2014-05-15-Spiritual Family
Lightline #442
Contents
Heading
Topic: Spiritual Family
Group: Lightline TeaM
Facilitators
Teacher: Michael
TR: JL
Session
Opening
Dear Michael and Mother Spirit, well, here it is the Merry Month of May and, following that old English song, “green buds all are a-swelling,” we are just as absolutely sure within ourselves that you are with us. We not only have your assurance after so many, many years that you are with us, in all the ways you are, but it becomes beyond a matter of faith. It becomes a matter of experience. We are so delighted and so humbled in the ways we have experienced your presence. We are even all the more so within ourselves when we can give you our bodies, give you our speech centers, our throats, and our voices to let you speak to us right through us.
We credit the way you encourage all of us to give this transmitting a try in our meditations using these neat little recording devices we have–our modern technology–to see if we can let spirit speak through us. This is you, Michael, or you, Mother Spirit, or even our Father Fragment, the presence of God within us. It’s to see what the spiritual community has for us. So we thank you most sincerely and most humbly for being with us this way. Amen.
Lesson
MICHAEL: Good evening everybody, this is Michael, and most assuredly Mother Spirit and I are definitely here. As we’ve taught so many times, we are even part of you–as much a part of you as you want us to be, and you let us be. You can ask us to be part of you, for we are pure spirit in this sense: we do not intrude. We perhaps tease a bit to encourage you to acknowledge us, to say “Hi Mom. Hi Dad. I’m glad you’re with us–glad you’re with me.” Then we can actually be more with you because, my dear ones, my dear children, we are everywhere as much yours as you are ours.
- A true spiritual family
This is our sense of what constitutes a true family: we live for each other and with each other. As we have said so often, this is where one and one makes three, where you can enjoy so much between yourselves–you human beings—just being human. Your two personalities–one and one–get together, and there is this other, third presence—the relationship itself—in the union. Then all you can share is so unlimited, so expansible, so capable of growing that relationship. For we know, as much as you know within yourselves, how precious this is. This is the true salt of the earth that gives flavor to all your activities, this being able to share them with each other. This is one of God’s greatest gifts to all of us, all the company we have to share our lives with, and how this too is really boundless in its extensibility.
This is what God’s reality itself calls for. All his creation calls to you to keep expanding, keep growing, keep adding to your soul. I know this sounds a little daunting, this limitlessness, this fantastic expanse as you go out at night and look up at the starry sky, and you realize in your heart all that is real. All those little points of light out there are blazing suns, with so many of them surrounded by worlds just like yours, with beings just like you living on them.
This is the process of realization that all your major religions, and some of your faith-based organizations, acknowledge, whether they call it enlightenment, or satori, or samyak sambodhi. It’s finally, fully realizing something you perhaps have known intellectually or vicariously for a long time. You have already unconsciously accepted it, and yet there is this movement of your whole being and world in which this suddenly becomes even more real for you–this thing of realization you are capable of.
This reality is your bedrock. This is your spiritual home, and this is what will sustain you forever if you choose. This is how you meet all those daunting, imponderable, unfathomable mysteries surrounding you. You become aware and accept that Truth Itself—all that is–is so enormous, it is something you will never fully possess. But you will spend a wonderful life reaching for, and achieving, more of it forever.
(Ed: the T/R had to answer a knock on the door)
Jerry: Excuse me a second, folks: this is Jerry. This is Jerry back again, transmitting Michael.
- How does a personality realize things?
MICHAEL: This is Michael; and to continue. I am teasing you to wonder: What is this realization? What is this process by which things become real for you? It calls attention to the fact of your co-creativity, that you are part of everything you experience. This too can be a bit daunting as you go through your everyday life wondering, “What is truly out there? What is objective reality?” Do you ever actually touch it? Or are you always bound up in some prison of subjectivity, in a sense never getting fully beyond yourself and touching the real thing?
It is here that both Mother Spirit and I encourage you to have faith, to continue to extend yourself out there into the unknown. It is what you call tomorrow; and going with a light and cheerful heart, and the courage to meet it, and enjoy it, to accept it, and realize it. Because this is your human reality, my dear ones.
