2014-02-20-Sharing
Lightline #430
Contents
• 1 Heading
o 1.1 Topic: Sharing
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: Sharing
Group: Lightline TeaM
Facilitators
Teacher: Michael
TR: JL
Session
Opening
PRAYER: Dear Michael and Mother Spirit: welcome. If I can speak for the group tonight, let me say “we” thank you for your presence in our lives. We do our best in our meditations–and from time to time throughout the day–to say hello. Then we are blessed to feel your presence within us, sometimes as an augmented background to our own consciousness, a kind of consciousness of consciousness. We are reassured you are with us.
We thank you, Mother Spirit, dear Nebadonia, for all these Adjutants of yours, your Mind/Spirit Adjutants that actually help us perceive ourselves and the reality around us, then store this experience as knowledge, and understand it; and then have the courage to step forth into the unknown–which is about half our human reality. It’s the way you help us relate with each another, with your Adjutant of Counsel. You help us with our worship, our essential appreciation for being alive, to our dear Father who actually created our personality. And finally, we have your augmentation of our wisdom to use all of the above.
And Michael: we thank you for giving us that boost from time to time, that orientation towards the truth. Your Spirit of Truth gives us the motivation to open and keep seeking an ever broader reality that includes not only ourselves, but also all of our dear friends and those we share our lives with. We thank you for this presence of yours within us; and in all the others around us! May they too have this appreciation. Amen.
Lesson
MICHAEL: Good evening, this is Michael. Mother Spirit and I are glad to be with you this particular way to have our conversations with you. We can understand our own children and encourage them to be forthcoming, and not only to us and to our mutual Father, but especially to each other.
(Nebadonia’s Adjutant of Counsel: sharing)
MICHAEL: You mentioned Mother Spirit’s Adjutant of Counsel. Think of it as an impulse to gregariousness. It backs up the basic definition of divinity and what it is to be divine, which comes directly from our Father. We have often taught that the English equivalent to “divine” is “sharing.” It is sharing your life with each other, and encouraging others to share themselves with you. It is being open to not only what is happening inside you, but your giving all your friends equal time. You’ll not be trying to dominate them with your own viewpoints and your ability to articulate, but you’ll really listen.
Listening is one of the greatest gifts you can give another. Let them share their lives with you, for it is in sharing that we all have a superabundance of having. It is where one and one makes three, where you and your friend are more able and capable of understanding both yourselves and each other. This makes that third thing–that shared reality that you both now have within your souls.
Mother Spirit once teased you that not every delicious hot dog and hamburger you have eaten will be in your soul to carry into eternity; but it will be each other. It will not be all the material things you have known and dealt with–even the tools you have worked with all your life. It will be these other “little walking infinities”, these other people in all their ungraspable-ness, and all their sheer autonomy from you–their independence of personality and spirit.
This is what is most precious. This can be a relationship you will maintain as long as the two of you wish. You can be friends forever. This is the greatest gift that God can give all of us: a very unique personality–even though this very uniqueness is a bit of a burden to bear. There is that which is in you, and in your experience of life, that is beyond grasping, beyond articulation. It just is. And part of this uniqueness is not only of your personality, but also of very moment of your life. It’s the way that Reality Itself is not repeating itself, because God does not have to repeat himself.
(Uniqueness of personality and time)
MICHAEL: He is a fountain of pure creativity, and he shares this with you! So your very uniqueness can be a stumbling block for some. Some can feel so frustrated that there is that which is in them, so unique to them, that they cannot share with another. Yet within you, you have not only Mother Spirit and myself, but you also have our Father. It is his ultimate, absolute, infinite personality who is actually making a record of your life, of all this uniqueness of your experience. This is the very basis–the ground you might say–of your soul, of this singular, growing possession you will have with you forever.
So be not afraid. Be not frustrated with your own life and the degree of aloneness that you can know. This is also the door to your own soul, my dear ones. That is why it is so essential that you spend some time earning–if you will–earning the ability to be comfortable right with your own life.
This is the basis and the need for your meditation, to spend some time alone with Mother Spirit, myself, and with our Father; and with your own soul. Give yourself over to this equally unique activity because it will be you and the three of us, the three spiritual presences within you.
