2012-02-08-We Are With You
Marin #210
Contents
• 1 Heading
o 1.1 Topic: We Are With You
o 1.2 Group: Marin TeaM
• 2 Facilitators
o 2.1 Teacher: Nebadonia
o 2.2 TR: JL
• 3 Session
o 3.1 Opening
o 3.2 Lesson
3.2.1 Presence
3.2.2 Ideals
3.2.3 Stillness
3.2.4 Inner Life
o 3.3 Dialogue
3.3.1 Courage
3.3.2 Parenting
3.3.3 Truth
3.3.4 Acceptance, Hospitality
3.3.5 Adventure
o 3.4 Closing
Topic: We Are With You
Group: Marin TeaM
Facilitators
Teacher: Nebadonia
TR: JL
Session
Transcribed by Halbert Katzen
Opening
Dear Mother Spirit and Michael; Mother Spirit, this has been quite a few months since we got together and gave you this venue to express yourself. We know you are literally the surrounding Holy Spirit that is even part of us. But we do look forward and thoroughly enjoy these sessions where you can speak directly to us in our own language and let us see ourselves as another sees us–as a spiritual parent sees us. So for this we are most thankful. Amen.
Lesson
NEBADONIA: Good evening, this is Nebadonia, Mother Spirit of Nebadon, Holy Spirit of your dear Earth, Urantia. Yes, it is always such a delight to come to you in this way, to be able to articulate myself this way. And yes, my children, I am always with you, literally a part of you, a part of your mentality, and a part of your consciousness. And Michael and I do so appreciate when you can begin to feel our presence, for it is so subtle. It is so unobtrusive. Just like any good parent with their children, we do so enjoy leaving you alone to be with yourself–with us, if you will, merely in the background. In our case, we’re only keeping an over-control, keeping a watchful over-control of your soul to let you have your experiences, even though we know, as a good parent does, that you’ll stub your toe–or even so much worse at times.
Presence
We are with you
These are the chances every physical being takes on a planet like this. Even things like the weather can come along and do you in. But we are with you. And so we enjoy it when you turn your attention to us. Just as when your child or youngster or teenager turns with a big grin and let’s you know how much they love you, so we too receive your love and do our best to beam it right back at you.
This is definitely the coin of the realm, the spiritual realm. This is what takes place between spiritual beings, this deep love and respect and acknowledgement. We acknowledge you fully within us. You’re little stars, little glowing points of personality in our space. And so we do appreciate it so much when you acknowledge us, and then reap the rewards within yourself of knowing, of really knowing for yourself: you do have spiritual parents and, on a watch-care over all of us, our mutual Father.
So yes, it is good to be able to communicate this way, and Michael and I encourage all of you to do this. You’ve given it the nickname of journaling. It’s devoting part of your stillness to open your mind and, with a pencil and some paper, or on your computer, just say, “Okay, Michael, Mother Spirit—what have you got for me?”
And then write whatever comes. That’s the tricky part–to be truly open-minded, for so much of what comes up immediately is a whole backload of things that have been ignored too long. But trust the process itself, trust this is a spiritual endeavor leading you to being all-inclusive of everything you encounter, and everything you yourself can imagine.
Ideals
Be a democracy inside
Michael spoke one time of being a democracy inside, of being able to set aside your ego, your self-awareness, your self-image, your self-memory, and open yourself to another being. This is the challenge and this is the commensurate reward. It leads you to a realm of spontaneity because you can only conceive of the realm that Michael and I live in would be, for a human being, spontaneous beyond imagination, beyond your wildest science fiction. So come this way. In your stillness just open yourself to what comes next, unafraid.
Let your ideals come forth, and again as Michael has taught so many times, let your ideals come forth totally irrespective of whether or not you can fulfill them. This could be very humbling indeed, for your ideals are like a vast universe. And you are this tiny little speck doing the best you can.
Because this too takes courage, my children, to entertain, to really think about and believe as best you can and, however provisionally, entertain those ideals. Think about that most sincere prayer to your Father, “What is the best thing I can do next?”
