2007-03-13-How Do You Put an End To Crime
Marin #123
Contents
• 1 Heading
o 1.1 Topic: How Do You Put An End To Crime
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
Topic: How Do You Put An End To Crime
Group: Marin TeaM
Facilitators
Teacher: Nebadonia
TR: JL
Session
Opening
Dear Mother Spirit and Michael, After a short break we return, refreshed and extra-mindful of just how great it is to have the Teaching Mission in our lives. We get a positive reassurance when we think of how the T/R groups, and all those who will come to read the transmissions, form a spiritual community who have their faith and hope inspired by the power and truth of your words. Help us, we pray, inspire our friends and our acquaintances as you have inspired us. Amen.
NEBADONIA: Good evening, my sons, this is your spirit mother, Nebadonia. Tonight I feel I will be trying to communicate through all the shock that has gone through your society today because of the horrific event that very quickly filled all the news media, not only in your own country, but around the world. This is now a world community, at least in the more technologically advanced countries where single events are very quickly shared by a great number of people, and this is a historically unique and ongoing development with both positive and negative effects. It points at the great truth of how much human society on Urantia is becoming evermore single knit, evermore tied together by your mass communications.
Lesson
Your Urantia book does have the statement that a great hallmark of wisdom and maturity is a sense of proportion. This is most severely challenged when a seemingly meaningless event takes place, one that is all the more truly obscene for the reason a single individual can so wantonly inflict such an enormous amount of suffering on so many people. It takes a while to regain your sense of proportion, to be able to see such an event as this within a number of different contexts, and realize the proportional value it has in each.
So while we do not in any way minimize the suffering this has caused specific individuals, still and all, my children, your own sense of value and meaning requires you to fit it into some context where it does make sense, even if this means realizing and accepting with an open mind that truly evil things can happen. This can be for you a great truth of the human situation. Not only today but throughout humankind’s entire history there have been individuals who engaged in truly criminal acts, persons whose souls and minds became so twisted and full of hatred, so carried away with self-indulgence, they were willing to do horrors that were limited only by their imagination.
All through history and continuing throughout the world today, you’ve had these individuals drawn to those situations where they could mask and indulge their hatred under any number of political, social, religious, or cultural banners. These individuals are drawn to situations where they can indulge these terrible perversions of power and, in a sense, get away with inflicting suffering for no other reason than self-gratification. We ask you to see this incident that happened today in this context and realize it is not so isolated after all. It’s happening all over the world every day in far greater numbers and proportions.
Consider for a moment this is one true meaning of crime, or that species of crime that occurs with a kind of wantonness. Here I’m not speaking of simple theft of some food or shelter to get through the day. There is such a thing as gratuitous violence, violence for pure self-indulgence. As odd as it may seem, this too, my children, requires you to open your minds, open your ability to feel and accept this part of human reality.
Once again you must ask yourself: is it true? Disregarding all other considerations, what is the truth here? How can I understand it, even: what is there about this that I cannot understand, that must simply, humbly, be acknowledged? This is the way you heal yourself, and help others heal from this terrible wound inflicted upon your notions of what human beings are, and are capable of, and not in any way diminish or nonchalantly disregard real facts.
We do see evidence of this, my children, amidst all the sensationalism of the news. We do recognize a growing, genuine social consciousness and conscience. True, a very small part of this is just political correctness, knowing one cannot applaud such obscene acts, but that does not diminish the heartfelt concern within all segments of your society, including the news people, to understand and come to grips with these events, and extend genuine sympathy and comfort to the injured and the families of the slain. There is a desire to understand why it happened, and to hope for some way, some means by which an individual so minded could be reached in time to prevent another occurrence.
Let me repeat, this one act, preplanned and deliberately carried out, is surrounded by a million-million-fold of genuine love and caring and concern for everyone affected. So we ask you to see that proportion and, with that understanding, open your heart further to those around the world to whom this is almost a daily occurrence, whatever the ostensible guise or reason.
