1997-02-26. Making Choices, Miracles & Mind, Inquiry, Human Condition, Ritual, Exorcism
Butler PA #20
Topic: Making Choices, Miracles & Mind
Group: Butler TeaM
Teacher: Tomas, Merium, Trieste
TR: Gerdean
TOMAS: I am Tomas. Good evening. I understood you were eager to hear from a personal teacher, perhaps Trieste, and your request has brought to our attention again the Evangelical Corps propensity ongoing here. It has been decided that this area will be receiving another teacher, a feminine presence. She is here this evening.
Hunnah: Is she a teacher such as yourself? in the capacity that you are? or as a personal teacher?
TOMAS: This entity is in the Teaching Corps. In due course, my dear, it may be you who will transmit for the group, and although I am reluctant to say such a thing for in understanding of the human nature you may perceive that as a pressure/expectation upon you I will not reference it in that context, but I will say that there is more than one reason for this new development to take place. For one, I am not here to carry on a sustained monologue, and as we proceed in our studies and growth, I will be utilizing a co-teacher in some of our new developments.
Hunnah: May I speak?
TOMAS: Yes.
Hunnah: I don’t want to interrupt your thought. My question is: is this in light of the way — because our group seems to be … appears to be falling away?
TOMAS: I will say that it does have to do with your group, yes, but not because it is falling away, for it is truly not falling away but is undergoing changes. And the part of the curriculum which is up-coming has to do with, shall we call it, teamwork and group awareness and group interaction. And one of the methods of expanding your perception of otherness and cooperation among like-kind is to evidence for you interactions on our level of operation for your observation in your own developing of those skills and arts of intercourse, group contact and communication, that will be bringing your group back into a cohesive whole.
It is now time to expand our format; and as you are concerned about the group, it is timely, for it is apparent to you in your keen perception that a change is imminent, and yet this change is positive for it is growth inducing.
Hunnah: That’s good news.
TOMAS: It is also good news in that you have attained this point. It could not have been done until you were ready, and so you can be grateful for your own individual growth(s) that has brought the community to this point of understanding what community action is. It will be our challenge now to introduce you all to the Jesusonian techniques of relating among yourselves for you to then carry your personal insights and your group experiences into the greater arena.
I have made a bit of an announcement. I would like to introduce our new Teacher, my co-chair here. Her name is Merium, and she would like to say hello. One moment please.
MERIUM: Greetings. I am inexperienced in this verbalizing process but I have been among you for many months now, observing and making rounds with teacher Tomas; therefore, I have made in-roads into understanding your various personalities and noting some of the differences and difficulties in your associations. But lest I start to work already, let me back up and say how happy I am to be included in this family of colleagues under Christ Michael in support of his plan and aspiration for you.
I have already come to appreciate each of you, in observing you in your quiet times and in some of your meaningful exchanges with your peer group. Fascinating, it is. Wonderful, it can be.
My transmitter is concerned that she will stumble on my name, for it is an “M” word, an “M” name, and there is a feminine presence in Hamilton, Canada, Muriel. It will become very clear, as you get to know me, that I am Merium and your neighbor, my co-worker in Canada is Muriel. Rest easy that our personalities are distinct and original, as are yours.
In time, as we get to know each other, you will learn to recognize me in and of myself and, as when you meet any new friend you may require a meeting or two to place the name with the face, I am confident that our developing friendship will enable you to associate my name, Merium, with my personality which is, you see, “my face.”
I am now going to withdraw and, indeed, . .. One moment please. (Another long pause) I look forward to visiting with you again soon. I am glad to be aboard. Good evening.
Hunnah: Thank you. Welcome.
TOMAS: I am Tomas, yet again, but briefly. I tell you the pause was for administrative matters. I assured her, Merium, that it was not necessary that she submit to my authority, for she is her own person and my equal in the Teaching Corps, and already you see one of the advances brought to light, for in your culture it is not infrequent for women to defer to the male authority, and as you know, the Master has shown the equality of men and women in his kingdom, and so it is.
But I am finished now, and I am going to honor your earlier conversation, in that you sought the companionship of personal teacher Trieste. She is delighted to be called upon. It gives her an opportunity to develop her teaching skills and also gives her an opportunity to interchange with you and thus develop further camaraderie. I will return to say good night.
Dialogue
TRIESTE: Yes, I am Trieste. Good evening.
Hunnah: Good evening.
TRIESTE: How are you this evening?
Hunnah: Well, we were all cranked up. I had a lot to say as usual and it was probably under the banner of some frustration or letting go or whatever, so I sought out Gerdean’s companionship this evening and we aired a few things. I don’t know whether you were following the conversation or not, but….
TRIESTE: I did observe your conversation and I will say at the outset that it is initially a growth outburst.
Inquiry
Hunnah: Oh, good. Well, if it’s growth then, I once read that a good student doesn’t have questions. I don’t know that that’s always true, but I wrote some questions and I didn’t bring them into this room with me, but one of the questions . …
TRIESTE: Let me remark first. I apologize . ..
