2006-11-13-Ripples in Spirit, Being Human
Marin #110
Contents
• 1 Heading
o 1.1 Topic: Ripples in Spirit, Being Human
o 1.2 Group: Marin 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 Dialogue
o 3.4 Closing
Topic: Ripples in Spirit, Being Human
Group: Marin TeaM
Facilitators
Teacher: Michael
TR: JL
Session
Opening
Dear Michael and Mother Spirit, We welcome you to our gathering-in tonight to once again feel your presence and hear your words of good cheer and inspiration. I recently had a tenacious bout of the flu and, right in the middle of it, without any energy or gumption to do anything, I found great strength and comfort in rereading some of your previous lessons. So I thank you again for all you have given us of your viewpoints—the viewpoints of a Creator Son and Mother Spirit, reassuring us we are more than just this somewhat fragile, fleeting, changing awareness of ourselves. Amen.
MICHAEL: Good evening, my children, this is Michael, your spiritual father. Mother Spirit and I thank you in return for using us, for as we have reassured you so many times before, your trust in us, your reaching to us for help, for strength, for reassurance of the wonderful and rather complex kind of beings you are; all this adds to our delight in being your dear and loving parents. So yes, please, by all means, use us. Come to us in your stillness. Just feel our presence in your mind, in your heart, in your super-consciousness, and right in your feelings. Please do reread our lessons. We hope they are not only singularly meaningful to you, but they are structured so as to support each other and lead you step by step into a fuller comprehension of God’s ways and his will for all of us.
Lesson
It is our main purpose, my children, to play the part of spirit, to be loyal children ourselves of our universal Father, and join in and augment his down-reach, just as we too down-reach to you, anticipating and encouraging your up-reach to us, so that you may have life, and have it more abundantly.
(Ah!—being human)
You are really complex beings, and the sequence by which each of you becomes aware of what you are is not exactly preordained, but does follow a regular pattern. We mentioned in a recent lesson how you are accompanied and assisted by representatives of the Trinity—myself representing the Eternal Son, pouring out upon you my unique spirit, the Spirit of Truth, to become part of your mentality giving you a hunger and drive to discover ever larger realms of what is true. Mother Spirit represents the Third Person of the Trinity, the Infinite Spirit, her Mind Adjutants, distinct dimensions of her consciousness, directing the evolution of life on the planets–which you recapitulate in the womb; and then from the moment you are born, as you recapitulate the history of your race, her adjutants, one by one, help you think, and understand, give you a gregarious impulse with respect to each other, and the courage to seek out this new world surrounding you–until you grow into that moment when her adjutants of wisdom and worship can inaugurate you into your first moral decision, at which moment your receive a Thought Adjuster, the presence of God himself, and become even as a small child super-minded.
Yet even before these exterior spiritual influences, my children, your very being is reflective of the Trinity. Your personality, which we define as your essential reality, the unique cosmic reality that you are, like no other in all of existence, this personality is a creation of God. Then this creation of God the Father is bequeathed a spiritual nature from the Eternal Son, the Second Person of Deity. You are not only part of God’s personality circuit, you are also a part of the Eternal Son’s spiritual circuit. And then you are minded, you are extended a portion of the Infinite Spirit’s mindedness—the Cosmic Mind, just as part of your intrinsic nature, the kind of being you are. This mind’s main purpose is to link your spiritual personality with a physical body that is also unique. I’m sure you’ve all seen pictures of the once rather large families of your particular culture, and have marveled at how among a dozen brothers and sisters there is both such a family resemblance, and yet too how each face is unique: each physical person is unique. Even identical twins are ever so slightly physically unique.
So right in the kinds of beings that you are—in personality, and spirit, and mind, you portray the gifts of all three of the absolute, existential Beings. This is what every human being is, and on Urantia, ever since Pentecost when I released my Spirit of Truth to the whole planet, as distinct from before this time, now every normal-minded human being receives a Thought Adjuster. As of Pentecost, the planet Urantia took a giant step forward into its potential future.