Today you had a very shocking demonstration of how truly single-knit human society is becoming, of how close–spiritually speaking–it is to a single living body. Just as within your own organism there is a great need for a careful, loving consideration of every part, so there must be within society an outreach, especially to those criminally-minded souls festering and self-seemingly thriving within themselves on hatred and anger. Reach out to them, open your hearts to feel their pain. Question too all those various elements in your society, your mass media and, perhaps, even your own soul, that thrive on the thrill of violence, or passively accept it.
Wonder anew and afresh, how do you put an end to crime, this preying of one individual on another, on every scale? For this too is a highly complex challenge to you all. Begin by being as able to respond as you can within your own life. But above all, my children, keep your hearts open, keep feeling for the answer. Stay in touch with the presence of God within you, to inspire you to cut through the maze of conflicting notions. Open your hearts to Michael’s Spirit of Truth to help you find the way forward.
If you have any questions or comments this evening, I open myself to receive them.
Dialogue
Student: I have no questions, Mother, just once again I thank you, and Father Michael, and all of your beings who are in my life, for giving me support, and giving this world support. Thank you.
NEBADONIA: You are very welcome, my son. This is our greatest pleasure, and our great purpose. We delight so when you can feel it. Be in my love.
Student: Hello, Mother. Thank you for being here tonight. I recently read an article about crime in America, and it said—amazingly—that the crime rate has gone down drastically in the last fifteen years or so, and it’s not well understood why. We do know that many more people, almost twice as many, are in prison, but it is not known if that is the sole reason. Also the article stated how tragic the prison system is, with many who are only drug offenders, with crowded conditions, and especially the lack of any rehabilitation training. It also said that about six percent of the population is responsible for most major crime, and it is kind-of built into society. Anyway, I was just citing some of these things and I wondered if you have any comment about them?
NEBADONIA: Yes. Human beings often tend to separate themselves along lines of short-term and long-term solutions to the problem of crime. We can only hope these two camps get together and arrive at a more humane way of incorporating both viewpoints. For example, it is true that in the short term you can indiscriminately lock up a lot of folks and have a temporary drop in the crime rate, but without rehabilitation you are actually creating a regressive, dog-eat-dog jungle in your prisons. You have to wonder what kind of people you are creating, who will be released some day.
In terms of justice, you can assert your right of self defense, but again the wisdom of proportion must enter the picture. This is obvious when you realize it is not just to seriously injure someone with, shall we say, a gun or a ball bat, who is merely trying to steal a bicycle. You are slowly accepting this concept of proportional response. And your point is very well taken of separating out those who are addicted to physical violence upon their fellows, from those guilty of petty crime, even though the latter do cause suffering. You need to make this distinction, and save your incarceration for those who are truly dangerous.
One of the great long-term challenges facing every society is the problem of providing worth-while employment. That alone would have the greatest impact on crime. But that, coupled with a genuine social acceptance of the great need, the great quality of life to be had in good employment, plus a kind of social discipline and insistence upon it, can only come about when it is provided. You cannot insist upon something that does not exist.
If you think about it, to say there is a lack of good work to be done, is absurd. We even approached, one time, the seeming paradox there is in humanity as a whole almost some weird fear of paradise, or utopia—the changes that would require. This is the true measure of what has developed since the revolt of Lucifer, and how things went so terribly awry because of it. You students of history, consider for a while the enormous productivity of the human race gone not only to offensive warfare but defensive preparations as well.
Think of those enormous stone walls built around cities. Think of the great fleets of ships, the great armies, continuing up to the present day. Think of the hundreds of millions of lives lost not only in direct combat, but ten times as many in all the collateral effects of starvation and death from disease and exposure. It staggers your imagination to consider what the world might have been, or even could be in a very short while, if all this criminal activity, and the defenses against it, were put to constructive, lasting and enduring, beneficial effect.
And so we get back to our lessons on how even crime and conflict and warfare do give meaning to peoples’ lives on all sides of any event. The only way out of this going on into the future is for individuals to open to other possibilities—grow their ability to let the past be the past—appreciate it for all it has given you—but then hope and prepare for a better tomorrow, and work toward that; accept the enormous changes implied. It is quite a challenge, is it not? It is one every individual faces, because that totality of humankind is only all the individuals. This is why love, and hope, and creativity, are the only ways out. Does that fulfill your quest, my son?