There is nothing more real than this co-creativity that every personal being, from the human order right on up to God himself, is involved in–this personally co-creating their reality. This is actually how God is sharing his ultimate, and absolute, and infinite creativity with each of the personal beings that he creates. He chooses to share his creativity with you because it is your way to freedom; your free will dignity depends upon it.
You yourself can bring something right out of yourself to meet even the grave brows of tomorrow, and all the unfathomable mystery it will continue to hold forever. It is that big! That creation out there, and you, have an endless eternity in which you go out and meet it, take it into yourself, and make it part of your soul.
Think of all those worlds to come, and all the beings of all the various orders you will come to meet, as well as all the folks you meet in your day-to-day life already. You have this ability of realization, of making it as real as real can be for yourself. And yes, it will always be partly you that you discover and encounter.
Now I feel there are some questions and comments waiting to come about, out of what is, for me, the external reality of all of you, of all my children. So let me open the floor for your questions or comments this evening.
Dialogue
Student #1: Yes, Michael, this is _ in Wichita. I have a question about Agondonters. I am a little confused. I read in Monjoronson’s forum that there are only like three million Agondonters here on Urantia. I find that a little confusing when there are about 70% of the people in the U.S. alone that believe in God. With all the religions around the world I don’t quite understand why there aren’t more. The criteria are: they believe without seeing. Are there more Agondonters than that?
- Agondonter reality
MICHAEL: No, my son, there really isn’t. Yet the only qualitative difference would be the degree to which people can–as I was talking about this evening–realize this. And even then, it’s not only in their own field of familiarity, shall we say, but through their faith and through their own inner touch with spirit. It’s the degree they can go forth and act upon their beliefs and their faith.
It’s in this particular sense of realization–of acting, actual behavior–because almost everybody, just in getting through their everyday life, is acting on largely unconscious faith and beliefs that are not readily/consciously apparent choices to them. In this sense, everybody here who does not have the full realization of spirit is actually putting into action only what has already been proven to them, because it is part of their past experience.
As far as this degree of faith: it is almost universal. So there is, shall we say, a qualitative difference in the degree to which people can realize their faith, as I talked on this evening, to actually and fully integrate it into their behavior with other folks. That is the real nitty gritty: that they live and consciously choose to put their life on the line in terms of their belief. Does that explain the difference?
Student #1: Yes, that cleared it up quite a bit. I appreciate that. Thank you, Michael.
MICHAEL: : Right. Let’s say: it’s everybody here who acts out of faith at some–not exactly or always at a cost to them–but there is some commitment involved. There is some deciding action whose expression does define them, because a lot of the day-to-day activity of folks does not exactly define who and what they are. It’s the really existential moments that define their existence. This is the true measure of their Agodonter status, the degree to which they can act at some cost and effort to themselves, act upon their faith. But this is something that no one can really judge for another.
The spiritual community can give you rough estimations of this, but this is open for everyone, everyone who is not acting merely out of some kind of unquestioning, blind belief, simply because they are raised that way. This is not Agondonter status.
But for those who, in the face of great effort or supreme doubt, still have the faith to act: this is the true Agondonter status, and it is such a blessing for that very reason. They are living by extending their faith and acting on it. They have real experiences in their soul of what faith alone can do. So thank you for your question. Be in my peace.
Student #1: Thank you
Student #2: This is __. I’m wondering if the celestials–those who we cannot see–are preparing for what is to take place on the earth, probably within the year? Correct? If there is going to be… If they are going to help those of us who… Well, if they are going to help prepare us or, I guess…? I’m just not quite sure if you want us to survive whatever is going to happen.
- The spiritual community
MICHAEL: : In terms of your not only surviving, but thriving–physically, mentally, spiritually, in all ways: this is part of our whole purpose in being your spiritual parents; and the spiritual community you refer to. This is our main purpose here, being with you. This is our promise to you that we will never abandon you in any way we are capable of. This is what we are. This is what God creates us for, to be your true, loyal, faithful, and above all helpful spiritual parents. In this respect the whole spiritual community is of a single mind.
This is probably one of the most difficult concepts for you to wrap your human minds around: how every spiritual being can be as unique a personality as much as any of you; maybe even more so because they are more fully realized. Yet at the same time we are sharing a kind of single mind as your Urantia Book mentions. It’s why spirit contact with you is always singular. All true spiritual contact with human beings has this kind of singular agreement, just by our very nature.
