2006-08-21-Our Celestial Company
Marin #103
Contents
• 1 Heading
o 1.1 Topic: Our Celestial Company
o 1.2 Group: Marin TeaM
• 2 Facilitators
o 2.1 Teacher: Nebadonia
o 2.2 TR: JL
• 3 Session
o 3.1 Opening
o 3.2 Lesson
o 3.3 Dialogue
o 3.4 Closing
o 3.5 Note
Topic: Our Celestial Company
Group: Marin TeaM
Facilitators
Teacher: Nebadonia
TR: JL
Session
Opening
Dear Mother Spirit and Michael, We come together in these weekly meetings to enjoy our comradeship, of course, but mostly to share the blessings of being in Your presence. We can look back on many years now of these get-togethers and remember times beyond counting when Your spirit was a genuine experience, when afterwards we walked out into the evening air and it was truly, “Oh, holy night, the stars are brightly shining.” These are the times of our rebirth, and so for all these times, Dear Parents, for all the tears of joy and especially for Your laughter and good cheer, we are truly thankful. Amen.
NEBADONIA: Good evening, My beloved sons, this is Nebadonia, Mother Spirit of Nebadon. Last time I invited you to imagine what it is to be Mother Spirit of a Local Universe and, of course, I was teasing. But consider it a token of My love for you, My children. Feel if you can this desire of My heart to share as much of Me with you as I can or, should I say, as we can share together.
Lesson
(Our celestial company)
I am a part of you. What you know as your mind is partly Me, and, as you are beginning to understand and appreciate, Michael is here in your feelings, in your heart, and our Universal Father has put a fragment of His pure spirit within you. His presence is not just some rare, startlingly clear idea that you can recognize, His presence is also constant. He is constantly striving to adjust your thoughts to provide the very continuity you know as yourself, and then, deeper still, your soul. This is His doing; and We all welcome those moments when you can consciously invite Us to share your life. For in doing so you are acknowledging to yourself, as well to Us, how much you treasure Our company.
We’ve been encouraging you these last several lessons to be more your own person, an independent thinker, a person who welcomes new perceptions stemming from greater insights and understanding of the spiritual dimension of your lives. This is what refreshes you, this is what feeds you–when you can see an ever increasing value and meaning in both the living physical reality and the folks about you, and appreciate even more the soul connections and meanings you’ve come to understand are your own creation.
This vibrant growing, this resiliency, this flexibility, this curiosity, this willingness to look at all viewpoints–while identifying with none; these are things you can feel; these are genuine spiritual experiences. These are real events in your life you can remember, and relate to as you recall. These are the hallmarks of a full life when each day is somewhat unique, and boredom is just some notion you’ve heard about. For you stand in a kind of faithful awe at the enormity of the creation coming down all around you like a driving rain.
Can you feel the power in this, My children? Can you welcome it? Does your heart long to share it? Can you wish that every brother and sister could realize this as their birthright? Can you thrive in the challenge of meeting folks who are ever more creative, more curious and powerful, too? Does this fit in with your notions of an ideal world you would love to see come about, where all the great, prideful and arrogant divisions of mankind–of religions or nations, sex or race–all fall away before the naked wonder of each individual soul? For this is mainly how you help bring it about, first by recognizing when it is happening, when the people about you stand out in your perception of them and you feel a natural, outgoing need to be a person yourself for them, irrespective of your relationship.
This is how you bring it about when you encounter a narrow-minded point of view, or some fundamentalist self assurance and hubris. Can you act creatively with humor? Can you with love tease them into looking at something a little larger, avoiding a meaningless and fruitless polarization? Can you accept a whole load of bad karma that has been hanging around for some time, and now is being dumped on your head? Can you recognize that situation and accept it with humor, and let the karma die with your smile, and not pass it on?
Now throw in the adventure of seeking within what We’ve called your spiritual home base–simply what is left when you relax all the concerns pulling at you. You just relax and trust that this subtle sensation creeping into your soul is indeed Our presence. Can you trust yourself–to acknowledge Us and give Us reality deep within yourself?
