2006-06-29. A Lesson On Honor
Lightline #83
Topic: A Lesson on Honor
Group: Lightline TeaM
Teachers: Michael & Tomas
TR: Gerdean
Opening
MICHAEL: Little children, this is Michael, stopping by to observe your gathering and I greet you affectionately as I pass by this evening, for I take such delight in your comportment when you gather your soul about you and prepare to conscious-ize what might come to you in these proceedings. My able teachers and administrators are well trained and provided for that they might minister to you and encourage your facilitation of the plans we would put into effect. I just wanted to smile upon you. May my peace be with you.
Lesson
TOMAS: I am Tomas, your trusty friend and associate in these times of accelerated advancement into areas that would not have seemed possible even twenty years ago. If you would have thought that you could dial up and hear your Creator greet you and smile upon you, you would not have believed it and yet here we are taking such things as a matter of course.
Life is like learning how to work a computer. Until you learn how to do it, it is like coming up to a brick wall, but after you have found your way through the maze a time or two, it is almost second nature. But then, since you know how to get through, you must remember to pause and assist those who are coming up behind you, for the more you can pass on and be helpful, the more readily we can advance, not having to learn everything, everything from scratch.
Yes, I know you are all so terribly independent and want to do it your way; you want that hands-on experiential. It would almost seem as if you were sissies or weaklings to allow someone else to help you or to teach you something, when it is a law of the universe that you pass on what you know. And so, you see, you serve by allowing those who went before you to proffer what they may.
Ultimately it is your choice, your decision that carries the weight, and so you are in charge of your own destiny to the extent that you make your own ultimate decisions, but it is well to receive counsel and give counsel as you pass by among your peers, for who knows all there is to know?
I was thinking this evening I might spend some time talking about honor. You know I am a bit of a specialist in character. I find the character of my students an unending resource, and since each of you are a character and have character, and assuming all of you would like your character to blossom and become all that radiance which is possible for you and from you, I trust you are interested in knowing more about character – your own and others – inasmuch as that is the tonal quality of your vehicle.
Honor. How do you honor? What does it mean to you to honor? And honorable. Are you honorable? Are your motives honorable? Are your methods honorable? Who would honor them?
There is, it is said, honor among thieves. And there is certain truth to this saying, for there are many kinds of loyalty and degrees of civility that factor in, in how honor is conveyed and portrayed. If you feel you are among thieves, your honor will seek that in others which aligns you such that you have kindred spirits, you have similar character qualities, and you can equate and relate based on those qualities of character.
Perhaps it has to do with quantity or quality of merchandise, or conveyance or timeliness. Perhaps it’s a matter of style. Perhaps it’s a matter of association. But you as an individual have your own honor. To the extent that you can honor who you are, honor yourself. To the extent that you honor yourself, you honor others. If you see God within you, you will more readily see God within others, because you see God reflected back to you, in particularly when you are, to your understanding, your own source and center.
Thus we bring about standards. We run into trouble here when we have expectations that others’ standards are the same as ours or that others have the same sense of honor or the same capacities. Expectations cannot be depended upon except through intimate association. Just as you cannot honor someone with whom you have had no dealings, had no frame of reference for, you can greet people in faith and in honor of their anticipated good will, but your expectations must be such that you are not disappointed if you discover they are not who you thought they were. They may be better; they may be worse; they may be different. But the way you honor others is a reflection on your own honor and your own expectations of what that honor means.
Well, I have planted a seed in your mind. Perhaps you will find it worthy of thought. Perhaps your Adjuster will fertilize the seed in the soil of your mind. If so, may it bring forth good fruit. Otherwise, and still, I thank you for your kind attention. I can feel your ears across the airwaves focused on that which you have come to hear, that which you expect, that which you would honor.
Dialogue
Let us honor one another with camaraderie. Have you any questions or comments?
Student: Well, Tomas, I just wanted to make a comment and perhaps you can comment back to me, and others. I feel viscerally just centered. Thank you very much for this message tonight. I have been probably a little too anxious, a little too giddy, the last few days so this has hit the nail right on the head for me. Can you tell me a little bit more about … that … I think you mentioned that expectations … you can’t really depend upon others except in intimate association, and to not be disappointed if people turn out better or worse. I guess I want to turn off that judgment mode and yet be wise and protective and reflect properly so perhaps a little more on that would be helpful.
TOMAS: Very well. My remark was not to create defensiveness but to give you strength of character to enter into situations whose outcome you cannot know. It is well to have faith and anticipate the best in every situation, and yet we know from the experience of living that there are so many variables it is impossible to know what to expect. Accidents happen; inconveniences occur; “Murphy’s law” enters in. Flat tires occur, causing people to be late; rains fall, flooding highways, causing traffic to be waylaid; defensiveness may come up such that cultural mores would have someone offer you a white lie to excuse themselves, which white lie was a disappointment; and so forth.