And then be a democracy inside. Let all these voices have their say, not only of all the folks you’ve known, but also all the folks you’ve experienced on the television and in the movies. All of this can fade away and lead you to a deeper humility of not feeling tiny, but thanking God for the kind of being you are, thanking God for the perception of such an enormity of people.
You can identify with either one, either this little speck that you are, or that enormous universe and world all around you, created for you as you were created for it. And have the confidence to know you belong!–to know that your innermost essence, this persistent being that you are, was created by God. Even your own self, my children, is a universe to your momentary consciousness.
Stillness
There are many kinds of meditation and they all have their purpose. It’s like trying to work out a puzzle of time and space, truth and spirit, or filling your mind with a mantra, an expression of truth to contemplate. But stillness is just a kind of reaching down and grabbing your bootstraps and pulling as hard as you can until suddenly it occurs to you to relax and just practice being. Just get to know yourself before you take on any other activity, and let come into your mind whatever will, unafraid. This is not only contacting other spirit, it’s even giving a chance for your own over-soul, your own greater mind, your own personality and it’s hard-earned wisdom, to come forth. To visit your soul; to let some real previous time in your life come forth and just enjoy a few moments of being who you were, who you really were, that got you to here.
So it’s this inner freedom. It’s this inner fearlessness. It’s having a solid home base in spirit that can serve you well in very trying times of pain or other difficulties. It is something you’ve earned. It becomes part of your soul. It is a final refuge where you find us and our Father.
So just step off, my children. Practice stillness and then, if you’re of a mind, open yourself to us. Open yourself to God’s presence, who can give you very discrete thoughts. In your prayers, in your asking for help, do your share, do your homework. Arrive at what you don’t really know but need to ask.
Inner Life
A rich inner life
All these things are a rich inner life that, from our point of view, the greatest tragedy is to have lived and not had this genuine inner life. True enough, you will survive. And you will survive in a realm of existence that we can only describe as soulful, where who and what you are, and what you have experienced, is so much more right there available for you. But you can start now. You can practice just being still and seeing what arises out of this. This very ability of being able to highly consciously open yourself and set yourself aside will stay with you, and will be one of your profound abilities to carry on.
So I encourage you, my children, open your minds. Be a democracy inside. Let a thousand and one voices have their say. You still are, through all of it. That’s what I’ll say for God himself, your Creator. And know, once you’re such a democracy inside, how the world changes, how the world is transformed, how the souls and the characters of others you’ve allowed inside you just blossom forth. What a gift!—all these other souls around you. Love is the coin of the spiritual realm, so love deeply that you may open yourself to others and exchange that love with them. This is really the fun of it all. This is that deep joy that sustains you in your darkest hours—all those folks you’ve known.
Now if you have any questions or comments this evening, feel free.
Dialogue
Student: If you are a democracy inside, then sometimes you hear voices that are not always the most uplifting, but from a darker side; and you can recognize those. But what do you do about those voices?
Courage
It takes courage to be open
NEBADONIA: Yes, my daughter, this is why it takes courage. Again, just let them happen. There’ve been some studies that by the time the average person grows up to be of age in your culture, they‘ve witnessed some ten thousand or more melodramas of death, of people killing one and another in the most imaginative ways that Hollywood can think up. Now many, many decades later into television, there’s such a competition going on of, shall we say, using ever rougher and rougher sandpaper to get you to respond.
So, my dear, your head is full of this. You have thousands and thousands and thousands of hours from your earliest childhood of this kind of entertainment. And at the same time you still live in a very warlike world. There are still nation-states all over the world with their fantastic armaments. And all this too is in your mind. All this too affects every aspect of your life, but especially your government, your politics, your economics. There are genuine things to be fearful of. People have sworn with their deepest faith to kill or eradicate any disbelievers; even willing to give up their own lives for these beliefs.