This is something we ask of you: to spend some time with us. Spend some time with yourself and your soul, alone. Then when you get up from your meditations, practice a kind of not-clinging to any particular state of mind, mind-set, or emotion–or anything like that. Practice just letting go. Practice trusting that we are with you, whether you are conscious of us or not. Yes, we do delight when you say hello to us and give us a nod; then welcome feeling us–our presence–within you. But also have the courage to let go. Let go of yourself. Enjoy self-forgetfulness, trusting that God is the coauthor of your soul.
Your soul is also God’s assessment of your life, and what is really important to you and to him. This is sacrosanct. This is what will be saved. This is what is growing, and will keep growing forever. It’s a trust in us, your spiritual companions, your spiritual company; and in your own self, your own creative spirit.
(Self-forgetfulness)
This letting go in self-forgetfulness, this is an emptying of yourself–if you will, in trust. This is what makes room for the others in your life. This is how you learn not to be anxious about yourself. This is how you learn to let go and be open–open to share your life with others. For this is the greatest gift you too can give, as God gives of himself to the whole Creation.
This is how you can begin to approach his perfection of self-distribution. What you are distributing here, my dear ones, is your attention. It is your caring, your listening, and your taking in, unafraid, not only your dearest, closest friends, but also whomever you meet. This is the openness we tease you with, as something to reach for, something to cherish, and something to value: this ability to forget yourself and be there 100% for another. This is the real sharing. In conversation this is really listening, and forgetting what you want to say next, yourself. It’s trusting–trusting that you will come up with that which is the most appropriate in that future moment.
Put in a positive-negative way: it is positively not-clinging, and it is something you have to practice, and keep in mind, and remind yourself if you need to. This is another facet of love, my dear ones. This is how you can truly love another by giving yourself over to them. Really listen. Really cultivate your ability to respond, and even, hopefully, respond adequately to the moment and to them. To be there for them: this is the greatest love.
(The reward of having others)
This is beginning to approximate–on your human level—the love of the spiritual community surrounding you. For in this sense–for Mother Spirit and me–you are not only our children, our beloved children, we are also very much yours. We are your Creator Son and Creator Daughter. This is our glory–that we belong to our children. We are theirs. We live for you. Think about it. This is a definition of a saint, is it not?–someone who lives their life for others—and then has all of these others in their soul! This is the reward, not all this delightful stuff around you; not even all the living plants and animals in all their infinite variety and all their intrinsic worth and value.
Here comes this other person towards you, this other ungraspable “little walking infinity.” Now!–to be able to respond, to forget yourself and just be them for even a few precious instants: to have them in your soul: to have this fleeting moment live forever in you? We thank our Father for this very ability, this creative ability he shares with us, to make such things possible.
I would like to keep my lesson short this evening, with such a wonderful audience, so I can share my time with you and whatever questions or comments you may have. Let me say “Amen” to thanking our Father for these sheer abilities we have to share our lives with each other, and open the floor to you.
Student #1: Good Evening, Michael, this is G.
MICHAEL:: Good Evening.
Student: I have a question on a topic I’d like to have you dwell on for a minute or two if you would. It’s about the intimacy factor, getting to be close to someone–to our peers, our spouse, our neighbor, or whomever in this precious and family way–family with God as the Father he is.
I am reminded of the adage “Familiarity breeds contempt.” I have seen so much of this happen in our sundry efforts with religionists, I guess, scratching the surface and discovering how un-lovely we all are. But I wouldn’t want to prejudice people against intimacy because it is, as you say, enriching, ennobling, empowering, and a wonderful thing. But as intimacy may breed faith, and familiarity breeds contempt; how do you suppose this could be forestalled?–this contempt that seems to happen in our small family, in our circles?
(Intimacy vs. familiarity)
MICHAEL:: Yes, my dear, you point out a wonderful contrast. When you consider intimacy and familiarity, they are almost exact opposites. Intimacy means a genuine sharing and, as I taught tonight, it is only possible when you relinquish yourself, when you see a spiritual value of self-forgetfulness as a precursor–a necessity–for genuine intimacy.
You are a finite being. You only have so much mind and spirit and body to be aware of. Your awareness is limited. And so this is the necessity for self-forgetfulness, emptying yourself, turning your awareness and focus from yourself onto another in order to accept them, in order to let them into you. It means you are more fully perceiving them, and hearing them.
