. Be in my peace. Were there any other questions or comments this evening?
Let me draw our evening to a close. I will admit, it is always–even for Mother Spirit and myself–even we feel a certain kind of arbitrariness about putting an end to such a wonderful sharing as this is, where you come together with all your curiosity and expectations and just wonderful openness of genuine interest in what comes next.
(How God raises his universe children)
Hopefully this gives you a feeling of what we talked about at the beginning, of the way God chooses to raise his universe children in the midst of such a gigantic encompassing, in all dimensions—physical and mental, soulful and spiritual. Then consider each being’s own personality. It takes an enormous imagination for you to think of how this is all happening–literally trillions of worlds, natural worlds and architectural spheres, inhabited by a whole hierarchy of personal beings from the human on up to the Trinity–God himself–with no gaps, just hundreds of different orders of beings of every kind. Think how this is all happening in this eternal now. That’s all out there. They are all out there–happening. And there’s this one personal Being who is sharing himself and enjoying all these unique individual experiences.
Reality not repeating itself but for certain gross physical events of the planetary bodies. You can know when the sun will come up tomorrow. But as I said, exactly what will your drive home be tonight? Exactly how you will feel when you wake up tomorrow morning? How you will spend tomorrow despite all your plans? How will you react to all of that which is unknowable? My children, it is all such a wonder–and the fact that you are too, moment to moment. This is, for us anyway, a proof of God’s existence; and that all this was deliberately set up this way.
We hope you can have that feeling yourself someday, if you don’t yet. For you there will always be a modicum of faith involved. And that faith, too, will determine the life you live. So be of good cheer and trust with your very existence the Creator of all of this. And be in my peace. Good evening.