Student: In the broadest possible way! Love, hope, and creativity…thank you.
NEBADONIA: You are very welcome. Be in my love.
Student: Mother, I just heard you say the word creativity, and that applies directly to why we’re seeing so much senseless violence in our educational institutions. It seems there has been an effort to stifle creativity, especially in this country, and allow only a few creative possibilities. The rest are trained to be obedient to those who hold the power. So when I hear things like this happening more and more, it becomes clear we have to find a way to allow the individual more creative freedom in their education, so they don’t become so hopeless, they don’t get so far from who they truly are. They could learn how to foster their own creativity.
Sometimes it becomes very difficult to continue to have hope when I see so much deteriorating at such a rapid pace everywhere I look. But thank you for bringing up such a difficult subject this evening. We are faced with this on such a daily basis world-wide—this kind of senseless violence between us. I would hope this is very rare in the universe—a planet that gets to this point of such high technology with such unnecessary violence. I know it must hurt you. I’ve often wondered how you are able to deal with the pain of watching your children continually do this to one another. I myself have a very difficult time dealing with it—most of the time. I wonder how you deal with it on such a broad scale?
NEBADONIA: Well, my son, to answer your question, we do it as we ask you to—by opening our hearts and feeling, right along with our children, what they are suffering. This is our promise to you: we will not abandon you; we will not forsake you. Your experience is our experience.
We very rarely bring up in this context your life to come, for we do not wish to minimize your suffering in our regard. But it is nevertheless a great truth, my son, that with respect to your ongoing life, even in the first few Mansion Worlds, let alone your continuing development in your Local System, and Constellation, and on Salvington here with us; with respect to all of this, it is a great truth that your first human life is, by comparison, but a short while of very intense challenge and response.
As to the cause of any smothering of creativity: it is unavoidably a matter of courage. Whenever administrators or teachers opt for control over nurturing creativity, you are simply face to face with a lack or nerve. This is why we once challenged you to think of a world in which you have very creative, self-fulfilled and self-determining individuals, spiritual individuals with a high sense of social responsibility. To many folks this is a recipe for chaos. They simply have no faith in their fellows. They can only think of peace on earth in terms of ever greater control, relying upon a kind of universality of weakness, an inability for violence. Which, unfortunately—actually fortunately, from our point of view—this is an impossibility. This is why we say, More power to you. Hopefully there is a dawning recognition that some of the most horrific and obscene acts done all through history have been done by truly pitiful individuals who were willing to sacrifice anyone else just to assuage their own sense of powerlessness.
And so, my son, understanding this, and taking it to heart, can only encourage you to keep your faith, and your hope, alive. Do your best to inspire those around you with your example. Don’t be discouraged. There is a good fight here to be fought. There is always good work to be done. Be profoundly thankful for that. Ultimately that is what counts. Is there any more you would wish to add?
Student: I would just like to thank you for your words of encouragement.
NEBADONIA: You are very welcome. You truly wish to see things clearly; just be aware of how your own attitude and situation sometimes color everything you perceive. It may not always be quite as bad as it seems. This is that increasing sense of morality your personality is capable of. But also you have to welcome it, and recognize it, as it begins to pervade all aspects of your life. This is why Michael and I will be there beside you every step, helping you determine the next one to take. So be in my love.
Student: Yes, Mother, I was thinking back to a conversation the Dalai Lama had with his teacher who had been imprisoned for twenty years, and tortured, by the Chinese. He asked his teacher, What was the most difficult thing you had to overcome? And his teacher said to him, that I would never loose compassion for the Chinese. That seems to ring so true and important for our own age. It’s like when Jesus forgave all those who tortured him—for they knew not what they did. If they had known the truth, the value, their own self-worth, and other’s as well… It seems like the idea of value, human value, has been lost.