(Being a world citizen)
We talk about your being a world citizen, My children. Aren’t you enormously fortunate that so much of the world’s culture is available to you, that so many different and often contrary viewpoints are right there for your study and enjoyment and understanding? What a time you are living through. From the standpoint of your Spiritual Family who have seen Urantia come through these last few hundreds of thousands of years, from that perspective, My children, things are beginning to accelerate as never before. And so while We invite you to realize the extent to which the world is changing due to these newly established mass media all about the planet, We recommend patience, both with yourselves and with each other.
You are discovering the time dimension of value, that you don’t turn ages-old cultures around on a dime, so to speak; nor need you. If you would see a genuine extension of true democracy throughout the world, people must be given time–time to react, time to adjust, time to decide what they want tomorrow to look like, time to find a way to include everyone.
So keep stretching, My children, in your ability to set aside part of your valuable time and just relax with Michael, and Me, and our Father for company; and just glory in being still–once again, and alive–one more day. Paradoxically, you will find too, at the exact opposite extreme, an ever more tenacious, and resilient, and lively, and curious mentality that can keep pace with your most hectic activities, apparently slowing them down. This is the heart of the matter. Can you feel it? Can you feel?
(God’s will—consequences)
You are experiential beings, My children, so be aware when you do anything to short-circuit your experience of life itself: what could that be? Rather, let us rejoice and be cheerful. Our Father has set such a feast of considerations before us. For as we pick and choose, as we decide, so we discover who we are, and what we may become. Truly an amazing freedom, Father, and we thank You most of all, by willing that Your will be done. For without Your consequences, we would all be living inconsequential lives. So we thank You for making us co-creators of our own reality, and we pray for Your guidance and help that we never forget it. Will you join Me, My children, in saying amen to that?
Dialogue
Students–all: Amen!
NEBADONIA: I thank you and extend you all My love. I sense a few questions floating about, desiring to land. Let’s make a little space for them.
Student: Mother, I really don’t have a question tonight, but I would just like to ask You to give to Jesus and Michael a big hug and kiss from us on His birthday today.
(A birthday present for Michael)
NEBADONIA: Michael says, Thank you—He just got it. It doesn’t take the two of Us very long to carry out such a divinely inspired act of affection. As He said last week, He does love that Christmas carol of, “The hopes and the fears of all the years” that were met in His birth. Our sincerest wishes for you, My children, are that you do continue to feel all the hopes and even all the fears that beset your human hearts. These are precious lives you are living, so let nothing come between you and them, not even for a single moment. True enough, you can feel and experience, and still go wrong, still make the wrong decisions, but then if you just keep feeling, just keep experiencing, just stay open, you’ll know the reason why; and the price for not doing that one again. So be in My love, My son, as Michael and I know We are in yours.
Student: Thank You.
Student: Mother, thank You for being here, and the Teaching Mission, and the participation I have—for helping me get here. That’s all I have—just it’s wonderful to be here in Your presence.
(How to feed your soul)
NEBADONIA: Well, My son, thank you for getting you here. I certainly do appreciate it. Let’s work together on this, shall we?
Student: Yes.
NEBADONIA: As you know, Michael and I are constantly receiving your love, and then giving you back to yourselves. This is why We say, more power to you! Never fear power, My children. Simply seek to share it; let it flow through you; feel it as you give it away. And so, C, feel your own power too. Rejoice in what you contribute to this life you and I share together.
Student: Yes.
NEBADONIA: You are My beloved son, and I truly feel I am your beloved mother.
Student: You are my beloved Mother—and a little more so each day.
NEBADONIA: Just keep in mind what I said about feeling, for it does come and go with you human-type beings. (laughter) It’s scary when you feel it going, so, as paradoxical as it may seem, don’t be afraid to feel that too. It is your hope and not your fear that brings feeling back.
Student: Yes.
NEBADONIA: So when these little storms of meaninglessness or emptiness come along, just ride them out. Acknowledge them for what they are—you’re just in a trough for awhile; but look out!—here comes another big wave. Meanwhile your soul is very safe and snug through it all. Just keep feeling. Just keep feeding your soul.
