2005-01-31-Hopes & Fears
Marin #34
Contents
1Heading
1Topic: Hopes & Fears
2Group: Marin TeaM
2Facilitators
1Teacher: Michael
2TR: JL
3Session
1Opening
2Lesson
3Dialogue
4Closing
Topic: Hopes & Fears
Group: Marin TeaM
Facilitators
Teacher: Michael
TR: JL
Session
Opening
Dear Michael and Mother Spirit, Another Monday evening has rolled around and here we are once again, tickled and happy in anticipation of Your presence. As we read and reread these lessons You have for us, bit by bit we become incrementally more aware of, and more appreciative of the larger dimensions of this marvelous life we were born into. We thank You for showing us these doors and inviting us to open them. Amen.
Michael: Good evening, My sons. This is Michael. What a wonderful time this is on Urantia. There is a carol celebrating My birthday, which goes, “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in Thee tonight.” For it was so – to start something going that, even though it would seem – from a human perspective – that not much was really happening in the totality of not only Urantia but throughout the whole system of Satania, the spiritual forces that were set in motion began to swell immediately. In spite of what you sometimes think of as The Dark Ages, which you are slowly beginning to understand were not so dark after all, these spiritual forces that I set in motion have been swelling enormously ever since.
Lesson
This is part of the reason that the Urantia Book was given to humankind – not so much to offer something entirely new, but as a summation of normal spiritual development ordained before the creation of this planet. So when you get down to studying your own social evolution through the growth of families into tribes, into states, and finally into the present-day nations you have about you, you can have some appreciation of all the stages of growth that every evolutionary planet must go through as it goes from the single cells of life planted by the Life Carriers, to the someday future of a planet settled in Light and Life.
There are no gaps in this sequence of events. Every stage must be there. While you had a spiritual development such as I inaugurated on this planet, at the same time you had the ongoing political and social evolution to ever larger units. And as you students of history know full well, this evolution was attended by ever larger means of, and participation in warfare. Quite simply, the battles got larger right up to what you call the Second World War, where tens of millions suffered and died or were grievously and permanently wounded.
This in no way negates or diminishes the parallel spiritual development that was taking place at the same time. Now we are in the midst of an enormous spiritual blossoming. This is due to factors which are not only spiritual – with the adjudication of the Lucifer Rebellion, but also physical and mental in human life. Keep in mind that spirit is that which embraces everything. In true spirit there is no arrogance of position. The spirit world does not in any way look down upon or seek to diminish either the physical or the mental aspects of human life. How could it? These aspects came from spirit, were created by spirit. And so it in no ways belittles spirit, but is a part of spiritual blossoming – the enormous explosion of physical means of communication on the planet. There was always one world floating in space, but there is just beginning to be the physical means for instant intercommunication between the different peoples on this one world.
This was all in the works from the beginning. Every planet which has evolved – and you know from your studies, our own Local Universe has close to four million inhabited planets – and by far, most of these world cultures are ancient and fantastically developed from an Urantia point of view; all worlds, of necessity, go through the stages Urantia is passing through right now. Think of all these evolutionary physical means which are now making it possible for an explosion of mental-intellectual challenges and achievements all over the entire world as people become more and more intimate with each other.
The marketplace of ideas, as it has been termed, is becoming a free-wheeling one indeed. Narrow-mindedness and closed-mindedness are being rightfully challenged, especially to the benefit of those so afflicted. This is where the all- powerful, all-encompassing love of spirit welcomes all. As in My human time, two thousand years ago, those who were the most impoverished in body and mind and spirit became the most blessed with the good word of the truth of the fatherhood of God and the all-encompassing, all-welcoming, all joyously loving nature of His Spirit.
What a time this is, My children. The hopes and the fears of all the years are meeting, and hope will triumph. And not without your efforts, not without your dedicated work, not without your enthusiastic participation. What a triumph awaits you – individually. What amazing good work you can accomplish. This is the power and glory of hope, the determination of hope, the strength and the resiliency of hope for those who dare. The necessity for courage is a constant through the ages, and is no less so today for the very subtly of the challenge. By this I mean the subtle challenge of freedom. What do you do with your free time and your extra wealth once you have them? Do you see what I mean, My children?
The move, the paradigm shift as you sometimes call it, from being determined, so cruelly at times, by your surroundings – and here I mean the untold millions of people who have perished in the long ages past just from lack of food and shelter, let alone the predation of their fellow humans – for all of this to turn around so quickly for so many in the world – yet have this freedom existing on the same world with what is still – truly – genocide and mass murder – this is a challenge which has never been faced quite this way before.
