2012-04-19-Singular Physical Being
Lightline #354
Contents
• 1 Heading
o 1.1 Topic: Singular Physical Being
o 1.2 Group: Lightline TeaM
• 2 Facilitators
o 2.1 Teacher: Michael
o 2.2 TR: JL
• 3 Session
o 3.1 Opening
3.1.1 Body
3.1.2 Stillness
o 3.2 Dialogue
3.2.1 Stillness, Education
3.2.2 Asceticism
3.2.3 Denial
o 3.3 Closing
Topic: Singular Physical Being
Group: Lightline TeaM
Facilitators
Teacher: Michael
TR: JL
Session
Opening
Dear Michael and Mother Spirit, we gather in together once again to sit at your feet and look up with bright expectant faces, trusting in what you have for us. This is not always easy for us human-type beings, this trusting. It’s like letting ourselves down slowly into some kind of swirling stream that we have to really trust where it’s going to carry us, so we can listen with our whole hearts and minds. This is a wonderful, wonderful opportunity too to extend our trust to another being, another kind of being, and ride along on what you have for us, trusting you aren’t going to suddenly drop us. So this is good. This is good for us to open ourselves this way and put ourselves in another’s hands.
It reminds us of how much we’re doing this all the time in our so tightly-integrated societies today. On a journey, think all those hundreds, maybe thousands of people you meet coming the other way, trusting they’re going to stay on their side of the road. And this trust is so akin to faith, this trusting in you, Michael, and in things and beings unseen. And yet what you say is so wonderfully correlated with all the little truth detectors we have inside us. For this we do thank you. Amen.
MICHAEL: Good evening, this is Michael, and it is my most sincere desire to fulfill your trust in me and in Mother Spirit. It is our deepest hope that you can feel, feel us within yourselves. Feel how we are sharing your life. And then in moments like this, or in your own meditations, we offer as much of our lives as we can to share with you. We hope you can feel us and, of course, your Father fragment, this presence of God within you. We encourage you to be open to these suggestions. You can literally carry on a conversation with your Father fragment, if you are so open, if you have such a strong desire to tap into this dimension of the truth.
Body
A singular physical being
MICHAEL: Tonight I wish to carry on along a dimension that Mother Spirit opened in her last meeting with some of you, and that is to discuss/explore with you the physical dimension of your being. So right off the bat, right to get started, I want to set the context for this, and that is: wholeness, completeness, unity; and say that, from Mother Spirit’s and my perspective–the way we experience you, you are one indivisible, living being.
Think of yourselves as a single crystal–if you will, a living crystal with just, simply, different facets, different ways that you can grow in your experience of life. And most of you are familiar with the way we break this down into your personality–your God-created unique personhood, endowed with creative spirit and growing a soul, a soul of experience. And this experience is possible for you in this first phase of your life by way of a living body and mind that is, from the perspective of your consciousness–this conscious you that is listening to me or reading me sometime later; from the standpoint of this conscious you, you are not always aware of these different facets of your personhood. But from our standpoint you are a single, unified living being.
And so we tease you, and invite you to, as much as you can, feel yourself, experience yourself as this single-knit being. This is largely the function of your personality—the ability, if you will, to unify all that you are. But it’s a rare individual who is fully capable of this, especially considering that a part of your soul is a presence of God. Very few individuals literally merge with their Though Adjuster, with this presence of God, in this first lifetime. But keep in mind this singleness of being that you really are. It is just something that this conscious you has to slowly grow the ability to realize, to make it real for yourself.
From the standpoint of this conscious you, as Mother Spirit noted, your body comes and goes. Sometimes long, long periods of time go by without you being aware of your physical self. As you say, “You’re off in your mind.” And even some meditations are deliberately designed to do this; to be able to follow an idea, to be able to keep in mind some mantra, some expression of truth, to meditate on. But what we offer is another kind of exercise, another way of strengthening your conscious awareness of your physical self.
A kind of stillness
But why would you want to do this? This is paying respect to the fact that the physical part of you obeys absolute laws of physics and chemistry. Your scientists chase this right down into the nanosecond and there’s still this unbroken continuity. So we offer this not as a crutch, although it has that function of helping you keep here and now, but something more glorious than that—a kind of mediation that keeps you in touch with your physical-ness for even long, long minutes.
