2005-01-10-A Bubble of Familiarity
Marin #30
Contents
1Heading
1Topic: Bubble of Familiarity
2Group: Marin TeaM
2Facilitators
1Teacher: Nebadonia
2TR: JL
3Session
1Opening Prayer
2Lesson
3Dialogue
4Closing
4Editorial Note
Topic: Bubble of Familiarity
Group: Marin TeaM
Facilitators
Teacher: Nebadonia
TR: JL
Session
Opening Prayer
Dear Michael and Mother Spirit, Welcome. It is wonderful when You visit us like this. We feel very blessed just to be alive at this time, this Correcting Time, when You and Your different celestial children have chosen, and are able to help turn this old world around. We thank you very, very much. Amen.
Lesson
Nebadonia: Good evening, My dear children. This is your mother, Nebadonia. I welcome you and thank you for coming to meet Me on this wintry evening. It’s always a great time when we go through some small or even large adventure just to be with our dear friends again. It makes the meeting just that much more special.
What can we give to each other at times like these? How can we add to and appreciate the feelings of friendship? How can we continue to see each other anew each time? We are all changing and growing, even Michael and I. How can we welcome this change, especially for those of you who inhabit a physical body that very definitely changes, in a society that does not always welcome this change? What is this special gift that long time friends have for each other? Could it be that, when you are open to it, you can begin to see another’s soul? Wouldn’t this be a wonderful thing to be able to experience, in spite of whatever physical changes are being wrought by chance and circumstance – to see how we are all growing?
Isn’t this a facet or quality of love? Not only that two old friends can see each other as they once were in younger days, see the ageless quality, the vibrant quality of life itself, but also see the growing depth of wisdom? Isn’t this truly something wonderful to bring to each other, to be able to perceive and share? This is the everlasting possession that you are capable of giving away joyfully, and by doing so, make a discovery – that in giving yourself away, there is more of you. For as we have looked at before, there’s a great spiritual giving of yourself in setting aside your own self-consciousness to really take in what your friend wants to give to you.
This is the encompassing of love. This is the connection that adds to both parties, enriches both parties, strengthens both parties. Love makes possible a self-honesty that enables you to give to another a kind of transcendent truth which, ironically enough, is the most practical, useful thing you can do for another. There is nothing so precious as the truth of what you have found that really works in your life, especially from one generation to another – in both directions, older to younger and younger to older. This appreciation lets each generation know how the world is changing, and how each generation has different challenges to face. So this is a kind of ideal meeting of souls and it demands a type of courage to just be.
Do you remember a short while ago My invitation to you to find a way of appreciating the enormity of just pure existence? Sometimes this can only be found by letting go so many notions of “living it up,’” for from the viewpoint of finding value only in that which is extraordinary, just existing seems to be almost nothing, a kind of dull failure of not finding something better to do. And certainly there is nothing wrong with excitement, from time to time, nothing wrong with extraordinary events. But when you get together with your dear friends, isn’t the most precious quality one of being who you are in the most fundamental way, being able to relax and enjoy each others company in this encompassing of love that allows the real, underlying God-created uniqueness of each personality to shine forth?
In these circumstances where all kinds of self-aggrandizing, ego-inflating pressures or desires are set aside, you have a chance to rediscover anew not only who your friends are this time, but who you are as well. This is a kind of stillness meditation or tuning in to a spiritual level of your human reality, no matter how active or busy you may choose to be with your friends. For this loving encompassing transcends and can support any activity. This is the true meaning of a spiritual brotherhood, for it matters not what each individual believes when each has achieved such a level of self-confidence and self-knowledge that they have gone beyond needing to prove any facet of themselves whatsoever. In these circumstances you are capable of the light-hearted, joyful, loving, teasing kind of sharing We have been inviting you to experience.
Think of yourselves as usually, in your own personal lives, going along encapsulated in a self-generated bubble of familiarity that is so traditional in human behavior as to be invisible. A bubble of familiarity: think about this idea. This is what Michael and I have been inviting you to burst. We are saying, the adventure We offer you to experience is this close, is what is around you right now – physically, and it is what is coming at you, moment to moment every day of your life. This adventure is not something you have to imagine or invent, but rather something you need to welcome by suspending this invented bubble of familiarity that you are so accustomed to.
Does this example or illustration help you understand what it is We are offering? It is to this effect that we have suggested daily mini-meditations, these breaks in the habits of your days, especially for those of you who have regular family or work routines where you somehow feel the need to do the same familiar thing at a certain time of day. Here’s where your small stillness periods can help break up the habit – but! – only if they themselves, the little meditations, do not become just another habit. The stillness meditations are really working when they help you realize this moment never happened before, and it will not happen again.
Now if you can greet and experience your dear long-time friends in this same way, what a gift you have to offer: renewal of both of you. So when you meet the next time, see if you can detect all the subtle little signals you may be sending out to reassure them that you have not changed; and just relax these signals, just let them drop away. See if you can welcome the challenge of exchanging something fresh and new, even if it may cause a momentary estrangement or even some slight anxiety in not knowing who you or they are – this time. You’re making some small space in which something unique to this moment can happen.
