PR
New Era Conversations #63
– Religions in Crises
– Feb 22, 2016
Machiventa Melchizedek, Planetary Manager/Planetary Prince
Topics:
Update on the Correcting Time progress
How to improve the educational process for our children
Educational special programs
Lagging behind in ethics
Religions are an intellectual development
Religions must move into a dynamic inner experience
Making readjustments to human values
Religions are in crises
Over-population and our natural resources
Over-population jeopardizes the social sustainability of others
Population must aspire to ideals rather than ideas
Focus on the future for education and ethics
Place-finding devices for the unemployed
The role of revelations in our future
The real religion of personal spiritual experience
Institutionalized religion
Reinvigorating civilization
Human rights are associated with social duties
Unlimited freedom is dangerous
Science, philosophy and spiritual experience
Factors in early civilization
Dalamatia and the 6 core values
Getting started with the 6 core values
Closing statement
TR: Daniel Raphael
Team Members: Roxanne Andrews, Michael McCray, and a Student
Invocation
February 22, 2016,
MACHIVENTA: Good morning, this is Machiventa Melchizedek. It is a pleasure to be with you once again.
Update on the Correcting Time progress
Our developments are going apace. What that means is that we are working developmentally into the future, we are preparing steps for the rapid unfoldment of our work as those developments become completed, other developments follow quickly. We have said this before and say it again that time is of the essence, time is very short, it is running out, and that the flexibility even for Deities and for immortals, for the Celestial Realm and the Spiritual Realm is limited by the temporal necessities of a world in pain. Thus, our work will become more and more expedient until we gain the upper hand on the investment of our programs on your world, and become an influential force to not dominate, but to influence the mortal, temporal, material realm around you. This will take some time and the unfolding of thousands, if not tens of thousands of developments around the world to receive the messages of Christ Michael that mortals would understand and may not even recognize that they originate from Christ Michael in the Correcting Time.
Yes, once again, that message is nebulous, it is fuzzy, it is indeterminate, it does not have any substantiation that you can see around you, but you will see this and you will know who it is from when it becomes evident to you in the near future. We thank you for this opportunity to make this address this morning.
If you have questions, please address them now.
How to improve the educational process for our children
MMc: Would you tell us more about how we might improve the educational process for our children and young adults?
MACHIVENTA: Yes, to repeat what we have said a number of times before, it begins with the parents; it begins with informing the parents what and how to socialize and enculturate their children with the information that will assist them to survive as social beings inter-personally and intra-personally with themselves, with their family and with society. The earlier step is to educate, inform and train parents how to do that.
Educational special programs
MMc: Thank you. Are there any educational special programs that you would suggest?
MACHIVENTA: They exist, but they are not organized; they have not had an intention to form or educate parents how to do that. This must be the intention of some educational entity that is independent of public and academic education in the world. It requires some independent facilitative agency that can collect and organize and collate and publish the material and train teachers how to teach and train parents, and parents learn how to apply it in their family situation. This is one of the most eminent programs of the Correcting Time that we have in mind.
MMc: Is there any specific educational program that you wish to teach, or is there anything specific that you wish to be taught to young people?
MACHIVENTA: This was just covered in the last answer.
Lagging behind in ethics
MMc: The Urantia Book mentions that ethics is an area in which we have not kept pace; our ethics lag behind. Would you please tell us more about how we might improve our ethical treatment of others?
MACHIVENTA: Certainly. What is required first is a morality that has integrity, that is consistent, that is long-lived and is organic to the nature of humans. This new morality would then be based upon the 6 values of social sustainability. From there, there would be an ethics development that would come about. We know that this is an incomplete answer to your question, but let us have it suffice at this time.
Religions are an intellectual development
MMc: Paper 92:7.4 says in part, “All these [evolutionary] religions have arisen as a result of man’s variable intellectual response to his identical spiritual leading.” “ … these are all intellectual.” I don’t quite completely understand what is meant by referring to the evolutionary religions as intellectual. Can you explain this for me please?
MACHIVENTA: Certainly. Religions are an intellectual development; they are an artificial structure designed by the human mind to organize the efforts of more than one individual to participate in religious exercises, rituals, and ceremonies. They were not developed or devised by Jesus; they were not plans given to you by your Thought Adjusters. It is simply a development of mortals to help them understand and make sense of the relationship that they have with the spirit within and the spirit without.
