2015-11-19-On Terrorism
Lightline #480
Contents
• 1 Heading
o 1.1 Topic: On Terrorism
o 1.2 Group: Lightline TeaM
• 2 Facilitators
o 2.1 Teacher: Michael
o 2.2 TR: JL
• 3 Session
o 3.1 Opening
o 3.2 Lesson
o 3.3 Closing
Topic: On Terrorism
Group: Lightline TeaM
Facilitators
Teacher: Michael
TR: JL
Session
Opening
Dear Michael and Mother Spirit, tonight we welcome you with our hearts, our minds, our spirits, and our souls–and we thank you for all your wonderful lessons on these different aspect of us. They help us keep in mind that we are not only just our consciousness at the moment. There is even a presence of God within us, assigned to us and part of us, which is recording everything of spiritual significance that is happening to us. For these lessons we are most humble and grateful.
Tonight I would like you to address if you would what I think is a very modern phenomenon of the terrorism that is occupying all of our news. Because it seems only recently–after our World War with its high-level bombing and other things that went on so indiscriminately–that we are returning to a kind of barbarism that is also so impersonal. One aspect of modern terrorism is that is so deliberately random on a very intimate, up-close level.
It doesn’t take into account at all the unique personalities that you and Mother Spirit have taught us to respect so deeply–the fact that every single one of us is a unique being created directly by God. Another great troubling aspect is when the terrorists are not only doing–as you said yourself Michael–such terrible, obscene things, but are themselves actually advertising these things in their modern media. So I must personally confess I am a little stumped by these things. Anything you could say to help us understand and address the situation would be most appreciated. Thank you.
Lesson
MICHAEL: Good Evening, my children. This is Michael, and on this very troubled evening Mother Spirit and I do wish to assure you that we truly are part of you–part of your mind and part of your creative spirit. We too contribute to your souls, these spiritual records of all that is significant in your lives.
Definitely, even for those that are not directly threatened (?) by modern terrorism, we do appreciate and congratulate you for being so concerned and spending a lot of time thinking and praying on how to understand what is happening. We encourage you to open yourselves even more.
Obviously I am not speaking directly to those who would neither listen to nor credit what I have to say, the terrorists themselves; although we would hope that would be the case. But for the rest of you who are puzzled and, as you say, stumped by these events, we can only ask you to be even more open-minded, more open-hearted, and more spiritually creative on how you understand these events. Realize that the very terror of terrorism all through history has been the impersonal aspect of it.
The Roman Empire wasn’t particularly interested in the individuality of those who came against it, but rather evolved a way of terror themselves. Consider the whole aspect of crucifixion which, simply if you were a Roman Citizen, you were guaranteed this would not be your death. But for those who came against the Roman Empire, this was reserved. And it was not only being tied and then nailed to a cross, but all the preliminary scourging, the torture which could kill the individual from the sheer amount of pain.
So in one way this is nothing new. But yes, with your modern media you are correct in that there are individuals who are now actually advertising these obscene things they are doing to people very close up. I even hesitate to specify all these things that are on your evening news. You can only try—yourselves–not to react in the same impersonal way, but actually open yourselves to these events. If you need to, even steel yourselves to be open to the reality of what is happening. That in itself is a challenge, because these events are so obscene.
You, yourselves, try to see these terrorists as individuals, and do your best to understand all–all that has brought them, as individuals, to this point. Only by doing this can you see and appreciate the terror that binds them together. As you know, those who are fleeing these war zones are sometimes being criticized for being so many young men, sometimes even being more than the older folks, the non-combatant women and children. Yet these young men too are fleeing from a situation where whoever reaches them first—either government forces, or those opposing these government forces–whoever reaches them first gives them this choice: join us or die–immediately.
As you see on your TV, a small town is captured and people go before a tribunal where they may have a few minutes to state their beliefs and their loyalties, or be shot immediately. This is what these people are facing, so you have to open your heart and truly wonder what this would be like for you to face, to swear allegiance and loyalty to whatever group happens to capture you first.