(The sequence of discovery)
It is by thoroughly understanding and appreciating the sequence of events of how every newborn child acquires its mental and spiritual abilities, yet how these are so nearly-totally colored by the family and the larger culture into which he or she is born, can you understand how my Spirit of Truth, Mother Spirit’s Adjutants of Wisdom and Worship, and even God’s fragment of pure spirit within the human mind, can get quite buried by years and years of childhood habituation to that culture, to this particular time in the development of your planetary civilization. So much so that the Godly gift of free will arising from a true individualization, standing alone and essentially apart from all these years and years of conditioning; this hallmark of true maturity is not easily won. And this is especially true for so much of the world in which this goal of independent thinking, genuinely spontaneous spiritual creativity, is not even acknowledged to be possible to strive for. This becomes another great purpose of Mother Spirit and I–to introduce–along with all our other spiritual children whose messages you are receiving through these transmissions.
(Being eclectic)
You term this maturity as being eclectic, and we encourage you, my children, to reach for that supernal goal. By all means explore. Fill your minds with as many different versions of the truth as your hearts desire, your minds are willing to embrace, and your spirits thrill in the discovery. For every human being has a Thought Adjuster, a presence of God within them, doing his pure spiritual best to inform them, to guide them into ever greater spirit. Still, this has to find expression in each individual mind–individually. In this the story of the tower of Babel is merely symbolic of the reality that everybody, to some degree, speaks their own language, comprehends by way of their own concepts. Yet here is precisely where your own Thought Adjuster, and my Spirit of Truth, and Mother Spirit’s Adjutant of Wisdom can help you recognize–as it were behind the words—another person’s more fundamental meaning.
This is the ability you are all slowly growing, an ability to apprehend and appreciate another person’s soul, what they mean by, as you say, where they are coming from; what is their own history of experiencing spiritual truths. And this is quite a challenge. Just think: how do you bring about a one world of peace and harmony while at the same time not loosing anything of everyone’s past? Otherwise you would end up with some kind of cartoon caricature missing all the detail of the true history of the planet. There is only one way out, for you as an individual, for you all as a world civilization. You have to keep growing. At one and the same time, as you take in more and more of each other’s cultures and past experiences, if you keep discovering those true spiritual values that unite humankind, and grow your ability to understand them, to comprehend them, to encompass it all in a meaningful way, you will discover ever more your own limitless personality, your own mental abilities, your own all-embracing spiritual nature.
It is happening. The possibility is now bright before you . Now that goal of spiritual spontaneity and creativity beckons to you. Enjoy it well, my children. It is the very essence of joy. This is the reward of the ages, what the ages have labored to produce. Just think: all your planet’s human past is real. It really happened. And it lead to here. This is your wealth, my children. Value it well. Stretch to encompass it. There is no limit that can be put upon your personality, your mind, and your spirit. This is something you can know, you can experience, you can embrace and treasure. This is our purpose in reaching out to you, and it is our thrill when you respond.
Now do you have any questions along these, or any other lines?
Dialogue
Student: I have a question about the process of learning how to undo guilt. Why are so many people buried in guilt? Is it truly the cause of most of our own suffering.
(Undoing guilt)
MICHAEL: Yes, my daughter, guilt is both a naturally occurring phenomena, but even more, just one more thing you pick up with your cultural conditioning. We see the main function of guilt as a kind of self-motivating technique. It is a way of critiquing what you have done, coming to a conclusion this was not very well done at all, and then preventing yourself from doing it again. But insofar as it is introduced to you at a very early age, you more or less absorb it as a fall-back technique, something that, like so many other things you’ve learned, is best dealt with by replacing it with something better. Guilt is mostly another species of habituation, an only half-conscious way of feeling bad about something so you don’t do it again. As such it can even be an indulgence, a way of atoning, a price you pay rather than…what?