For some folks, even ten minutes to be continuously, consciously aware of their body will prove to be quite an accomplishment, they’re so much in their mind working out problems, daydreaming, reliving old events, planning on things. But from our standpoint, we almost feel a pity for their poor disenfranchised bodies, there is so much poor health that comes from this disconnect. As a matter of fact, you even have terms for deliberately or unconsciously ignoring your body in what you call denial—denying that your body is getting more and more unhealthy for any number of reasons. And yet because of mental pleasures, mental abilities–mental power, say in the use of stimulants, you’re literally selling your body’s health to buy these moments of extra energy. In the case of narcotics, it’s a deliberate forgetfulness or erasing of either physical or mental pain.
For many folks their body is such an unexplored territory. And because it is so frequently and for such long periods of time ignored, disrespected, denied, even contemptuously considered, the inexorable laws of chemistry and physics will slowly, slowly pull it down so that these individuals not only live a much shorter life of bad health, all along their life is so terribly stunted. The conscious self that they are does rest upon this physical basis. The quality of their consciousness, how alert they are, how open they are to new experiences to feed their souls; all this does depend upon their physical-chemical base. Your mind is not by any means limited to your brain activity, but that brain activity does form, as you say, the parameters of how much you can experience–if you will, extra-physically, purely mentally and spiritually.
Also, for those who are so ignorantly ignoring their body, they’re missing out on an opportunity to achieve a kind of conscious continuity that they themselves, by shear willpower, cannot do. It’s the very fact that your body, you might say your body-mind–according to your health–does have this absolute continuity. No matter where you are, it is! Your body is continuous by all the laws of nature, as I said, right down to the nanosecond.
An absolute continuity
Here’s an absolute continuity that is part of you. No matter where your mind may wander or just kind-of dose off in daydreaming, connecting consciously—continuously–with your body offers you this extended kind of continuity. This is a special kind of meditation in which, rather than fleeing or denying your body to escape it, rather you seek to keep in continuous contact with it. Now so many of your processes like your heartbeat are, for the most part, beyond your control. It’s quite a yogic accomplishment to be able to consciously control your heartbeat. But your breathing is right on the borderline. While it’s something that for the most part you’re unaware of, that takes care of itself, it is something that you have immediate conscious control over. You can hold your breath. You can puff yourself up like a balloon. You can see much you can exhale, how deep you can go that way.
Stillness
But what about just observing something that you can control, but would rather not? That’s rather tricky–to be aware of breathing without affecting it, so I will say right off the bat that this is an accomplishment. It’s not something that you can just automatically do because as soon as you become aware of your breathing, you generally just automatically play with it. You breathe deeper, or longer, or faster. But this is the key. This is the key that unlocks the door to being aware of your physical self in the sense of pure observation. That is, you’re not just automatically assuming you know what this physical part of you is all about, but you approach it with curiosity.
And then you find, as you tap into this very strange-at-first kind of continuity, being aware of something that you can control but are choosing not to, it sets up a whole new relationship, not only with your body, but with your mind. By staying in touch with this physical continuity that is a part of you, by holding this continuity, you are, in a way, freeing your mind.
It’s keeping you alert. You can’t go to sleep in your meditation. You can’t go off daydreaming somewhere or you will lose your consciousness of your breathing. And by maintaining a loving respect for your body for even ten minutes or twenty minutes a day, staying in continuous contact with it, you’ll find this frees your mind so much that things that are in denial, painful moments from your past that you would rather not think about; you’re opening a way for your mind to suggest things. And so we suggest you keep a note pad to write down all these things that occur to you, so you don’t have to worry about losing them.
But even staying in touch with your breathing is quite a challenge at first. That is why we offer this very artificial-seeming thing of just counting your breaths over and over, shall we say, up to ten and then again. So if you suddenly find yourself counting breath number 35, you’ll know you’ve been doing this automatically while your mind has been wandering somewhere else.
This is not the only kind of stillness, but it’s a good one. There you sit in your good posture, keeping track of your breathing, making notes of what occurs to you. And then even, as you get up from your meditations, spend a few minutes just walking around slowly, keeping that same consciousness of your breathing, of your body, of your body-mind. This is an invaluable reflection that adds another whole dimension to your life. This is allowing to come up, in a sense, whatever will all by itself.
Reflection
MICHAEL: So give it a try. As Mother Spirit said, this reflection is another whole living dimension in your life, one that the olden philosopher said: A life without reflection is not worth living. We’ve sometimes called it a two-hundred-percent-ness of life–that you’ve not only had all your experiences, but now they have become more and more open to you. There’s nothing missing. There’re no blank spots. Here you are touching the transcendent continuity that you actual are–from our point of view, from our experience of you. So give it a try. This is the sweetness of the water of life, this reflection. But you have to taste it. You have to experience it. You have to accomplish this to make it a part of your soul. Now if you have any questions or comments this evening. Let’s do that, too. . . .Or not. It’s a wonderful stillness we have already created here, and I’m sure many of you have kind-of felt yourself breathing as we talked about that kind of meditation.