This, My children, is what you can fill your days with, so that at the end of any period of time, however short or long, you can know deep in your soul you have really lived. This is the real love We wish to share with you. This is a gift of the possible. This is the achievement of the real. This is how you fill your soul to overflowing.
Dialogue
If you have any questions or comments this evening, I am always delighted to share these new moments with you.
Student: Mother, my curiosity has come to mind when You said that You and Michael are also growing. Can You be more…explain that more fully – what You mean by that? How do You grow? How does Michael grow at this point?
Nebadonia: Yes, My son, I understand your curiosity. Everything in that realm of creation you know most generally as time and space is growing. Physically the Master Universe is still growing, not only in the levels of outer space, but right within the old, established Superuniverses as well – there is still materialization. As you have been informed in your textbook, our Local Universe has a sometime potential of ten million inhabited planets, of which we are not even to the halfway point of this “maturity” yet. If you want to think of it in a humorous sense, Michael and I are just passing out of being teenagers. And as it is My joy, My very nature, to support through My dimensions of mind-spirit adjutants the mental activities of not only these evolutionary worlds, but all the architectural spheres and all the hosts of different orders of beings, angels and such, you can see how Michael and I are growing constantly in personal mental realms as well as physical.
And so like you, My son, We are growing in experience because none of this has ever happened before. As I have been encouraging you to realize this evening, in the realm of ever purer spirit, there’s nothing familiar in the human sense of clinging to an illusion of changeless-ness. Now multiply Us by seven hundreds of thousands. Multiply our Local Universe by seven hundreds of thousands. Add in all the greater administrative and ministering beings up through the seven Superuniverse levels, and you still have only a part of that aspect of God we call the Supreme Being. And He too is growing with us, as us. And even this, My son, only partly answers your question. But does it give you some idea of how Michael and I are constantly growing – just to keep up with all this continuous creation?
Student: Yes, Mother, it does. It seems that You grow through experience – through our experiences and your relationship to these experiences. I guess it would be impossible for me to really truly understand how You experience growth because we are two entirely different beings. But yes it does. It does give me a better understanding of how You and Michael experience growth.
Nebadonia: Over the last several weeks We have tried to help you realize what, as Michael said once, can appear to be a contradiction or impossibility. It stems from the very nature of God and His creation itself, because at each instant of time all of God’s creation is complete. It is standing there all by itself. It needs do nothing, for the very fact it is God’s creation. Yet it is also His will – the reason – there is such a thing as a time-and-space, growing, expanding physical and personal-beings universe. This is simply His will. This is His power, His ability. As His child, you too are complete moment by moment, and yet you too continue to grow. That is why we make a distinction between completeness and perfection – to suggest that the nature of God which is beyond any kind of movement – you can only imagine it as absolute stillness, and only in – from a human viewpoint – an instant by instant kind of way – in no way contradicts the unimaginable blazing inferno right inside billions upon billions of suns in each of millions of galaxies.
So too, you are alive, you are dynamic, you are growing, and perfection is your goal, as it is the goal of the physical universe itself. And though the physical universe may seem unimaginably ancient to you, just as you may feel yourself to be from time to time, both you and it, and We are still – only just beginning. This is your true nature, and if you cannot grasp this, then you may be closer to it than you can know. I don’t posit puzzles for you, My son, just for the sheer delight of doing so, but I do try, as best I can, to lead you to the rim of that vast chasm of the as-yet-unknown so you can peek over the edge from time to time. Do you have any other questions?
Student: That’s all my questions for now, Mother. I feel very comfortable with Your words and explanations, and I‘d just like to leave it at that for the moment. Thank You.
Nebadonia: You’re welcome, My son. I enjoy your appreciation. And be in My love.
Student: Mother, tonight I read an earlier transcript and there was a sentence about viruses. It seemed to imply there was something unique about viruses, but the transcript was not about viruses. I wonder if you could add anything to it?
Nebadonia: Well, C, I don’t seem to recall, Myself, having made any comments about viruses. As you know from your textbook: because this is a decimal planet, the Life Carriers of Urantia tried certain new possibilities of evolution knowing full well that this could lead to a proliferation of these life forms which could plague the human race once it so evolved. But they made the decision to go ahead, counting on the Material Son and Daughter quickly evolving human life further to the point where it would not be so susceptible to these miniscule life forms. And so this is part of the tragedy of the default of Adam and Eve – that you are plagued with this kind of disease. Was there anything more specific you cared to know about these life forms?
Student: No, that explains it, that clears up the curiosity I had about it.
Nebadonia: There is a lot more detail given in your textbook in the chapter describing the evolution of earlier forms of life on Urantia by the Life Carriers. If you have no other questions this evening?
Student: No, I don’t. Just a heartfelt thank You for all Your contributions to me.