This is something you yourselves will grow into. Some of you are truly blessed with being able to achieve this even in your human lives. It’s being able to be more fully yourselves by finding all the various ways of being so—as you say–right up front. It’s being more and more spiritually generous and open-minded to incorporate more and more folks you come in contact with, or even catch on the evening news. You too are a spiritual being. You too are capable of this kind of growth and incorporation, and still remain even more yourself.
For the whole spiritual community: this is our purpose for being here on this particular planet at this particular time. We not only help you survive, but thrive, both in this life and all of those to come. Of this you should have no doubt. This should be an article of your faith, that the spiritual community’s main motivation is one of love, of care and consideration. It’s how much we love you, and how we try our best to share our lives and our spiritual assurance with you.
Now as to what is to come: this is something I will not, myself, quantify or even qualify, because this is the true nature of your possible Agondonter status. I just talked about this. This is a matter of faith that we in the spiritual community are doing all we can to help prepare you for whatever comes, even through those inevitable things like your own personal death and transformation. Does this at least begin to answer your question?
Student #2: Oh yes, it does. I guess I was thinking more in the physical sense than the spiritual sense. The spiritual sense I am well aware, as you know, because I did die at one point, and I believe it was you I spoke with. I don’t know because I wasn’t sure, but it was my thought that it was probably you.
But I guess I am wondering, with the earth going through some birth pains within the year. That was my main concern as far as: who is going to be left on the planet in order for things to happen? I guess Monjoronson is coming as well. Will he be here physically? Will we be able to see him when he comes?
- Who survives, and why
MICHAEL: : But then, my dear, this is spiritual. You see, I don’t make quite that sharp of a distinction between the physical and the spiritual…
Student #2: OK…
MICHAEL: : …in whether or not you survive. This also came up one time with respect to that enormous tsunami that took so many tens of thousands of lives. I tried to express that it had nothing to do with those individuals, in the sense of morality. For those individuals whose lives were taken, it had nothing to do with their righteousness or lack thereof. An impersonal wall of water went towards land and it was not any kind of judgment whether a particular individual survived or not. That is the nature of cataclysmic, planetary events.
Only God–not even Mother Spirit or I–can address who survives or who doesn’t, and why. This is truly in God’s hands. Things of this enormity are just part of living on an as yet unstable planet. This is where Mother Spirit and I with all humility do acknowledge and even salute that fact that it is in God’s hands. This is not only our faith, but our experience too. This is for us proof of the absoluteness and infinity of his love: that everyone is taken care of.
I’ll say that again: everyone is taken care of. Because this is where even your physical/mental being, this form you have, this concentration/density of energy and matter, and life itself!–you are possessing now: this does continue. You will always have an energetic form with which to relate to all the rest of the reality around you. It is just magnificently, enormously enhanced as you continue on. So in this sense we can really say: Be not afraid. You are truly in God’s hands.
Student #2: Thank you.
MICHAEL: : Be in my peace.
Student #1: Michael, this is __ again.
MICHAEL: : Yes?
Student #1: I had one other question I’ve been thinking about. There was a celestial census on 12-28-2013. In that census–I am rounding up–there were about one and a half billion people that were considered to be spiritually dead. They had no Thought Adjusters. Will these individuals be dealt with during the arrival of Monjoronson separately, or will they have the same chance that everybody else does?
- Is anyone irretrievably spiritually dead?
MICHAEL: : Yes, my son. Very directly: everybody is given the chance again. This is a matter of not only what you may see as their body and their mind, but also their soul, which is co-created by God. In this sense they too are complete and beyond comparison with others. They will be given every chance and, as you know, for those who cross over without Thought Adjusters, there is a portion of Mother Spirit–her spirit–that will give them continuing life. Even when they awaken without a Thought Adjuster there to give them the full story of all they have already experienced, just because of the very transcendent, ungraspable, boundless nature of personality itself, created by God, they themselves have a chance and a choice for eternal life.