So all these things, my dear, you have in your mind. Let them come forth, unafraid, and just react naturally. “Phew!–that was an obscene thought!” But you see how by not being too effected by it, you let it go. It is no longer, as you say, sub-rosa, perhaps plaguing you unconsciously. Does this seem something you might want to try?
Parenting
Student: Yes, and I want to find out what I can say to my granddaughter about the voices inside–that would stand the test of time about a democracy of voices inside. But how can you give guidance to a child, like a grandchild, about something like that? What can you say to a child about, you know, hearing the voices, and being able to allow them to be, and knowing which one is the most spiritual or uplifting?
Stay close to a child’s reality
NEBADONIA: Yes, I would say stay very close to what the child is asking or talking about. Don’t introduce too much stuff. Stay very practical with the immediate concern, whereas tonight, addressing a different audience, I’m on more a general-principle kind of level.
Stay with the child. Stay very concretely with what they’re asking so as not to introduce too many extraneous things for them to get lost in. If they’ve have some bad nightmare, you can just say that there are good thoughts and bad thoughts that happen to everyone. The thing is for her to get a distinction, to grow that discrimination that says, “Oh, that’s a bad thought.” Or, “This other thought sounds like it might really be good, might really be true.” Stay close.
Student: That sounds right. Thank you.
NEBADONIA: So many times children will just say something and you have to be careful it doesn’t trigger too much of a response. Remember the idea of “good thoughts and bad thoughts.” You might even suggest that no one knows exactly where they come from. As an adult you’ve had a whole lifetime of having all kind of negative things you’ve encountered. But for a child: be open to their world, to her world. Stay in that context.
Student: Okay. Big help. Thank you.
NEBADONIA: You’re welcome. Be in my love.
Student: Yes, Mother Spirit, this is D. I recently had a conversation with a person who talks about her spiritual life and what’s going on in her life with her family and everything. And one of the last things she said in this conversation is that she’s a part of this certain community so she won’t sabotage her endeavors, her spiritual endeavors, so to speak. And since that conversation that idea of self-sabotage kind-of stayed in the back of my head, and I’ve been wanting to, at another time, talk to her about that–what did that mean?
And so on Sunday I was sitting on my patio thinking about that and what would be the most beneficial way that I can express to her my own reflection on what she said. So I was just sitting there and then these thoughts came into my head, and I wrote them down, and they came out kind-of like a poem-form, so to speak. And it’s kind-of in line with what you were talking about tonight. I’ll read it and then you can comment about what I said.
Truth
And this is what I spoke to this person when I relayed this poem to her on Monday, but she didn’t read it while I was there. She read it when I left. And then she gave me a phone call about a half hour after she read it and said she was just totally overwhelmed in a good way that things cleared up so clearly, became so clear, she’s hanging it on her refrigerator door for all to see. So I’ll read it . . .
The truth about you can never be sabotaged, can never be destroyed, can never be forgotten. Even amidst the seeming appearance of sabotage and self-destruction, your true nature shines forth unimpeded, shines forth brilliantly, shines forth unobstructed, shines forth radiantly. There is nothing to work on, work out, or to work through. Wherever you are, your true pristine nature is. There is never a separation, never a disconnection, never isolation, never a shadow, never an independent nature, and never confusion and chaos. Fearlessness and conviction, love and compassion, wholeness and wellbeing, completeness and potently beneficial creativity: this is your true domain–always open, always expansive, always love. Wherever you are, love is.
NEBADONIA: So let me say, “Amen.”
Student: Well, because you talked about our essential nature that is always constant, that is always there, and when for myself, when I do have those moments of darkness, when something doesn’t feel or sit right with me and I have choices of what I can do with these dark moments, I can react and not be a benefit to anyone. I can indulge. I can deny. Or I can avoid. Or, as in certain traditions, I can just be in that darkness and just allow that whatever fear, or shadow, or whatever it is–anger, whatever it is, just to be as it is and not react from that place, and not indulge it nor create story upon story about it.