It is good that the Spirit, a truly Holy Spirit, is capable of renewing your perspectives and your desires for truth and understanding, your determination to lend the helping hand that is still so desperately needed in parts of the world for that basic food and shelter. No less desperately needed in the so-called advanced societies with their subtle challenges of freedom – past the freedom from want, the freedom from needing to labor most of your waking hours – is the courage to live an open, adventure-welcoming, spiritually-thriving life. This has always been a necessity, My children, and ever more so today. So be of light heart; you’ll only find it in being engaged.
Fear grows in direct proportion as you remove yourself from the current of life of those around you. Courage is found in the accomplishment of joining with your neighbors to share your lives together. Welcome to the great game of reality. Take heart, exercise your faith. Embrace all you encounter, all the challenges of the physical, the mental and the spiritual. Together we will prevail. You will not only survive, My children, you will thrive!
If you have any questions, this evening, I am always glad to answer you.
Dialogue
Student: Thank You once more again, Father. I don’t have any questions, just a heartfelt – Thank You – for all You do for us, and for me, and for actually being involved in this Correcting Time and this Teaching Mission. It’s still somewhat amazing to me that this is actually going on. Thank You again.
Michael: Yes, C, it is amazing, is it not? Men and women of faith have always had to live a two-fold life with respect to their relationships with those who believe differently, or believe not at all. But it is good to have so much in your heart, even if you cannot share it entirely as you might wish with just anyone who crosses your path.
This in no way diminishes what you can truly know within yourself, and between you and I, and it is gracious not to push yourself and this absolute knowledge you have within you – this religious experience – not to force this in any way on another, but to be respectful, if you will, of their free space. So thank you for your gratitude, My son, and be in My peace.
Student : Thank You, Michael, thank You Father. Student: Dear Michael, I’d ask for general advice as I peruse all these different philosophies with my boy – a way of unifying them so that he and I can communicate more effectively…ah…sort them out.
Michael: Yes, V, philosophy is the attempt of the human mind to correlate the soul. This is the work to find a consistent and internally logical explanation of the totality of your experience. This is as necessary for your intellectual and spiritual life as food is for your body. Everyone has a philosophy of life whether they know it or not, whether they consciously work with it and upon it, or not. As your life has no end, your philosophy will always be incomplete – fortunately so.
In view of that perspective, I bring to your attention, from time to time, that you are taking your first few hesitant steps in eternity. I would advise keeping your philosophy rather open-ended. This is especially important the younger you are for, before you have much life experience, a younger mind lives on a philosophical plateau of principle and generality. A young boy or girl might ponder such philosophical questions as: is Life Itself getting better or worse? We smile, and yet this has some meaning for the youngster.
And many careful and even anguished long periods of time are spent in weighing such things. For this is how – I will say “we” and include Myself once upon a time – this is how we reach out at first, and become aware there is such a thing as philosophy, there is this need to correlate and comprehend the contents of our souls. For this very reason, this could be the most wonderful, soul-felt experience you have to share with your son. It is something you both can remember with great joy in the years to come. For, sadly, not every father and son share this desire.
Is there anything else you would care to go into?
Student: I think that will be enough to tie…I hope my boy reads this. He’ll certainly get the chance and…I do hear right now it should be an ongoing, open-ended thing for our whole lives and beyond; and a good bonding avenue of approach. Thanks for the concept of explaining relationships and so on. I hadn’t thought of that. Thanks.
Michael: As you know, there are university studies on the history of philosophy, and there is an individual parallel to this. Those sons whose fathers are philosophically inclined, and introduce them to the challenge, are fortunate, for the attempt at philosophy very early in ones life initiates a way of understanding, a way of self-consciously trying to comprehend the context of your own individual events. As you get older, the memories of this very attempt – to understand life itself – become an opening to your soul, to your life’s experience. These memories give you another, parallel personal history alongside the events themselves – the story of the growth of your conscious understanding. What a precious thing for a father to give to a son. And be in My peace.
Student: Yes Michael, it seems like to truly understand life, we need to strip away all the superfluous ideas, strip it down to the barest essence of what it is all about. The more I seem to grasp the ideas and ideals of God’s reality, it seems like the deeper I go into this understanding, I question what I do in my life, how I drift in my life, and how my life should be lived. I question even my idea of earning a living – that I wasn’t brought into this world to go to school to study something and to go out to earn a living and then to retire and then move on to another life. It just seems like the deeper I go into this idea of God’s reality, it shows how much we live in unreality and how much we lie to ourselves about what life it all about. And so I’m looking deeper and deeper into that, trying to grasp and understand how to live and be in God’s reality. How can I break away from these concepts or ideas that have been ingrained in my psyche, generation upon generation – from society’s point of view…(?) the more familiar…(?) stripping away all that excess and being in God’s reality, or God’s vision…
Michael: Well, My son, if I might offer an observation: don’t see it as a problem but as a process. When We say that the realm of spirit is all-inclusive, that it proceeds and creates the realms of physical and mental phenomena – I offered before this tool, and it is only a tool – it has its limits, but it is a useful tool – to think of physical facts in the material world, meaning or relationships in the mental-intellectual sphere, and then the spiritual realm is one of value. This is what you’re engaged in – unavoidably, necessarily, and I hope, delightfully. As you become more and more aware of what you call God’s reality of Spirit, of originating, creative power – for this is God’s fundamental, absolute quality – the power to create all that exists – as you tune into this realm of value you will necessarily begin to re-evaluate your entire life. This is exactly what you have just described to Me; this is what you are doing. And you are finding that certain things suddenly lose value.