This is the exact opposite of familiarity, because familiarity–to be familiar with someone–means to be living pretty much in the past. Yet in Reality Itself there is a part of reality, a full half of reality, that is not repeating itself. It doesn’t matter if you’ve known this person thirty years. That is not this person right in front of you this day. So familiarity is getting stuck within yourself, with all you have known this person to have been in the past, and having all of that so fill you that you cannot see who is right in front of you. You cannot relate. You are not able to be fully responsible, to respond to this living, changing person in front of you. This is what leads to the contempt of this actual person standing in front of you. All you are relating with is who they have been, and who you were with them.
In this sense you are then so full of yourself, so full of your own reactions, your own memories–even all the good things as well as all the arguments–that you are ignoring the living person in front of you and getting fixated on the past. There can be no harsher example of contempt. You’ll be holding more value in your own past memories and attitudes than finding value in the living person standing in front of you, perhaps trying to share their life with you.
You are living now, my dear ones, yet when you are using your “living now” just to be self-absorbed with all that you have known of this person: that is definition enough of contempt, is it not, for the person in front of you? This is where “Familiarity breeds contempt.” The solution to the problem is in genuine intimacy. It is in self-forgetfulness and in lively relating to this living person in front of you. Does that help you understand the difference and how to, shall we say, achieve genuine intimacy?
Student #1: Yes, you gave me a clue in there, and I just gobbled it up and didn’t… I have to read it now. I have to look at it with my conscious mind. I relished it with my inner mind, but my outer mind needs to look at it. I think you know what I mean. My conscious mind needs to look at it, and study it with my conscious mind. My super-conscious mind said, “Yeah! Yeah!” but before I can say anything about that, I need to look at it so I know what I’m talking about. Right now I’m just appreciating what you said.
MICHAEL:: Well, my dear, that is enough for now.
Student #1: It sure is.
MICHAEL:: Again, you have just given a wonderful example of forgetting yourself and tuning in to what I was saying, and having the intimacy of accepting it. Be in my peace.
Student #1: Thank you
Student #2: Good evening, Michael. First of all, I want to say it is an honor to be here with you and with this group. This is only the second time I’ve listened to these conversations. My question is: how can I better have a more direct communication with you and my Thought Adjuster? How can I better hear the voice of spirit?
(Interruption by G.—mistaken identity)
Jerry: Excuse me–this is Jerry. Let’s have Michael answer the question.
(To contact and hear spirit)
MICHAEL:: This is Michael. My son, you have taken the first big step, the first giant step of not only being aware of this possibility, but of devoting yourself to it. You have given your heart and your desire over to it. It is a little bit like we just talked about, the difference between familiarity and intimacy. How do you get out of the familiarity of your own being in order to tune in to–in order to hear, in order to receive–that which is not-you?
It is a little trickier here because you don’t have us–Mother Spirit, myself, or our Father–standing in front of you as a physical being with whom you can relate. You can’t see us. So in your meditations, just voice this feeling, this desire, within yourself. It helps to ask specific questions, as you are talking with me now and asking questions with me now.
It helps to formulate questions in your mind of things that you don’t know, but that you would really love to—a genuine question, a genuine desire from your very being–which you are doing now with me, this way. Do the same thing in your meditations. We even ask you to write them down and keep a note pad handy, because this is where curiosity is such a spiritual blessing is it not?–this desire and curiosity to know: who is Michael? What is a Creator Son doing in my mind? What is Mother Spirit’s Holy Spirit? I know it is giving me life, but what does she have to say to me? There is God himself. What thoughts can he give me?
Everybody has had these thoughts from time to time, those ideas that come right out of the blue and seem to so totally comprehend the whole situation you are in. They are so remarkable, and so lovely, and so wonderful. This is partly your love for us, your desire to be with us, your desire to tune in to and to receive, right within you, that which is not-you. So the more clearly you can formulate this desire, and feel it; be aware that the very next thought, the very next impression that comes to you, can be the answer. It can be so instantaneous that you miss it.