I ask you this for it leads to a solution. To get out of guilt you have to be decisive. You have to very consciously accept the effort involved in thoroughly understanding what you were trying to do, and what went wrong—thoroughly understand the situation. Pull guilt up out of those unconscious depths of a fall-back technique and make some decisions. This gets you out of the realm of guilt as a substitute for action. And this, my daughter, I think is where you intuit guilt does its greatest damage by allowing you to wallow in indecisiveness, indulging a habit of feeling bad about something, feeling rightfully more and more helpless in the face of the need to decide.
So the way out does take courage to reopen old wounds and follow truth wherever it leads and, to mix metaphors, let the chips fall where they may—just so it’s true—all those complex issues involved. This forms the basis for the understanding upon which your decisions will be made. In this sense, my daughter, a decision is action. Even if you fail again in carrying it out, you can decide again. You can exercise your determination like an atrophied muscle and glory in feeling it coming back, gaining strength, living decisively, finally seeing and accepting guilt as a kind of indulgence, like the anger we once talked about. Does this help you see the process?
Student: It’s very well put, and helpful for me. I’ve been watching myself pull away from guilt. I‘ve watched myself move into days of guiltless action, and I feel very good that I’ve had a string of days in which there is nothing to feel guilty about. Now I’m seeing myself having extreme amounts of joy for no reason. It’s like I’m in love with life, and so I’m finding all this contentment. I read a transcript of yours saying, now don’t just seek contentment, seek to also make an impact. So these little stages of growth I see myself go through, I can look at (Name) and say, how can you still live with all that guilt? But of course I’ve been working on my own for four years. So it’s very helpful—the word decision. I made a decision to forgive myself, for mistakes.
But if we feel we’ve done things to harm another, but it was just—as you’ve said—the sheer self-indulgence of anger and hatred we kind-of get used to—could some of that stem from, say, childhood things—even things you have no recall of? Perhaps that meanness of spirit that came out towards someone else was directly related to something that happened to us we can’t recall?
(Trauma and conditioning)
MICHAEL: Very much so, my daughter. This is why Mother Spirit and I have asked you from time to time to consider the thousands and thousands of hours in which you just absorbed what was around you as a very small child, before you had more than a rudimentary self-consciousness. This is when you often learned, maybe not through some traumatic experience that happened to you directly, but where you picked up the habit of anger just as a way of life, guilt as a way of dealing with mistakes. To your young mind this was what a human being was, and did. This is why those in a more modern society with a larger group of playmates and different families to contact are somewhat blessed compared to very primitive societies where the whole tribe will be of a certain mentality of anger and revenge and retribution, where life was almost an incessant warfare with the surrounding tribes: and completely unquestioned. This was what life was.
So yes, these habits may stem from experiences way before your self-awareness, your memories, kicked in; and it could also be just copying the behavior of those around you.
Student: I even went through experiencing a little bit of guilt recently about feeling so good for no reason, and so I’m kind-of letting go of that, and I’m really enjoying this joy, this level of excitement and appreciation of life. I think my connection with the Urantia book, and the study groups— however I got thrown in with these people—someone gave me the book years ago— I’m really valuing it now, and appreciating that I’ve gotten to this point. I’ve learned to stop blaming my patents and the dysfunctional family I lived in, and tried to understand they didn’t have the tools to nurture me at that time. So now I’m learning to nurture myself, and coming here is such a highlight I just…(heavy sigh)…getting to the point where I’m really making an impact in other peoples’ lives, so other people can look at it this way—for no reason. (laughs)
(Just keep bubbling over)
MICHAEL: Well, my daughter, just keep bubbling over! (much laughter) This is the generosity of spirit we encourage and appreciate so much. This is that accepting all the karma that was handed to you and deeply, deeply forgiving those who may have harmed you. Contrary to those who say, forgive and forget, it actually requires a deep remembering–an ever deeper opening of memories, and then, as you get more and more spiritually spontaneous, and relax even more, little bright moments of your soul can come out and allow you for a few precious moments to relive experiences of your past more fully than what your memories can provide. With these reassurances that your soul is there, that nothing is lost, comes a profound appreciation for—all–you’ve experienced—the good and the bad, the ups and the downs, the pain and the joy. It all becomes of a piece, and that totality is your personality. It is an eternal possession of yours, my daughter. This is your soul. So keep bubbling over. Let it wash you clean, and healed, and whole.