Hunnah: That’s fine!
TRIESTE: . .. for interjecting, but that you have heard that a good student does not ask questions is erroneous in our format. It is always the student who has questions that is willing to grow, that is willing to admit they do not have all the answers. For once an individual has no questions, he has stopped growing. It is okay to have a plateau now and again, but it is eagerly appreciated when a student is full of questions, even trivial questions, for it indicates they are seeking truth, and as they seek, they find. I am finished.
Hunnah: Perhaps a better word for it would be, “a good student is obedient.” There has to be a certain amount of obedience developing as trust develops. My question was more like a dilemma and it apparently has to do — and it’s probably impersonal — with the human condition, and this process that we are experiencing, this growth process? And I am confused and in awe of the fact that we can experience such powerful, powerful energy and be uplifted in consciousness to the degree that we have, and still be slaves to much of our human habits.
Human Condition, Growth
I’m amazed that even a blemish can be on our skin when we have been in the presence of such powerful connection (and you might say that it just smacks of disgust) and we were talking about smoking — it could be any form of tic or what-have-you that has developed through time and habit and has a groove in our brain — but I don’t understand why we’re not allowed to be lifted out of the bondage if we are . . .
We’ve had personal, what I call, “Christ experience” before this Urantia gathering developed, and I trusted that as we journeyed, these things would fall by the wayside and not be pricking us like they do. I think I’ve said enough.
TRIESTE: I appreciate your outpouring, and I appreciate also that it is abbreviated from the thorough and profound discussion earlier, but I will still respond for it is worthy of discussion.
You must remember that you are a creature of dual nature, and remember, too, that perfection is not attained in the blink of an eye. Having noted those two things, it is necessary then to look at the whole human being, for whereas the spirit may be perfect and whereas it is washed, purified, made whole, light and pure, it is yet attached to a tabernacle of flesh which is largely driven/conditioned by its cultural and racial inheritance, including that which comprises its existence today.
The bridge between the spirit and the animal is the mind, that arena wherein decisions are made. That is where free will lies, and your growth, your development, your perfection process, is because of YOUR decisions, and so an integrated personality is a desired result of the mind harmonizing the value of the spirit with the value of the animal.
It is a process of balanced growth. The spirit, indeed, washes you, refreshes you and cleanses you, but it is not what allows or disallows most material manifestations. Most material manifestations are under the jurisdiction of your free will.
There are miracles that occur, but there is no accounting for a miracle, a miraculous release from the constraints of time and space such as ills or sores or addictions or lesser attitudes or behaviors, except through the mind. As you allow your mind to continually open, it reinforces the greater reality, allowing you then to trust and open yourself (of, through and by yourself) for these miracles of healing to occur; but even so, the norm, even for ascension candidates, is to forget, to be swallowed up in what one knew, time and time again until the lesson is mastered.
Hunnah: Well, no wonder it’s called a mission of compassion and mercy.
TRIESTE: Indeed, and it is important that you also have compassion and mercy on yourself and on your fellows, for as you can accept yourself, you can love yourself, and as you love yourself, you take better care of yourself. You are willing to then let go of those artificial realities which you have packed and piled around you, which have created the sores, the ills, the illusions that you have cherished and held dear: your addictions, your prejudices, your barriers against love, and so forth.
Hunnah: I’m reminded of a line of scripture. I think it’s scripture. “He perfecteth that which is given me to do”[1] — this inner leadership that goes before us to make the way easier. I guess I have just blurted out some impatience.
TRIESTE: I would not call it impatience on its face, Hunnah. I would rather call it a prayer, for you have begun to see the sublime heights of the divine point of view and you are hungry for that as a solid, stable, regular, healthy diet for yourself and for those around you, even for those who languish in darkness, and although it could be construed as impatience, have compassion on your perception and allow yourself the greater perspective. Appreciate that your view is the farther view and you seek this constantly for yourself and others.
Did you have other questions?
Hunnah: They’ve withered in your willingness to assist. Oh, I had one that sounds like a . .. I said it could be answered at any time. It was about the Thought Adjuster. We studied the Thought Adjuster. It arrives when we make our first moral decision. Where does that moral decision come from?
TRIESTE: I am very glad that you asked me that question at this juncture in our conversation. I had hoped, when I asked you for another question, that is the one you would present, for you see, that which I have spoken of is exemplified in that question that you asked: that if the Thought Adjuster arrives when you make your first moral decision, how can you make a moral decision WITHOUT a Thought Adjuster? and I refer back to the mind, the mind arena of choice that is developed in you by your decisions.
A child is taught in the ways that he should be, and when he is old he will not depart from them, and as a child is taught lovingly to care for and share in the life experience not as the center of the universe but as a valuable and precious part of the life in the universe, they reach a point of being able to make a selfless decision in and of their own training, their own guidance from their own wise parents, and so they bring on the arrival of their own God Fragment by their foreordained training, their willingness to now accept their place in the universe. Unconsciously, of course.