The test of your loyalty is immediate: you yourself must kill someone who doesn’t meet the test. This is what is holding these groups together. If you hesitate to swear allegiance and loyalty to their set of values, it means everyone who doesn’t believe as they do can be immediately killed. You have to show your loyalty to that belief.
So please take this understanding to heart and into your mind. It points to one way then that so many of these folks can be rehabilitated, if given that choice, if given that opportunity to escape. You are not facing a monolithic evil, and especially you are not facing some extra-human evil. The leaders are cynical individuals who are in it for the sheer power. They have pretty much evolved and arrived at their position of leadership through a “competition of cruelty”–if you will. It’s their willingness to shed hundreds–now hundreds of thousands of innocent lives. This is what is still happening in the world today.
So my dear ones, this calls for you opening your heart and opening your minds all the more, just to realize what has happened. Then you as an individual can, with all your modern media—even though it may be too politically split sometimes–see this reality and wonder how to deal with it. Open yourself to all the different choices being presented to you by different political viewpoints. Because these tend to be—even in your free-swinging democracies where you have so many different points of view being presented–even these tend to be rather polarized sometimes into mere characterizations.
As Mother Spirit and I have talked on before, that is like being presented with the only the two ends of a loaf of bread. Where is the whole center section of varying meaning and values? The situation calls for what your dear Urantia Book declares is a hallmark of your wisdom. It is a sense of proportion.
As you listen to different viewpoints being presented, sometimes to the very reality of what is happening and how to deal with it, take in the broadest spectrum of viewpoints as you can. Then right in your own informed understanding, keep in mind your own sense of proportion. For that is what is so severely, severely lacking in the hearts and the minds of terrorists, whatever terror they themselves are held under. However firm their beliefs in whatever religion or whole cultural value system–whatever it is!–their wiliness to do these obscene things to people who are totally innocent, or even unaware of their beliefs? This is only the hallmark of arrogance, and a total lack of any kind of proportion: death for innocence?
So this is the challenge facing you in these times. It is to see these individuals as such. Study and learn as much as you can about the differences between them–one group to another, from one country to another, from one culture to another. The most perilous thing in these times is a kind of simple mindedness, because that is exactly what they are involved in.
It calls for you embracing the full complexity of the situation, and growing, yourself. Keep growing. Keep being open. Keep learning. Keep opening your heart to the tender and loving being in those with whom you come in contact. This is what wins the day; it is to demonstrate your compassion and your understanding. This is what affects how you live your life.
And so, my dear ones, be thankful that you yourselves know deep in your heart, and in your spirit, and in your soul: it is God’s love that brought the whole creation into being. His very nature is one of sharing himself, or none of us would exist. He is a loving, careful, thoughtful, and sharing God. This is the saving grace that we all can do our best to emulate and be like him.
So do your best, my dear ones. Open yourselves to embrace even this terrible reality, and never have the arrogance of thinking you have it all wrapped up and tied with a neat little bow. These too are people. These too are individuals. These too are each unique in themselves and their situation. Mother Spirit and I thank you for opening yourselves to us, right in your own minds this evening. Now if you have any comments or questions, feel free to voice them.
Closing
MICHAEL: My dear ones, I understand in the light of what I have just given you all to ponder, Mother Spirit and I appreciate you deeply, deeply doing so. We will wrap up this evening’s lesson.
We thank you, thank you from our hearts and our souls, that you do open yourselves to receive us, and you do credit who and what we are–and that we are part of you. So in your meditations, we welcome you simply addressing us, even at times in your own personally desperate situations, saying “Dear Michael. Dear Mother Spirit. Dear God!–what do I do next?” So again: thank you, dear ones. Thank you for being our children. We are definitely proud to be your spiritual parents. Mother Spirit sends her love, and I bid you be in my peace. Do your best to spread your own, most precious peace abroad. Good evening.