You know, like, I’ll give an example like my daughter. She’s twenty-six years old but she still doesn’t know how to clean up, and it really bothers me to the point that I do not react in a favorable, beneficial way for herself and for me. In a sense it creates great suffering for myself and so what I do is, I don’t try to deny it, you know, cause I can’t. And I don’t’ try to avoid it because that’s not going to help anything, ‘cause then it kind-of builds up. And if I indulge it and react from that place, then she gets her fur up and nothing is solved.
And so when I allow myself to kind-of just relax with it, I may go to another place in our home and just relax with it, knowing that, in a sense, at the essence of this anger is the same essence that brings forth joy and love. That same essence is God, is Truth, and is Love. I don’t have to do anything with the anger, but just allow it to be. And then it just dissolves and dissipates. And so what I’ve come to understand is to just allow myself to be and know that wherever I am, I am. My true nature is there. It doesn’t have to be coerced out. It doesn’t have to be manipulated or contrived. It is here as you mentioned today. So when we allow ourselves to, in a sense, rest or be still, or to be silent, we allow our greater mind to take over, to be that democracy of voices, to be that one voice as you alluded to.
I always try to begin my day by saying my intention is, “Let me be of the greatest benefit to whomever I come to meet in what I do in this day.” So whenever a question comes up in me, or indecisiveness, then I ask, “What is of the greatest benefit?”
Acceptance, Hospitality
The freedom within recognition
NEBADONIA: Yes, my son, I recall a lesson that Michael and I have both given from time to time, that one of the greatest gifts–for your fellows anyway—is simply to take on all the negative karma you encounter. And I use that word specifically to allude to all realms of human life–the physical, the mental, the spiritual, the soulful, the personal: to absorb this karma with all your inner strength, with all the freedom inside that let’s you recognize things, and, in that recognition, that re-knowing, they no longer have you, you have them. And so it’s this simple act of recognition of what’s coming at you. Your greatest gift is to not simply put some spin on it and hurl it back. The great gift to your fellows–I should say one of the greatest, is to absorb all the negative karma that comes your way and not pass it on, but let it die with you. For if we jump now to a group, a society, what other way is there forward? Otherwise you have endless, endless, endless revenge and counter-revenge and counter-counter-revenge–folks playing God in their notions of justice.
But again, to be a democracy inside, to let whatever comes up, in, unafraid, and, as you say, not simply react with it–but act with it, creatively act with it, brings you back to your beginner’s mind. It brings you back to the most essential thing in that situation, which is for someone to come up with something new–if you will, the way out. Otherwise you’re forced to become a mere tyrant inside, supremely judgmental about everything you encounter. In the case of this lady with her own thoughts and feelings that she’s betrayed herself, it takes courage just to be still and be open. If it is really serious, you may have to spend days just letting it run its course. But you recognize what’s happening, and you don’t put some more spin on it to just get a little ego satisfaction by putting out something even worse. And all this takes courage. I know–because I too am in here doing my best with each one of you to augment that courage.
So thank you, my son, for an example. I think your poem very definitely put right before her that other enormity that she is.
Student: Thank you.
Adventure
Your daily adventure and the courage to meet it
NEBADONIA: Be in my love. My children, the hour grows late, and I send you out there into the world with the courage–that ultimate human recognition—to realize that you may not know what’s going to happen to you five minutes from now. You can choose a subject to think on, but what are even your own thoughts five minutes from now? You have a body that is infinitely tough, and infinitely vulnerable. This life you have is an encompassing in which even you—your total self, is an encompassing to your own momentary consciousness.
So learn to be still in the middle of the great hurly-burly. Learn to relax in the middle of the greatest effort. Keep in touch with everything. And don’t worry when it stretches you. That’s how God designed this whole universe for all the personal beings in it. It’s an adventure, and the very essence of an adventure is: no way of always knowing what’s going to happen, even five minutes from now.
Closing
And so, my children, without getting a big head or a big ego about it, cherish and appreciate your own courage and what it takes to get through your day. And continue to be in my love. Good evening.