MMc: Would you kindly say a few words about Joshua Ben Joseph and why he might be considered a true hero?
MACHIVENTA: This is sufficiently given in the Urantia Book.
Religions must move into a dynamic inner experience
MMc: In Paper 92:7.9 in part, it says, “Thinking men and women want religion redefined, and this demand will compel religion to re-evaluate itself.” Would you care to explain this a little more for us, please?
MACHIVENTA: Most certainly. Thinking men and women realize that the artificial constructs of the human mind to create an artificial organization called religion is insufficient for them to have the sense of values, the feelings of values of spiritual existence within themselves and manifest in the world around them. In other words, that the hierarchy of needs of individuals to have an improving quality of life and to grow equally as others is now insufficiently provided by religions. Just as your democracies must undergo a movement from the first paradigm of democracy to the second paradigm of democracy, your religions must move from the archaic, crystallized format of religion to the new dynamic inner experience of the individual with the God presence within them, and know that through their spiritual connection with the Divine within them, they can manifest their fullest expressions of life, and grow into the ultimate dimensions of their mind and spirit potential within them, equally as Jesus did.
MMc: Thank you. So you feel this is a situation eventuality that all people will come to?
MACHIVENTA: No.
Making readjustments to human values
MMc: Paper 92:7.10 says, “Modern man is confronted with the task of making more readjustments of human values in one generation than have been made in two thousand years.” Would you care to remark on these thoughts for us, please?
MACHIVENTA: Yes, you are living in that generation now.
Religions are in crisis
MMc: Yes. Paper 99:1.3 reads in part, “…religion as a social influence is to stabilize the ideals of mankind during these dangerous times of transition from one phase of civilization to another, from one level of culture to another.” Would you like to explain this in more detail for us, please?
MACHIVENTA: The times now are evident that this is a necessity for religion to undergo. Religions truly are in a crisis; they are inadequate, as they have been formed by the human mind to explain all the vicissitudes and difficulties of an International social community. This is going to be a time of tremendous chaos, as you might call it, a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous situation (VUCA) for religions, and the new thinkers of the churches must come into the awareness of the values of social sustainability and how they are connected to the creation of humans by your Creator, Christ Michael, and the First Source and Center as some people deem the Creator to be. You were created as images of God; you aspire to grow; you want to have a greater quality of life, which encompasses all the 7 spheres of human existence. [Physical, mental, emotional, intellectual, social, cultural, and spiritual.] And you want to do so equally as the most capable, insightful individual on earth. Your example for that, of course, is in the man called Jesus and his life, and how he lived. You aspire to have a greater quality of life and to grow into your infinite capacity because you were created by God, and as the most evident commandment of God is to become “perfect as I am,” God has provided you with the capacity and the capability to do so. You simply must have the will to engage that voluntarily.
MMc: I don’t really understand as religion operates in the world today, it operates in conjunction with both the political and economic bases of society. The Urantia Book is pretty adamant about explaining that that situation is not ideal for religion of the future. Is there a place for institutional religion in our future, or will we see a switch to personal religion or true religion in our future?
MACHIVENTA: It is not simply an either/or situation at all. There will always be religion, and there will always be the quest by the individual to have a personal relationship with the Divine within them, under whatever form of religion they call it, because mankind has the Spirit of God within them, there is always a yearning to engage that, to know that personally, and to know that Source intimately. Those who are of a minded nature will create these artificial social constructs called “churches and religions,” and they will have fellowship with each other, and oftentimes forget the reasons why they are there. It is to commune with each other and with the source of their commonality, the God within.
MMc: Thank you. I’d like to stop here. Ladies, do you have any questions?
Over-population and our natural resources
Roxie: I have some questions related to the reading assignment that you gave us. In Paper 81:6.3, concerning our natural resources, our over-population is using/wasting too many of our natural resources, particularly fresh water and oil and polluting our air in the process. BP published a “Statistical Review of World Energy” in 2012 that said if we continued our world consumption of oil, we are already past “peak oil,” and will run out of oil by the year 2067 or sooner. What will future generations do without oil for all the products that use petroleum, such as plastics and pharmaceuticals? I see this as a “now” problem because we aren’t doing anything to solve the problem that will take a very long time to solve—if it is solvable. Your comments, please?