You can think of a question, or just feel the desire. You can think, “Michael, could you say something to me? Can you give me some feeling, some indication of your presence?” This is like carrying on a conversation with a friend. This is an emptying of yourself and just being open. You practice being open. Then you can begin to detect our presence. It is very subtle, so if you want a specific word from us, it is best to articulate, for yourself, your question, your curiosity, your desire for sharing your life with us. Give it a try. See what happens. Can you do that?
Student #2: Right. Thank you very much.
(The necessity for faith)
MICHAEL:: Have faith, my son. It always takes that reach on your part, yet our very nature will tend to pull you out of yourself. Remember: the practice of doing this, of emptying yourself and being still, is not holding your mind a blank. It is just being intensely aware of what is happening.
Sooner than later you will be able to detect us, and you can even do this as a practice. It is like what this transmitter-receiver is doing right now. If you have a little recording device, start practicing this yourself. Say aloud, and record, “OK, Michael, what do you have for me today?–this time?” Then see if you can’t let me speak through you. This is an ability we hope, and we encourage, everybody to cultivate–just for the sheer fun of it. And be in my peace.
Student #2: Thank you.
Student #1, explaining her previous interruption: I wanted to point out that was such a superb example of what we were talking about, the difference between intimacy and familiarity. Because my mind thought I knew this person. My mind thought he was someone who asked the same question last week when I was t/r-ing; and on which Miriam spent some time. Whether it was or not is none of my business. I should not have interjected that. But that was my familiarity that seemed to give me permission to jump in there, whether I was being witty, or rude, or whatever. I had no business in there. And that was because of my familiarity. If I had been… If I had stayed on the intimacy thread, I would just be listening. Let me get back there as quickly as possible. I apologize again for my disruption, especially to the new person.
MICHAEL:: Think nothing of it, my dear. You are certainly forgiven.
Student #1: Good. Thank you.
Student #3: This is L. from Indiana. I need some help. I keep delaying and putting off the praying and meditating, and I thought maybe it’s because I don’t trust. I want to so much, but something is blocking me from doing it. Can you help me?
(To do what you need to do)
MICHAEL:: Yes, my dear. Let me tease you with the notion of being stubborn against yourself. It is recognizing that you are somewhat divided now. You are somewhat two people, one who wants to have this deeper spiritual experience, yet the other one, this other part of you–as you say, is balking at that very thing.
This could be a fear for what you might discover. In other words, sometimes it takes an enormous amount of nerve to face pure terror. You might even pray and ask Mother Spirit to give you an extra portion of her Adjutant of Courage, to face up to this. Again, I’m teasing you with the notion of being stubborn against yourself.
Because, ironically, this could be the way to greater unity. Your determination is a fruit of the spirit–this becoming more and more one, more and more integral. It’s having more and more integrity within yourself. It all boils down to the physical activity of sitting in stillness, and we generally recommend morning time, as soon as you get up and move around a little bit. Determine to sit down for ten minutes, and just do it. Sit there for ten minutes and see what that is.
It will help if you don’t have any preconceptions about this. Because in one way, part of the purpose of meditating is to get out of the familiarity we have been talking about, this over-familiarity with yourself. Sometimes when people start their meditating, what they first experience is a super-intense boredom. They wonder, “Why am I just sitting here? I have things to do.” And, of course, they are surrounded by all possible kinds of entertainment: they could turn on the TV. You may even know people who have the television on all the time, and if they get in their car, they turn on the radio immediately. It’s as if they are so bored with their own thinking, and themselves, they want to be entertained constantly.
When they do start meditating, and are bored with themselves, it helps them to keep in mind that they have to be humble. They need the humility of realizing: they don’t really know themselves this way! They are not giving their own mind and their own creative spirit a chance to come forward with what is really important.
(The fear of being alone)
This is what I taught tonight–one aspect of being a unique being created by God himself: there can be the overwhelming fear of being all alone in your very uniqueness. Yet this experience is part of realizing your essence: you are not identical to any other being in all creation! Your personality is a gift from God. This is his ultimate gift: who you are and what you are. Personality–your unchanging essence–is not even “in” time and space where everything else does change. Read that chapter in the Urantia Book called Personality Survival, which is one of the most comprehensive descriptions of the kind of being you are. Then be determined. Be stubborn. “I am going to sit in this chair for ten minutes, and just see what that is!”