Dialogue
Student: Thank you, Michael, for your lesson this evening. I fully appreciate what I believe you said, that being: our existence here is very important. It’s where we live. It’s where the work is. It’s where our temporary rewards are. And it’s a challenge to live in our bodies and take proper care of them. I certainly never did. I just lived. And most of my living was ruinous. I did a lot of obsessive behaviors and I had a lot of fears and resentments, passions that ran my life, really. Most of it, as such, I’m paying the price now of the wear and tear. As they said, “If you do that you’re going to ruin something!” And I have—work-a-holic and a lot of unwise human behaviors. And yet there’s no more value than experience. We learn through experience. We learn it thoroughly. I am grateful to discover that a human life is not a lowly, base experience, but that it’s very much a noble part of our path. In fact, it’s humanly sacred and not to be taken lightly. It’s always been–well, not always been—but for some time now it has been a real issue for me to not ignore and overlook, or disregard the importance of my physical life. I suppose that came along with learning that we must have balance between physical, mental, and spiritual. But I did appreciate your lesson. I don’t have any questions. Thanks.
Stillness, Education
Stillness being taught
MICHAEL: Well, thank you, my daughter. Mother Spirit and I look forward to a time when this is taught, shall we say, right from kindergarten all the way up through grade school and high school. This is a marvelous kind of mediation where you’re paying a respect–a loving, loving, caring respect–for this part of you. And this is difficult because at your stage of just general civilization, almost all around the world so many consider this a kind of queer activity for all these strange folks, these overly-religious folks off in monasteries and stuff.
But to be aware of your body and to grow the ability to keep this conscious, ever-growing, almost transcendent kind of contact while you’re doing everything else? This is so much a part of the true advancing of civilization that we look forward to seeing. So many of the dreams of all of the past—of long life, of strength, of health—are being subverted by folks with their extraordinarily unhealthy ways of life. So much of this is even designed to cut you off from what you’re doing to this poor, struggling and yet transcendent part of you that follows God’s absolute physical-and-chemical/energy laws.
Your body is such an avenue, such a way of learning that is not available to the higher spiritual beings. And then to consider it so! To really respect, and admire, and appreciate what this physical part of you is, still so far beyond your own personal consciousness.
So hopefully, my daughter, in the future the youngsters will be taught this at an early age. And this very kind of feedback, this kind of reflection will be with them for all of their lives. So much of your terrible ill health can be avoided. So be in my peace.
Student: Thank you. I’m reminded of–this is still G–I’m reminded of our puritanical heritage here. It didn’t exist when you were here, but your background was pretty prudish. As I understand the Hebrews, they were pretty clean physically and thinking-wise. They were commendable. Our society today is not particularly commendable. We do a lot of very unhealthy things that are quite fashionable. And I’m remind of a thing in The Urantia Book that talks about, I think it’s in the spirit and the flesh that we have so few avenues of legitimate pleasure here, we tend to make pleasure of everything. And I’m wondering if some of that too is the result of our puritanical heritage–that sex, for example, is something that we shouldn’t think about, talk about, or do anything about: it’s just nasty. And so it’s in everything. It leaks out of everyone, and that’s certainly evident in our Madison Avenue sales pitching. It’s just telling everyone to go ahead and get pleasure. And they’re going to profit from our pleasure-seeking. I guess I’m just rambling here, but–I don’t know–just wanted to help you make your point.
Asceticism
Puritanism/asceticism
MICHAEL: My daughter, the Puritan kind of attitude towards life is not limited to any particular time. It’s been around for thousands and thousands of years for as soon as you have a consciousness of the body in such a way that the painful parts, the painful experiences, the unhealthy experiences, come to predominate, the mind, out of a kind of self-defensiveness, splits against itself: the mind turns against the body. In all periods of history there have been these individuals. Think of the asceticism in some religions. Think of the kinds of meditations which are deliberately designed to ignore the body and concentrate only on the mind as if the body was something to escape from. And so these attitudes–this splitting within oneself—are almost a kind of schizophrenia of the whole being in denial. There are societal notions of denying parts of your humanity, shall we say sexuality, which, in the Victorian period, only led to the most gross and mindless kinds of physical pleasures then. For physical-ness, if it’s suppressed in some way, only comes out in some other twisted from. So Puritanism is a kind of mental illness, but it has been around. It’s still around in different individuals.
Student: It was certainly here in the Roman times when you were here.