Student: I truly feel wealthy.
MICHAEL: Amen to that. It seems you’ve found a bit of my peace.
Student: Thank you very much. I’m just honored to be here.
MICHAEL: And I am most honored to welcome you. Welcome home. As I said before, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. (much laughter)
Student: Well, if I’m having this much fun now, and I can have more fun than this, I’m really looking forward to freeing up my mind even more.
MICHAEL: Yes. Be in my peace.
Student: Yes, Michael, as usual there are a number things I would love to discuss with you. The first is noticing how a little being like my daughter’s daughter, Chatelaine, can affect so many people’s lives directly and indirectly, just in being born. The immediate impact is on my daughter and her boyfriend, and me, but also her mother and my mother. My daughter’s boyfriend, Dan, had to move in with me, and so the roommates he lived with have to move away too and meet new friends and roommates; and it goes on and on. Also the roommate who lived with us, I had to ask to move to find a new place, so she will have a new roommate and new friends, and new experiences. It’s just interesting, like throwing a pebble in a pond–the ripple effect. So it’s just interesting watching how this little bundle of awareness has such an impact.
What I’ve noticed for myself over the past few months is kind of gradual weaning from the constrictions of the world–the points of view of the world that I live in. I’m opening up to a different, broader, and healthier perspective of my place; in a sense, using the idealism and vision that is innate within me. I’ve noticed a different way of being, of living. I’m more at ease in being. I’m not saying I don’t have my moments (laughs) of unease, but that’s only because I’m holding on to a point of view that no longer works for me.
So it’s interesting how all that I have come to understand through my own introspection, and my connection with You and Mother and the Teaching Mission, how it seems to be taking hold. It’s not so abstract; it’s becoming more concrete, and real. I feel more real, more aware of awareness.
(Ripples in spirit)
MICHAEL: Well, my son, you gave me a wonderful picture in your analogy of a ripple effect. I envisioned a pond so absolutely still on a bright sunny day that you forget it is water. All you can see is the clouds overhead scurrying by on the surface. So it seems that you are looking through some kind of transparent dimension into the sky itself with its clouds flying by. Then you drop in a pebble and all of a sudden you become aware of water. It’s not the sky. These ripples are in something that only a moment before was transparent.
So with your little granddaughter landing upon you, you perceive all these ripples of life going out to all the folks involved. And this does give you a sense of a very real connecting dimension that is usually transparent–what we call spirit–the dimension that is tying everyone together no matter how disparate they are, or even unknown to each other. These ripples and counter-ripples and counter-counter-ripples are all bouncing back and forth and influencing each other. In your moments of stillness you can sense all these ripples bouncing around inside your mind–all a wonderful appreciation of the interconnected-ness.
Then they subside and are still, until once again you have just one single transparent spirit—God–including everything invisibly, until another creation of his springs forth and sets the ripples to going again. And so these invisible dimensions of his become palpable, even concrete, and very real. And since they are not other-than-you, so do you. This is true spiritual growth, not some negative will-of-the-wisp yearning that might get it going. The real thing itself is quite palpable.
Student: The word that came to mind was responsibility, because if my little granddaughter can affect so many people, just by being born, how I live my life and how I treat others also has a ripple effect. That’s so important for people to understand–how I treat another human being, say in a positive, loving and nurturing way, then they’ll go forth and treat the next person hopefully in the same way, and so on, like with my own children.