This is the nature of personality, God-given personality, that none is extinguished without that choice. Those who cross over without having a Thought Adjuster, shall we say all the early cavemen and women, all the early human beings who are not able to have a Thought Adjuster as a permanent companion, provision is made for them too to continue on.
There is a chapter in your Urantia Book that talks about the fact that they are somewhat limited to the Local Universe in their continuing life. But then they form a population, a continuing, rather permanent population within the Local Universe, while those with Thought Adjusters are just passing through–however many tens of thousands of years that is. So: no one is lost, my son.
Student #1: Thank you, Michael. That explains a lot. I appreciate that.
- Something you actually are
MICHAEL: : Right. This is almost a kind of teasing you, that we will detail something you actually are. You are a personality. You are a personal being with this complex personhood of a rather dense form of matter and energy–these bodies of yours; what you call physical. But insofar as your personality is changeless, almost outside of time-and-space where everything else changes, your own experience of all the other parts of you–your body, your mind, your soul, the spiritual being you are with this creative spirit of yours: even your own body and mind and soul are to you dimensions that are infinitely explore-able.
You are to yourself an infinite discovery, as you realize ever morning when you get up, swing your legs out of bed, and sit there for a moment to gather yourself together: all that you are. This is a spiritual, creative act by your personality because even your persisting bodies and minds do change so much, sometimes minute-by-minute.
So this is the mystery, and yet too the fully transcendent reality of personality, coming from God, the First Source and Center, the singular personal being who creates all other personality. In this you can definitely be at peace.
Student #3: Michael, I have a question. This is __ from North Carolina. Do some human beings end when celestials annihilate them, or not?
- To be, or not to be
MICHAEL: : Mother Spirit and I have talked on this other kind of a mystery, of the fact eternal life is not forced on anyone. Every single one of you will have a very clear and free choice to make, yet it is kind-of forced upon you in the sense of being a necessarily unambiguous choice to make, as to whether or not to continue. As we have also taught, this is something that, until you cross over, until you literally regain consciousness and walk out of the Assembly Hall on the first mansion world, walk out into a transformed, so much more spiritual reality–and being so much more transformed yourselves; until you have experienced that wonder—and as I stated, a lot of you have actually gone through this experience in your first human life, and have been overcome with the wonder of it all–until you have experienced this, there is no way you can choose whether or not to continue to exist.
It is only those really poor, terribly warped souls who, in a very strange way, almost extinguish themselves. For it is a final mercy and love of God’s that he allows them to cease to exist. It’s to end their pain, the unendurable pain of their existence, simply but profoundly because of what they themselves have done to others, the pain and agony they themselves have caused others: now undeniable experiences in their souls. For as they begin to fully realize this–on the other side–they can only plead, “Please, dear Father, let me cease to exist! This is too much!” This is the ultimate proof of your freedom, my children, that you have this choice to make, and can make it. But it is very rarely made for cessation.
Just as with the wonder of re-birth which, as your Urantia Book assures you, you will never forget in all eternity that moment of re-awakening–it is very rare that beings are so extinguished out of mercy.
Student #3: Thank you.
MICHAEL: : Be in my peace.
Student #4: Yes Michael, this is __. I was wondering: is it possible to find out our spirit name? I heard that talked about when we…I guess when the Teaching Mission actually started. Reading some of the excerpts of the first encounters that people had–I think with Abraham–that was early discussed. Is that possible to know now?
- A person’s spirit name
MICHAEL: : Are you referring to which specific psychic circle you are on?–to know your own spiritual status?
Student #4: Well, actually they were just asking about their spiritual name. I don’t know if it refers to our spiritual status at all.
MICHAEL: : Oh!–excuse me, my son, I misunderstood you. Yes, your spiritual name is something that you can discover in your meditations. Your spiritual name is pertinent to your own discovery. This is part of your freedom. It will come to you as if it is something that you are not particularly or arbitrarily choosing, but discovering, in your meditation. This is something Mother Spirit and I have talked on before. You ask for your spiritual name to be revealed to you, and it will come to you. A name will come to you, but you are still a free will creature. You can still say, no thank you–but that is also very rare. This again is part of your choice. It is something that you can and will be known by, with all the spiritual beings relating with you. So give it a try.