It helps to have the humility of realizing that, if you haven’t done it regularly, you are just anticipating. You are still stuck in familiarity. You think you know what this is before you even try it. So, in this sense, just be stubborn. You are going to sit in that chair for at least ten minutes every morning, and see what it is. How does that sound?
Student #3: I am going to try that. Thank you very much.
MICHAEL:: Determination is an acquired ability. Meditation, for so many folks, takes a while to get over the sense of boredom and their wasting time. But, my dear, this is you–you are going to be with. This is you, and a fine way of giving some value to yourself.
Student #3: Yes. I don’t feel bored. I enjoy being alone. I don’t even play the radio during the day. I just can’t figure out what is blocking me. But I am willing to make a routine and do that.
MICHAEL:: Well then, you will find out. (much laughter) You will definitely find out what is blocking you, will you not? This is where it takes nerve. This is where it takes faith.
Student #3: Thank you so much.
MICHAEL:: Right. This is how you don’t sell yourself short, but you actually discover yourself. So: be in my peace.
Student #3: Thank you. (long pregnant pause)
MICHAEL:: Well, my dears, I almost hate to disturb this wonderful stillness that we can share together. Were there any more questions or comments?
(Intimacy, again)
If not, I would like to thank G. for bringing up the really critical distinction, this evening, about the difference between intimacy and familiarity, because some folks have it in their mind that intimacy is what breeds contempt. Sometimes, in certain situations, they feel they have simply gone too far with another person, and were too open, or too naked; and that can apply to mind and body–both. They feel that this is what caused this other person to have contempt for them.
This is possible to the degree that, in your relations with others, you may not have been careful. You do have to feel for the amount of intimacy that another is comfortable with because, again, genuine intimacy is sharing. In order to try for that perfect balance with another person, you really have to be open to them and how much they want to share with you. Otherwise you are simply imposing upon them.
That imposition upon them could be out of familiarity, but it could also be too much pure egotism where you are rather indifferent as to whether they are interested in what you have to offer, or not. This is where it helps to be very delicate, especially with strangers; yet also with someone you have known your whole life. Just be open to this Eternal Now. Get a sense of this aspect of reality that is not repeating itself—as in this evening, listening to me now. You don’t know exactly what I am going to say next because this moment has never happened before, and will never happen again.
In your meditations you can become comfortable with yourself alone so you don’t desperately need someone else to express yourself to. All of this is bound up in achieving genuine intimacy. It means being really open and sensitive to this other person because, at the same time, you are content within yourself and not so desperately needing them. You are not just “hanging onto them” is another way of expressing this being overly-intimate, laying on them more of yourself than they are ready for. Genuine intimacy is this being open to them by giving them a chance to express themselves, even if it means they have had enough of you for now; and being comfortable with that.
It can be as spontaneous as walking down a city sidewalk and here come total strangers to whom you offer a smile. Think of being open and ready, and then accepting whatever comes back. So many times when you are ready to smile, you get that wonderful smile back, that special look in someone else’s eyes that makes your day–and from a total stranger. Yet the next person could be affronted in your meeting their eyes.
This is where it takes that self-assurance within you to make your offering genuine, and still be open for whatever, whoever they are. It’s a good practice—forever. Wait until you meet other kinds of personal beings than human.
(Self-confidence through meditation)
You get this self-confidence, this feeling of who you are, in your meditation, in your being highly consciously alone with yourself and your Father. Strangely enough, ironically enough, your self-sufficiency, your being comfortable with yourself alone, is what enables you to, in the presence of another, just let yourself go and forget yourself. The spiritual blessing of self-forgetfulness lets you be there for them.
Take advantage of the fact that, here they are! All of a sudden you have company. Why not let them in? Why not appreciate them and give them your full attention. These are abilities. These are soulful abilities that you can grow, and keep growing. This is why there are so many of us, so many of us with whom to fill eternity with company.
So thank you, Father, for setting up the Creation this way. Thank you for each of us being unique, and having something different than all the rest, to share.
Closing
MICHAEL: I will say “Amen” to our dear Father, and say goodnight to you all. Thank you for coming and being a part of this gathering. Thank you for being my children, and really appreciating Mother Spirit and myself. We do treasure that so much. Be in my peace. Goodnight.