MICHAEL: Yes. This is the power of creativity. This is the power of initiating these good things yourself–just out of your own spirit.
Student: I guess that’s the definition of service, because I desire to be a benefit to those around me in my community and my society. I desire to be of service, and have many ripples.
MICHAEL: And the marvelous thing is these ripples are a reward in themselves because they become extensions of you that you can experience, you can feel. Also note how this particular ripple of your granddaughter was welcomed. Our hearts go out for those children who are immediately suppressed, who are not welcomed, who are seen as some kind of curse or terrible fate. This is where our hearts are called forth and our services are all the more needed, just to understand what has happened to those who are raised in such a suppression of these joyous ripples. So be all that much more thankful, my son, that you can perceive and appreciate the goodness going out and bouncing around. You can envision the possibility, the pure potential in such a small creature. Now you get to relive your own childhood through her, as she reminds you of all the stages you came through, once upon a time.
Student: That’s interesting too because I always remember You and Mother Spirit saying, we cannot anticipate the future. She was not anticipated, but I wouldn’t trade her, or my daughter, or my son for anything in the world, because it’s just marvelous. Like I said to you at another time, I have no idea where my future is taking me, where I am going. All I have is this moment, and the love that I have. I have no idea!
MICHAEL: But you can begin to trust and have faith in that spontaneity of creativity.
Student: That’s what’s changed within me. I sense I’m no longer seeking so much as I’m really being. I know I’m always growing and becoming more each and every moment–whatever that is. But I have a sense of trust, that I’m OK, that I am going to be OK. That’s what’s changed and grown within me. It’s a kind of freeing thought that I have no idea where I’m going, but I also know that God and the universe is ultimately in my best interest. I talked to myself the other day as I was listening to all this negative stuff on the radio because I realized this planet can be heaven. This planet is supposed to be heaven!
(Earning your spiritual triumphs)
MICHAEL: Well, my son, these are those spiritual triumphs that, once you begin to embrace them, even to encompass them, you can with a little bit of irony, perhaps, sincerely thank our Father that he did require you to earn them. You have repaid his trust by exercising your abilities. And there is true joy in this without getting a swelled head, for it leads to an even greater amount of humility. You realize that, as big as you’ve found the universe so far, you do have this inkling (laughs), this suspicion: it’s going to get an awful lot bigger.
Student: Yes. And I welcome that. But in terms of the swelled head, I know that will not happen because I was just a moment away of possibly destroying my life—a perception away. So I always have that in the back of my mind, knowing that my life could have gone in a totally different direction, where I could have lost everything. This is why I have empathy for all those who suffer. So thank you for our conversations. I was going to bring up something else about the difference between the Buddha and Jesus, but we can wait for another time–the Buddha Mind and Christ Consciousness, so to speak.
MICHAEL: Take it from me, Gautama Siddhartha—some of you know him as Sakyamuni—he and I are old friends indeed. So let your joy be boundless, even if you get a twinge of guilt as a kind of brake. (laughs)
Student: No, I’ve got over that, but I also know that I allow myself to feel pain and things; I don’t run away from that. And sometimes I don’t even try to understand it, but just allow myself to experience it and live through it, especially if I see the suffering of children around me.
MICHAEL: Yes, the word is experience–to accept that you are this experiential nodule out here in time and space. This is your most fundamental purpose, just to experience all you can; to do your best to welcome it, whatever it is, wherever it leads, wherever you are able to lead it. This is your wealth. This is why God created you. For even like him, you are moment-to-moment complete, and yet too, like him, you can be more and more replete–forever.
This is your true destiny. As I said earlier, this growing by experience is the one way out of any temporal dilemma. This is where the universe–God’s creation itself–points. This is the way it, and he are going. So we welcome you.
Closing
Mother sends her Love, and I bid you to find, and thoroughly enjoy my peace within you. Good evening.