I also remember Kahil Gilbran, in The Prophet, mentioned that the person who perpetuates crime is also the one who is a victim himself. Somewhere along the line his sense of value has been lost. You mentioned the sense of powerlessness, so if one goes around feeling powerless, we see their actions as trying to get power.
With the idea of rehabilitation, it seems even if a prisoner does try, the system is stacked against him. Just recently a man who was rehabilitated to the point of writing children’s stories was executed anyway. That seems to be happening a lot, unfortunately. And race is involved in this too. So these are things I look at, and read about. With what went on at Virginia Tech…we seem to have a taste for savagery. We all stop to look at an accident along the highway. Our media is full of violence. It’s like no wonder these things happen.
You or Michael said to me, just be a person. And I think that is what has been lost. People have forgotten how to just be human beings. And that could be taught in our schools.
NEBADONIA: Yes, my son, I think I will repeat my lesson tonight about a sense of proportion, and caution you not to buy into the sensationalistic media, nor let it in any way distort your deeper feelings and experiences of your own day to day life. There is an essence of human drama that is drawn to meaning in the sense of something irrevocable. This might sound a bit abstract, but consider that you are all, perhaps not cynically, but nevertheless doubtful that everyone lives happily ever after. Even great wealth, or happiness, have very definite temporal limits and can all be lost, whereas those terrible injuries in life—loosing a loved one, having your body maimed in some irreparable way—this is unquestionably meaningful because it is permanent. Happiness is fleeting, but if you loose an arm or a leg, that’s forever—human-wise.
This leads to the tendency of the news to be drawn toward that part of life to focus on loss and suffering. But my whole point this evening was, surrounding that one evil individual were the millions showing a genuine concern and love for those affected. It is because of this melodramatic slant of the news, you have to disregard it and stay with your own life and all the good people you know, all the creativity that makes a puzzle of why social evolution is not happening even more quickly than it seems. We can only assure you that from a spiritual standpoint, it is. So don’t be beguiled by this melo-drama. Stay close to the real drama of own life and those you know. Realize the enormous amount of love and sharing, and caring, that occurs in every human society.
It is true there are those who loose their way, or were never presented with it to begin with. If you loose your sense of value—that is spirit, that is the source of creativity. There are many folks who have never experienced how to create their way out of their difficulties. And there is a kind of fall-back mechanism evolved over the millions of years of your planetary existence, both in the higher animals and then as human beings—there is this fallback of just doing what you already know, what worked yesterday.
So you are correct, my son, these individuals who loose their spirit never experience what it is to create their way forward. And that is the only thing that can truly rehabilitate them. They need to experience what it is to create something that was not there before. If you could multiply that by most of the population, you would be in an age of Light and Life. Just be careful of your own galloping generalizations. Don’t loose sight of the enormous creativity, and love, and caring, that really is carrying this world forward day to day. Have some appreciation for these paradoxes, these stumbling blocks to human reasoning that stifle so many. Look through them and see how so many are trying to do the right thing. It is what keeps your hope alive, and based on that spiritual fact.
Don’t sell yourselves, or each other, short. Does this make sense to you, my son?
Student: Oh yes, it does! And there are individuals, and groups, helping through grass-root efforts rehabilitate those in need. I saw on television where some who have committed horrific crimes—murder—are meeting face to face with the families of those who were killed, and confronting their forgiveness. That was so rewarding and uplifting to see—that communication, that experience. So there is hope—as you said. Thank you.
Closing
NEBADONIA: You are certainly welcome, my son. Be in my love.
It takes time, my children, time to regain your sense of proportion—at times. So don’t be in a hurry. Seek out your stillness, just to let your spirit and soul expand to encompass even these horrific events. It helps you avoid any overly-facile generalizations, and retain the uniqueness of the individuals involved. That complexity is the true understanding, and you can expand to encompass and embrace it. It invites you to grow, and use your own creativity to capture—for yourself—the meaning and the value you can hold. This is the challenge before you, and before everyone: how to totally accept, even appreciate, everything that is happening, and still go forward, still meet your neighbor with good cheer and be that person—as you remind us—be that complete person standing there for the both of you. Be in my love. Good evening.