Student: Did You say “feeling” or “feeding?”
NEBADONIA: Both.
Student: (laughter—I will)
NEBADONIA: This is how you feed your soul, is by fearlessly feeling whatever comes your way. Michael and I are the first to acknowledge your life can be very scary indeed, but that too is part of God’s possibility, is it not?
Student: Yes.
NEBADONIA: This is part of the meaning of your human reality. Carry on, My son, you are doing fine.
Student: Thank You, Mother, thank You.
NEBADONIA: Be in My love.
Student: Hello, Mother. I wanted to follow up on that a little bit—about the soul. I was just thinking about the soul, and it’s like You read my mind. I guess You always do. I was about to ask You about the soul, and I guess it seems like if You could maybe comment on this idea that I get from the Urantia book and from my life experience, that the evolution of our soul is really the purpose of our life. It’s the thread of who we are—really the true meaning of our lives; and you can consciously evolve your soul in the ways You were talking about—through feeling, through the consciousness of feeling. But there are very different ways to go about evolving your soul, and it would behoove us to know all of these different aspects of soul-growth, and to make them part of our evolution—actually activate these different ways to grow. I wonder if You could comment on that, as a central thesis?
NEBADONIA: First, My son, I pretty much agree with your understanding of what the soul is, both as you comprehend it through the Urantia book, and your own experiences. As Michael said last week, the purpose of your life here is your experience: you are an experiential being. Your Father Fragment has the ability, being pre-personal, to literally take on your life’s experiences; and being a pure spirit presence, this co-creation is actually a Morontia reality, outside time and space as well as your personality is. Everything We teach you about being open-minded and seeing, as well as a continuity within creation, also a newness, a uniqueness in each moment of time; the perception and experience of this is what most truly feeds your soul with all that is possible—not only what is continuing, but what is unique in each day of your life, and is not repeating, and will never happen again.
(What hinders soul-growth)
So too you can ask yourself, what is the dark side? What is it that can stifle your experience of living? Obviously anything that impedes your perception and recognition of this newness, this creativity of God’s–coming down, as I said earlier, like a pouring rain–is what hinders the growth of your soul, hinders your having a full and variegated life: hence Our lessons on what habits are. Even though you might think of them as good and bad, still they are repetitive patterns of behavior often for the purpose of avoiding experience, avoiding having to decide constantly, freshly, and anew what you will do the next moment. They are lapses into dulling, reactive, semi-consciousness.
To a large degree, think of your stillness, your good meditation, as a way of fulfilling this need to relax and take a break, only now you are doing it highly consciously, and in such a way that the unconscious habits, the identifications of ego—who you think you are, who you belong to—can come up in your mind for a fresh appraisal. More choices, more consciousness, more decisions–more decisiveness is what adds to your soul.
Do you recall reading in the Urantia book the admonition that your Guardian Angel is not here to smooth your ruffled feathers, nor heal your wounded feelings, but is actually here to make life difficult for you, if necessary, to increase the number of decisions you feel you need to make? For She is interested in your immortal soul. Does this give you some more general ideas to flesh out your question?
Student: Yes, it does!—very helpful and very enriching and, if I may ask a follow-through… Suppose from how You see us, and Your point of view of our souls, each soul must be unique, and there must be many kinds of souls that evolve unique to each human; but I wonder if there are types of souls? For example, is a person who’s a highly experienced executive running a business corporation, who’s making decisions constantly, growing a soul in one way, versus a Franciscan monk living in a monastery growing his soul a different way? And as You look upon these different souls, can You say that, well, this soul is unbalanced in a particular way, and this other soul is unbalanced in another way? And would it be Your desire and Your will that people grow their souls in a balanced way, where it’s a sphere, a perfectly round sphere, rather that just half of one, or one part of it missing, with holes in it? Is that a helpful way to think about soul-growth?