Here I would ask you to employ what I just recommended to V – value a philosophical perspective on all of this. See it as your own history, and you will notice you came up from being a physical creature in your mother’s womb, and as a small baby, before you had much of a mind to use. Then came your family and your culture and your schooling. As you grew physically and mentally, you began to feel certain spiritual qualities of value, and since you were fortunate enough to come in contact with different cultures, different ideas, different realms of society, you were even able to reevaluate the accidents of your own birth – your own family, your own school. And so your mind and your spirit reached out to be truly cosmopolitan and embrace the different cultures of the world. These are all steps in the process.
The main error to watch out for is what you call “Monday Morning Quarterbacking.” You have to be careful that an older, more mature, more cosmopolitan, more far-seeing you does not become overly judgmental of a previous you before you had the very experiences which enable you to be where you are. This way you come in contact with, and embrace joyfully your true history, because you do it from a non-judgmental, open-hearted, open-minded, open-spirited position. You do not begrudge yourself all the so-called mistakes you made, all the seeming narrow-minded visions you once had, for they were just steps – necessary steps – in the process that got you to where you are now. Which brings Me full circle to what I was advising to begin with – to see this not as a problem, but part of the process of maturing.
Some of the pain and effort involved in reevaluating your life is unavoidable. Some of these judgments you became very attached to, and it is initially painful to let them go, to keep growing. But if you are not judgmental against yourself, you will find that your experiences have an opportunity to live on in you as they were originally encountered, not as they were subsequently derogated by judgment. And so you have to be as open, as forgiving, as non-judgmental toward all your days that once were, as you hope to be with your fellows around you. Otherwise you risk losing your soul – not permanently, of course! – but it does no good to someone in great pain to say that it will go away…sometime. What you want is to establish yourself in such a way – now – that your whole past is open to you, and welcome. Does this help?
Student: Yes, yes it does – very much so. I don’t think I was seeing it as a problem, but as opportunity for further growth, like the idea of earning a living, and understanding the possibilities of that changing – how can I creatively change that concept to live in this world? How does God see this – this life, for me, so I’m open-minded about the possibilities as they unfold? There is a sense of excitement about that. I haven’t got a clue of other ways to live on this planet other than what I’ve grown up with.
Michael: But you are reaching for them, My son, and this is good. You are undertaking a reevaluation, and this is a sure sign of spiritual growth.
Student: It seems like…I was talking to C yesterday…that no one seems to question what being human is all about, or ever asks what life is, how it is supposed to be lived. It’s like so many of us kind-of just go through life, day to day, working, going to school, with no real depth. And of course I’m just generally speaking, but no one ever asks the question of what it means to be human; where did all this begin? I think if people started asking those questions, then they would see each other in a whole different way.
Michael: Well, My son, again I must caution you about these generalities because very few people actually live there. You would be surprised how many people, all through history, have wondered about these very things you are concerned with. So don’t feel alone in this.. This is something that – true enough, in different degrees of consciousness – as I mentioned to V, everybody has their philosophy of life that they are working on, because there is a need for this as much as for good food.
This is an aspect of sanity, of feeling you are living a life that makes sense. Much of mental illness is a loss of this very thing. As I have invited you to see yourselves as complete, and see each other as complete, moment to moment, perhaps your challenge now is to look around you and see how much everyone is struggling to understand what is happening to them. The casualties are those who have given up, those who have settled back in their bubble of familiarity and are no longer striving to reevaluate their lives, and so, tragically, aging so prematurely because of it. Do your best to encourage those around you, to never fear to be the philosopher of the group. Welcome others into this state of question, to be invigorated by it. And be in My peace.
Closing
Well, My philosophers! –(Group laughs)– it has been an interesting evening! It is marvelous how all these different aspects of life are knit into each other, because life is truly a living, interconnected web, where plucking any one string at all sets the whole thing to vibrating. Keep your hope alive. As Mother Spirit borrowed a phrase in inviting you to keep your beginner’s mind, I will borrow one from one your poets and invite you to stay – ever green. Be in My peace. Good evening.