So I am not suggesting that you have an expectation that the world is dishonorable, and that its inhabitants are without honor. I would only suggest that their honor might not reflect as you would anticipate or like it to manifest. They may have no choice in how they handle a situation, whereas in your eyes, it was their choice entirely. Anticipating that you are only human … and so are your fellows … is a way of easing up what you expect of them and what you convey they can expect from you.
When you work closely with someone, you have learned to rely on them. You know how dependable they are. You have seen time and again how they behave in different circumstances and under trying conditions and you know, after a while, that your expectations are well founded, and so when something happens that they don’t meet your expectations, you can go with the flow more readily. You can understand and forgive based on the fact that it was not their common practice. Something out of the ordinary occurred. Whereas, if you don’t have any frame of reference to how people behave, you may readily revert to cynicism or defensiveness in your dealings with them when they are not what you wanted.
For example, a business that does not offer the services you are paying for — sloppy service or shoddy workmanship. You know not to do business with them again or to talk to them about your concern so that they might make recompense. This is what the Better Business Bureau does. This is what recommendations are all about, what referrals are for. You get a better understanding of a person’s character. You have a better appreciation of what your expectations can be. You find out through experience if it is an honorable chap. And those, of course, are the ones you want to support for they are honorable people. Is that a judgment? No. It is a necessary assessment of the possibilities in life. As Jesus pointed out, before you go to war, or before you get into a situation that may be over your head, you sit down and count the cost. You look at it with a level head and a clear eye and a clean heart to know how far you can go and what you can do, what falls within good sense, good business, good will.
Does that clarify?
It sure does, Tomas. Sure hit the nail on the head. Is it to appeal to the good will of someone when they may not be in that mode at the time? Because everyone has good will. Just because they treated you with not good will at that moment in bad faith.
TOMAS: Everyone has a bad day sometimes. And so you allow for these vicissitudes, particularly if you do not place a very high expectation on some behaviors or peoples that are unable to carry the load of your expectations. Expecting less of others, especially strangers, will assure you have fewer disappointments. This is not to say you cannot trust strangers. But you don’t want to trust them with things they ought not be tested about. You have a responsibility to yourself and your relations to attempt to work within the framework of their limitations. Always anticipating that over time these capacities will grow. But only over time! And, experience will let you know — your own experience and that of others — where their integrity lies and where their honor is… their seat of honor.
Student: Thank you, Tomas. That helps a lot.
TOMAS: Honor is just short of reverence, and reverence is rather reserved for the gods. And so we want to be careful what we honor, what we revere. But it is good to have honor and to promote honor in others since all of you and all of us are allowing ourselves to become more godlike and more honorable, although it is a rare instant any of us are revered by any but our most favored loved ones.
Are there other questions?
Marty: Teacher Tomas?
TOMAS: Yes.
Marty: This is Marty.
TOMAS: Yes.
Marty: I’d just like to start off by saying how happy I am to hear from you and I would like to make a comment about your lesson this evening about honor.
TOMAS: Yes.
Marty: I think that honor among thieves or among any people on earth is looking for the highest qualities in people.
TOMAS: Yes.
Marty: And its something that needs to be lived by all people everywhere who — people who seek truth and beauty and goodness, that seek to live with Father and his will.
TOMAS: Yes.
Marty: And that’s how I see honor, as just a growing potential.
TOMAS: Yes. I wanted to discuss it, to bring it to your consciousness that you might encourage the acknowledgment of it in yourself and others so as to foster honor as a value. If you are conscious of honor, you are able to honor others more consciously, and when they are honored, by your honoring them, they feel honorable, and they are enriched, enlarged, and made more whole, made aware of their proximity, their stature en route to that which is reverent, godly. And this contributes to the behavior of a dignified son or daughter of the living God. It is a part of your dignity as faith children to have honor and to recognize honor in yourselves and others.
The fact that people may not be overt religionists and publicly espousing their relationship with deity does not preclude them from also having honor, however, as you pointed out. Yes.
Marty: You sure did express very thoroughly what I was getting at. I appreciate that very much.
TOMAS: It is always good to clarify. It is not as though there is not enough time for this refinement. Refinement in our thinking and sharing elevates the consciousness, allows you to rise above the rubble of the daily grind.
Marty: The thing is, we try to honor everyone and yet sometimes we find ourselves very disappointed and it requires that we live in forgiveness, before we have any disappointment happen, we should expect that might occur —
TOMAS: Yes.
Marty: — and that’s the problem we have. So many people are not trustworthy or are on some kind of an agenda, which precludes being honored.