(Souls cannot be categorized)
NEBADONIA: Well, My son, in a word: no. (much laughter, especially the student involved—then: OK) I hesitate to mention another word because it is more properly a full discourse for another evening: but what you are pointing at is mostly what We would think of as “mentalities.” As you know, a mentality is a special way of thinking and behaving designed to accommodate a certain situation. Neither Michael, nor I, nor any of the Spiritual Community categorize souls, for We see the soul and the personality in a kind of totality, so inextricably part of each other, there is no categorization that would…stick. (Mother breaks up laughing, and is heartily joined) It would just…slide off, if you will.
The uniqueness of each personality and soul is such that you might think of them like stars in the night sky—very distinct and separate. The only categorization would be on the widest scale of, shall we say, a human soul as contra-distinct from an angelic soul—because they are different kinds or types of beings. But even then, (Mother chuckles again) the uniqueness of individuals just goes off your scale of reckoning.
Student: Oh.
NEBADONIA: For you, seeing an individual soul would be somewhat like looking into the sun. (Wow) But this is how We see you. This is part of Our glory—in being a Creator Son and a Mother Spirit.
Student: Wow.
NEBADONIA: We only wish We could share more of it with you—but: We’re trying!
Students: You sure are! We’re very grateful… (others chime in their agreement) Thank You for Your answer… Very grateful…
NEBADONIA: Thank you for the question. I’ll have that discourse on mentalities soon.
Student: OK—great!
NEBADONIA: Be in My love.
Student: Yes, Mother, about what You just discussed, about how if we looked into another person’s soul we would be like looking into the sun… That means You see us as light, and more. So in a sense, that’s how we ought to see each other. Hmmm… I’ll meditate on that tonight.
NEBADONIA: You’ll recall, My son, that is how We encourage you to see each other, as best you can. It’s intrinsically tied up with how you see yourselves, and how much you can get in touch with the spiritual story of your lives—your own souls.
Student: …getting beyond my own agenda and points of view, or what I think my own identity…what I think is real. That kind-of cuts to the chase. Hmmm…
NEBADONIA: But also, it is not all light; it is every conceivable shade because you do have this physical component you do not cherish anywhere near its supreme value. It is only after the transformation of natural death that you can fully appreciate what you once had. However full of agony your body may become at times, this too is part of your soul.
Student (with much emotion): Thank You for that. Prior to what You said earlier, I’d just wanted to thank You for my daughter, and the child growing within her. And I want to thank You for her boyfriend who is there with her. And I want to thank You for my mother, even though she doesn’t have this understanding, and worries too much about other things that don’t even exist. Just allow me to see her in the same light You see her. Thank You for my son that I love beyond words, and the various other people I come in contact with, in the community. They all seem to add to my soul, and to my experience of life—both joy and sadness. I guess I wouldn’t have it any other way. I want to thank You for the new group of people I’ve been…inquiring with—and see where that goes—opening that up for me. Thank You for Your presence within me—that I feel so strongly and intimately.
NEBADONIA (also with great emotion): Thank you, My son, for letting My Adjutant of Worship find such an expression in your heart. And so we live and we thrive in each others’ love. Continue to be in My love, My son.
(Times that fill men’s souls to overflowing)
Closing
Let us close on this very full note. As one of your great writers once said, there are times that try men’s souls. There are also times that fill men’s souls—to overflowing. Thank You, Father, for both. Thank you, My children, for feeling My love. Good evening.
Note
Dear Friends, With this transmission our group celebrates its second year in its present configuration–after our founder, Donna D’Ingillo, moved to Oakland. I want to thank all who’ve attended, most especially our regulars: Charlie Hicks, who comes over all the way from the Sacramento area every week, and helps so much with the transcribing; David Jacobs, who’s rarely missed a session; Rick Voss, now, I believe, heading up the TML get-togethers; Brian Belitsos, co-author of the book, The Center Within–one of the first books on the Teaching Mission; and Vincent Myers, another original and steadfast member, though he’s since moved back East. As I offered our thanks in my prayer, these have been unforgettable experiences that have enriched our lives beyond measure. And so we thank our divine parents most of all. Jerry]