And so it is. As you develop and grow in your spirit awareness, your Thought Adjuster enables you to put into practice that which you have determined by your own free will choice. It would have you manifest the fruits of the spirit and serve and love one another, but this must come from within you; it must be your motivation in order for it to be effective. As you allow, then, the cooperative relationship with yourself and your Thought Adjuster, you work in tandem to the extent that your Thought Adjuster begins to manifest God through your personality.
It is an invigorating struggle, for always is the animal seeking comfort and always is the mind clamoring for recognition of its own righteousness, but as you allow yourself to, yes, “obey” your pilot, your spirit guide, you are guided into a new way of life.
I fear sometimes that these words, which are often repeated, must sound like an echo. I however am told that they are received a little more deeply each time they are repeated. These lessons are fundamental.
Ritual, Exorcism
I would also like to refer back to your question earlier, your discussion having to do with — I believe you phrased it as “lesser beings” that hovered around . ..
Hunnah: Thank you. I wanted to ask about that.
TRIESTE: . .. that hovered around ascendant sons and daughters snaggling them with lagging lusts and miscreant behaviors, and this was dramatized for you by way of an experience wherein the facilitator banished these “lesser beings” through a dynamic gesture resembling an exorcism, and I find it too provocative to let pass without remark for this indeed also falls within the realms of the mind, and yet in this case, I must begin by reiterating that there are no evil spirits, there are no negative or lesser entities out there to snaggle and hang onto those who are still troubled. There are no spirits to pull you down or take away your energy, but only those who seek to lift you up and augment your energies.
But lest you think there is no merit to the experience, I refer once again to the imagination, to the magnificent mechanism of the mind, for although God may not be impressed with rituals, man is! and the very gesture of whooshing away a negative “entity” could, to the mind of the mortal, so stimulate its belief that someone had authority and faith and courage to act upon a dragging situation, that it, the mortal’s mind, would immediately feel the release by way of the suggestion imparted by the very creative manipulations of the facilitator. Did you follow that, Hunnah?
Hunnah: I think that was wonderful. That makes me feel very good. I agree. And I also said, and I was corrected at the time, but… if… In order to get the point across to someone who is ready to open up, the form has to be the one that that person might understand, or accept.
TRIESTE: Yes.
Hunnah: And that makes sense to me. People went there expecting something similar because, perhaps a part of them said, ‘if it’s this dramatic, I’ll be able to accept it’. It’s such an individual thing.
TRIESTE: Indeed it is an individual thing. There are some who regard it as claptrap or superstition, but there is indeed something resident within the primitive cellular aspects of your existence that enjoys ceremonies. It is perhaps a remnant of the early ghost cults and your primitive religious formulations, but ceremonies are, even so, very effective. Witness your religious services, your weddings, your funerals and the like. They have a profound effect on the human, whether or not they affect the spirit life.
Hunnah: Well you threw the door open for all of it on me, because I listened to a dynamic minister who used scripture so effectively that I was really impressed, and I felt that it was very beneficial for me in a probably continuing way, and the people that were with him were people that were expecting this type of delivery and we will seek what we want. The same as coming across a wonderment or an explanation when you’re by yourself — ‘I want to be alone’ — and so that time is utilized to receive the gifts of knowledge that another one would wait until they went to church to receive, or they wanted to read it in a book, so I feel that our discourse has helped me to be more accepting of the myriad ways that are available for awakening . ..
TRIESTE: Yes.
Hunnah: . .. society, and I appreciate your help with that.
TRIESTE: It has been my pleasure to accommodate your wonderful mind this evening. It has been, as always, a true privilege to be able to promote truth, beauty, and goodness; and last but not least it has always been and it always will be a delightful opportunity to be your friend.
Hunnah: Oh, my. We are enriched by your friendship. And I also want to thank you for letting Merium come. Her name just sounds like music to me, and I’m really looking forward to having her join us. Thank you.
TRIESTE: I must defer here, for it is not I who allows her.
Hunnah: All right. We summoned her. How’s that?
TRIESTE: As a community you have grown to a point of needing her assistance in the next phase of your growth and so she was sent here as on assignment, and I am glad of her presence. She will enrich the life of all of us personal teachers, as well as give us a lot more work to do through those lessons which you will now be exposed to as a result of the combined ministries of Tomas and Merium.
I am now going to return you to Tomas for his closing remarks. Good evening.
Hunnah: Thank you very much.
Closing
TOMAS: I return but briefly to wind it up for the evening. I would like to say that I appreciate the loyalty manifested here this evening, not to me, but to your own spiritual ascension. When you seek each other for confirmation and appreciation of your own spirit reality, you have bridged the gap from being my student to being my co-worker, in truth.
I am astonished and amazed at how well you grow in this patch of earth. As you are. My dear students, beloved flock, until we meet again, I am your true friend, Tomas. Farewell.