TOMAS: Well, this is why I encourage you to allow it to become a conscious part of your frame of reference for yourself and others that you can weave honor into your relationships, into your culture. I am reminded of the unequal distribution of wealth that Jesus objected to and complained of while he was here. And with the right motivation and energy, these kinds of imbalances can be ironed out and made socially correct by calling for honor, calling for the honorable thing.
Gerdean: I’m sorry. I lost it here. [Pause] I’m sorry. I lost it.
Manu: Well, that’s fine. If you can connect again, that’s fine. If not, we can just discuss honor between us. [Pause]
TOMAS: I am saying you are in a position to influence your culture such that honor is a socially desirable trait, and dishonorable practices are discouraged. Corruption will feel the pinch when you apply pressure for your dealings with your fellows to be honorable. All it takes is a few of you who refuse to back down and sell out, who insist upon standing tall as a dignified son or daughter of God, having honor because of your relationship with truth, beauty and goodness, your association with the divine.
It is a high art and it is a fruit of the spirit that you can develop, cultivate, and espouse. This is a way of moving the world along. Evolving it. Bringing into it those qualities you want to see more of. And making them a visible part of the social fiber of your community. Yes.
Are there other questions?
Student: Do you have a worship couplet for us, Tomas? Something to bring us into worship mode? When you feel like it?
TOMAS: When we feel like it this evening? Or when we feel like it another time?
Student: Oh, I’m just thinking of both, really. Whatever you have time for.
TOMAS: You want to find the pathway through that brick wall that will bring you into instant presence of deity that you may bask in the worship state without delay.
Student: Yes! Can you make a drawing of that? [Pause] Are you still there Tomas?
TOMAS: Yes. Think then of another brick in the wall, and once you know where your brick is, once you know your solid brick, you can go up and take it out of the wall, enabling you to see through. You cannot take out someone else’s brick. You need to know where your brick is in the wall, and whenever you run into a brick wall, think in terms of your brick and go right to it.
Establish that light line between the brick of your mortality and establish a view that leads to infinity. Establish that now [pause] and soon you will be lost [pause] in Him — safe, liberated, and also grounded, so that you can re-insert the brick in the wall and go about your business once more, reconnected, reassured, renewed. [Pause] Train your mind to work for you.
Anything else?
Student: That’ll do it. That’s super great. And thank you very much for allowing me to ask lots of questions tonight.
TOMAS: It has been my pleasure. Farewell.
Student: Tomas, if there is still time, I would like to ask a question or make a statement.
TOMAS: I am here.
Student: I would sort of like to refer back to Marty’s comments and question about looking for the honorable in another person, on an individual basis. I’m asking whether the may be a time that you come to the understanding that the person is not choosing to be honorable at the moment, and maybe forever after, and you have to just let them go.
TOMAS: Well, yes, certainly, there are those times. Otherwise it would not be relevant to even know what honor is. You are encouraged to act upon what you find. And when you find such as the situation you outlined, that you are being taken advantage of, you need to protect yourself from such usury. It is well and good to turn the other cheek, but if after time they refuse to see, but really just take delight in using you, their actions are not supporting truth, beauty and goodness. You have a right to reroute yourself. You have a right to protect yourself against those who would use you, whether they are conscious of it or not.
It does not mean that you cannot forgive them, even though sometimes forgiveness may be difficult, but forgiving does not mean going back to take further abuse. There is no honor in using people or allowing yourself to be used. That is not the same as service.
Service is an action; abuse is a reaction. Service is objective; abuse is subjective. As I said before, everyone is entitled to an off day, but after several off days and you discover them delighting in pulling the wool over your eyes or chortling about how many off days they’ve gotten away with, you can certainly look at their character and say, “This is not in my best interest.”
Student: Well, thank you very much for that clarification. It certainly did shed light.
TOMAS: Let me encourage you to give yourself permission to develop your own self- respect. This is what Jesus sought when he was here: superb self-respect. To have self-respect is to have honor. No one will honor you if you don’t honor yourself. Self-respect is honor in this context. That which you represent is an extension of your self-respect. So honor what you do. Honor your dealings with others.
Student: That was an excellent topic tonight.
TOMAS: I am glad it fed. I seek to stimulate the growth of your soul, and the mind is the gateway thereto.
Also, the emotional riches that are a side effect of your thinking is what add such color to the tapestry of life, such texture.
Closing
Are there other matters? [Pause] Then I will call our session to a close, again, with thanks and appreciation for your attention and willingness to reach for greater understanding of that which feeds your own soul and brings you to greater clarity as to who you are in the highest sense.
Marty: Thank you very much, Teacher Tomas.
Student: What a blessing.