MICHAEL: : It has nothing to do with any particular historical period.
Student: Right.
MICHAEL: : But thank you for bringing this up. Always keep in mind that spirit means all-inclusive–the wholeness, the unity of all that you are. And as your beloved Urantia Book itself states, these Puritanical ideas of human sexuality are only the product of some rather pinched and misdirected minds that are set against another part of their being. Now is there anyone else who has some questions or comments?
Student: Yes. Michael?
MICHAEL: : Yes.
Student: I appreciated G making the comments she made. I would like to inquire about something that my wife and I experience or are observing. It seems to be a time when partners, male and female partners, are coming together, particularly as they are older, maybe even finding each other in their later years. My wife and I are both retired and we have what we think of, and regard as, a sacred partnership, or sacred relationship. We read the Course in Miracles every day. We read The Urantia Book often. We tune into Lightline and stay abreast of all the transmissions and wonderful experiences that are forthcoming for those with eyes to see and ears to hear. And we appreciate this very much, this time of the Magisterial Mission and all that is occurring in our world. And so we would just like to give a vote of confidence and encouragement to people who may be finding such a relationship in what we regard as a scared partnership or relationship. There is the “other.” And for my wife and myself, the other is our Creator Son, Michael of Nebadon. It is the third in the partnership. So we would encourage others to seek what we are finding and experiencing in our lives. We’re in our seventies now, and in good health, and blessed with grandchildren and children that are going their way. And we are trying to bring to their attention what is happening so that they will be among the new age that we’re looking towards, and become enlightened. Thank you very much for the time and opportunity to express this.
Sharing spirit
MICHAEL: Thank you, my son. Thank you very much. It’s always good for the youngsters…I’ll take that back; I’ll say: everybody at all ages–but especially the youngsters–to know that this is possible, that a life of devotion and dedication and so much fun and enjoyment, as you say: the whole lively, creative, spiritual dimension of life can be shared. And not only shared with another but it’s where one and one make three.
Mother Spirit and I talked about this one time. It’s when you have a sacred, creative, lively experience with another person; this is literally proof of spirit. This is literally a demonstration of that which cannot be seen, yet which can be felt and understood. And it does add another whole dimension to human reality that, so sadly, some folks never experience for the very living, transcendent, ungraspable nature of it is what can sustain you. This is that trust; this is that faith; but also: this is that realization. This is that actual happening that is its own reward. So congratulations, my son, you and your life-mate there have discovered something that takes both courage and kind of curiosity to discover. I’m sure you are being a living example, a reality right there for your family and friends to enjoy and share with you. So thank you so much. And be in my peace.
Denial
Denial
MICHAEL: Well, if there are no other questions or comments, I’m hoping this evening that those who are listening in, and those who later come to read the transcripts of this lesson, do not just automatically turn off when the word physical comes up. For so ingrained in almost all the cultures of the world is this separation of mind and body, spirit, personality, and soul. It is sad and tragic that, in one way, this is a valid experience. In other words, this is how people experience themselves, as either this or that. In seeking to be spiritual, to feel and to touch life itself, this living quality they are, if you will, they feel the necessity to deny part of themselves.
For those who are in pain, with physical pain in their body or mental anguish over what’s been happening to them–maybe loosing a dear friend, denial is a kind of knee-jerk reaction, the very possibility of getting rid of something perhaps through a kind of drug that numbs you out mentally. For these souls it does require an enormous amount of courage to turn around in that lifestyle, in that way of handling things, and actually embrace, look into, reflect upon, open their minds and their hearts to what is hurting them. It takes enormous courage not to be just driven through life, but be able to be still, deeply still, both physically and mentally, to follow our exercise of just staying in touch with their body. For in that concentration, in that focus, they can set their minds free to suggest just whatever, and make a note of it to reflect upon later. It calls for a deep trust and faith in your total self, that you are this single-knit being of all these different facets. Strive for the ideal of being consciously everything at once—personality, creative spirit, body, and mind. And then enjoy those moments of your soul, that wholeness of a previous experience co-authored by a presence of God.
The envy of the angels
MICHAEL: So lean into it, my children. Summon this courage. Exercise your will to stay in touch with all that you are with a loving respect. This is what true health is all about, that your poor bodies are not abandoned but are treasured and cared for. Make use of this physical-ness. Enjoy it. Delight in it. In one way you are the envy of the angels, even all those years of just being a baby, and a youth, and a youngster. It’s all there in your soul.
Closing
So I bid you a good evening. This is Michael and I bid you: Be in my peace. Feel it. Let it penetrate every little nook and cranny. Good evening.