Nebadonia: You are very welcome, My son. It is good to be within you – experiencing your joy, your gratitude. And doubly so, then, to hear you express it. Be in My love.
Student: Thank You, Mother. Student: Dear Nebadonia, I was reading about Jesus on His way to Rome – how He made contact with upwards of five hundred people, and yet we are told He was not a genius. How was He able to be so alert? How can we increase our alertness level? I know some of these lessons about dropping our considerations, letting go and letting God, and having our heart centers connect. But that alertness that He had, was it because of His mind type or genetic ability? How can we increase our alertness, especially in service? Thank you.
Nebadonia: Yes, V, your question is very much right to the point of what I wish to share with you this evening. When I talked about a bubble of familiarity, I was trying to suggest a way in which folks go through their life somewhat apprehensive and ill at ease, or fearful, and so try to get by day to day by reassuring themselves that nothing is changing. This is almost a definition of trying to get along without being alert.
Let’s consider alertness from an active and a passive internally produced way. Active alertness would be a conscious, constant attempt to maintain a certain state of mind in and of itself. In other words, you value being alert and so you try to keep yourself alert. As you can probably see immediately, this has great limitations, because how do you remember to remember? How do you stay alert to remind yourself to be alert?
Another kind of alertness comes about automatically as part of your animal instinctual nature refined by a million years of human life evolution. You are most familiar with this kind of alertness in extraordinary conditions where you come across something very threatening – you’re driving a car and suddenly you are skidding sideways; or some person starts acting very aggressive right in your face. But what I was suggesting tonight was a way of being open to the newness, the uniqueness in each moment that lies just beyond your bubble of familiarity, for this perception is what will arouse in you an alertness of curiosity-reaction.
I call this a passive type of alertness because it arises within the situation itself, within the oneness of you and what you perceive. This is the kind of alertness that comes, not from effort, but from the courage to relax your need for familiarity. It will spring up of itself right within the perception of something new. It is helped along by your stillness meditations in which you can achieve the feeling I talked about – of just purely existing – this moment which has never happened before. This alertness is also helped arise by good health, great energy, a sense of humor, a feeling of adventure, a bit of daring. All these are a kind of groundwork, contributing to what we’ve called “home base” – the reality that lets you experience God’s continuous creation. Reality is not like some clock He wound up a few billion years ago, and gave a little nudge, so everything flows on like it always has. But each moment is new.
Think about almost any kind of physically creative task you set yourself, whether it is working on your car, or carving a little sculpture, or finding a few flowers in your garden, or even washing the dishes. There’s something new happening in that activity, whether it’s this particular spark plug this day, or this little rose bush, or that spot of grease clinging tenaciously to your pan: this moment never happened before. And once you begin to perceive this, the wondrous reality of it will help sustain you and support you. It was this very ability that enabled Michael to live the most fantastically full life, from the standpoint of any other human being who has ever lived on Urantia.
You will recall from your text that Michael also had the wisdom of knowing when to rest, when to give Himself and His followers a few days off to visit with friends or mend their nets. But even these moments can also be most restful and appreciated if they too happen within this encompassing of alertness to each moment’s uniqueness. Does this answer your question, My son?
Student: Thank You very much – it’s like a Mansion World lesson! I can’t wait for the thrill of reading the Melchizedeks’ knowledge as it is taught on the various worlds, for increased joy, through lessons like this, which I know will make the Mansion Worlds all the more thrilling because it started down here when we were here. Thank You.
Nebadonia : You are very welcome, My son. As you are aware, I’m always teasing you a bit with the next phase to come. You are very correct when you intimate that in the next, morontia phase, when you suddenly find yourself in a very transcendent kind of body – and in the reality you will be able to perceive upon awakening, you will definitely be out of your bubble of familiarity. We just invite you to experience it now. And be in My love.
Student: I’ll take You up on that offer.
Closing
Nebadonia: And so, My children, you are getting a foretaste and some foresight into this next phase of your life. Keep in mind that the closest human equivalent, in English, of the morontia phase of reality, is what you call soul; and to a degree you already have one foot in that realm. As Michael and I have assured you, this is a cosmic reality, as real as this earth you walk around on, and that sun you see come up every morning. For you will be around, My children, long after this earth and that sun have gone their way into oblivion. This is what we are dealing with. Enjoy that vista awhile. You are in My love now and always. Good evening.
Group: Good evening. Good evening, Mother.
Editorial Note
Dear Folks, Wow! – the notion of our 400,000,000,000-year-old “Master Son” and “Mother Spirit” just passing out of Their teenage years and coming of age not yet halfway to their full maturity of parenting 10,000,000 inhabited worlds…further words escape me. Jerry -]
From the Transcript: “As you have been informed in your textbook, our “Local Universe” has a sometime potential of ten million inhabited planets, of which we are not even to the halfway point of this “maturity” yet. If you want to think of it in a humorous sense, Michael and I are just passing out of being teenagers.”