Student #4: I keep trying to get to a silent mode. I find it difficult. I live in quite a bit of pain and I can’t seem to quiet my mind enough; plus I suffer from tinnitus, which is a ringing in your ears. That doesn’t seem to dissipate, but I keep trying, Father. I actually took an excerpt from the Christ letters. There is a prayer in there that was, I guess, given by you and Mother to memorize, to try and get into stillness. I have been working on that also.
- Just being here
MICHAEL: : There are so many different kinds of meditation. What we suggest sometimes is a pure “just being here”–opening your mind to whatever comes next. Again, when you are beset, if your surroundings and your inner world are so full of pain and constant tinnitus, it is difficult, but necessary, to just sense: what is this next moment bringing within this continuing pain and inner noise? What is new? What is this new thing happening each moment? Tune in to that as much as possible. This might be a greater answer for you than trying to fill your mind with some exercise. Sometimes it is only fully right within the pain and the noise that you find this newness, this creative spirit that is partly your own, and partly us. For there is something different, something spiritual and spontaneous daily coming about, to discover.
Student #4: I have been trying daily to practice that. I set a certain amount of time every morning and I try for at least a minimum of twenty minutes or so. I’ll just keep continuing to try it. I did ask Thomas the Teacher once, in the archives, and he suggested getting a tape recorder. I took his advice, using a clean tape and making sure there was nothing on it, and actually read a prayer or one of the transcripts where I think one of them was by Litsky (Ed: spelling?); and I remember recording it. Yet when I played it back, it was a different voice for, I would say, three-quarters of the playback; and then my voice came in. It was his way of saying that even though we don’t think we are making contact with anyone, that would be an indication that someone is listening. So I found that to be a shock at first, but enlightening in another way. I don’t know.
MICHAEL: : My son: this is your true name–this effort you are putting forth, this respect and acknowledgment you are already paying the spiritual community just by continuing this way. This is definite. You are knowing the real effort that is required. Not in any way to lessen or mitigate what you are confronted with, but everybody, every unique personality does go through this period of what some of the oriental people call “Not this – Not that.” It is going through all these things that do come up, and still being honest with yourself, even if you are still not quite realizing what your name is, and who you are within all of this. This is something that we can only encourage, and thank you–sincerely thank you for your efforts. This is what it is. This is who you are. This is what you are doing. You are acknowledging and opening yourself up to spirit–to your own spirit defining who you are and what your name is. We can only ask you to continue, and give you all of our blessings to do so.
Student #4: I will continue! And thank you, Michael. I appreciate it.
MICHAEL: : Keep going, my son. The very effort it takes–though you may not yet fully credit it–this is the reward. To have this, to know this and have this in your life to do–to exercise your will and choose to do this; and to continue to choose to do this: this is you!
This is your personality. This is your free will. And you are demonstrating it. You are actualizing it. You are realizing it. You continue to exercise your faith, even when there is yet no overt answer to keep reaching for. This is truly being an Agondonter.
This came up earlier. This is truly forming your soul. So keep with it. More and more let your own soul experience come forth to reassure you, not only that you are, but of all that you have been. This is what you will keep with you.
Student: Thank you, Michael. I appreciate that. I’m not planning on giving up. I’ve come this far and I’m not about to stop. Whatever happens, I will continue. So thanks again, Father.
MICHAEL: : This is what makes Mother Spirit and me proud to call you our son. Thank you.
Student: Thank you again, Father.
MICHAEL: : Be in my peace.
Closing
- Autonomy, independence, free will
MICHAEL: Well, my dear ones, the clock on the wall… The big clock on the wall of eternity is saying, from time to time, that it is time to go. So: thank you all. Thank you all for being here and treasuring these moments we have together. It is something that helps Mother Spirit and me–even us–acknowledge and realize for ourselves: your autonomy, your independence and your free will: that you choose to be with us. We most humbly thank you, our children, for this is our delight in being your parents: we get to see you shine forth. Again, we thank you, and we thank our mutual Father for his ability to come up with such as you, such as all of us for company–someone with whom to share all these marvelous gifts of his. Be in my peace.
Student: And we get to see you, too.
MICHAEL: : Oh yes! Good night, dear ones. Be in my peace.