MACHIVENTA: First of all, the paper was predicated on data that preceded its publication in 2012. Since 2012 there has been an upsurge globally of the availability and reserves of petroleum around the world due to fracking technologies. That has incredibly increased the quantities of petroleum available worldwide. What is unknown to you and to other writers, and to other futurists is the decimation, the species die-off of Homo sapiens that will occur in the future, which will allow those who remain to have access to immense natural resources including petroleum. The inheritance they will also gain will be a planet that is quite dirty and polluted. Water sources must be cleaned up and the atmosphere and oceans must be treated as a sacred reservoir of inertia for the maintenance of a good working order of your planet. There are many aspects that analysts, futurists, and predictors have ignored, or have not taken into account in their publications.
Roxie: I know that we absolutely need to control population growth, but in observing how vehemently Americans cling to their Constitutional rights to have guns, I see them just as rabidly hanging onto having their rights to procreate without societal interference as to whether some couples would, or would not, be allowed to have children, or to regulate how many they may have. They might even see this issue as being a protected right according to the 3 core values and the Constitution of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. You and Monjoronson have stated many logical reasons for why we need to control population growth, but how are we to win over others with this highly emotional issue?
Over-population jeopardizes the social sustainability of others
MACHIVENTA: The direct answer to your question, the last clause of your statement is “going with the flow.” Which means, in this regard, that the responsibilities of social sustainability are personal, but yet the morality of social sustainability is social, meaning that yes, you have a right to procreate to the point where it does not jeopardize the social sustainability of others. This is a very tightly focused topic that will be discussed vehemently and politically, and even violently in some cases, where people say that they have the right to have as many children as they want. This is incredibly selfish and it is immoral according to the values of social sustainability. You are going to see in this generation, in answer to, and following an earlier question about how long will it take to change the values of your world, which is in one generation already begun.
You have approximately 25 years of social chaos in front of you, individually, locally, nationally, and Internationally. There will be an immense struggle of populations and ideologies throughout the world, and there will be a continuing shredding and separation between groups and ideologies, and as you know, separation is the anathema of sustainability. You must come to one mind and of one philosophy, one set of values to integrate the functions of all human activity on your world, and those values and the morality that develops from that is the morality of social sustainability, which requires personal, organizational, social, societal, political, governmental, economic, and financial responsibility. You do not live alone; you do not live alone on an island by yourself, but you are connected with others and your responsibilities for procreation, as well as for the use of natural resources impact upon everyone else. You will, in this generation, come to find that the whole does affect the individual as much as the individual affects the whole. That reciprocal responsibility must be ingrained in the children that are now being raised by parents. It is unfortunate that this will not become a thoroughgoing effort until later in this decade, and into the following decade. By then, you will have seen immense chaos in the world where the only sense that makes that rational is the sense of the values that are innate to your DNA, the values that were given to you by your Creator.
Population must aspire to ideals rather than ideas
Roxie: [81:6.8] Scientific knowledge should be traveling by leaps and bounds because of the Internet, and it is in some cases. My concern is that such a large portion of our population is scientifically illiterate. They would rather spend their time playing games on their iPhones, or texting friends with trivia, or watching dumb situation comedies on TV, instead of adding to their knowledge via the Internet, books or television. I am particularly concerned especially for the children and what they aren’t learning that they will need in the future. In American schools, it is getting difficult to find teachers qualified to teach science classes. Is there a way to turn this around, or will the public in general just keep finding more games to play on their iPhones?
MACHIVENTA: Let me take liberties with your question. The question really does not deal with science as a total mechanism. What you are looking at is the external as to the internal development of individuals; you are talking about the concentrated focus on and interest in materialism, as opposed to ethics, morality, eugenics, philosophy, and sociology, for example. You are looking at the ultimate division of those who will beget the new world and those who will be victims of it. You, as a population, must aspire to the ideals rather than to the ideas. You will survive only by the ideals because ideas will be insufficient to carry you forward. Ideas come in the form of missiles and mortar shells and artillery shells, and so on. Ideals come in the values to aspire to, which will create and bridge those differences between materialism and spirituality.
Roxie: Thank you. [81:6.25] The Urantia Book, written in the mid 1930s said that we have advanced in culture because of travel and communications, but have not kept up in education, the family structure or in ethics. Do celestials still see it that way, or is it even worse now?
Focus on the future for education and ethics
MACHIVENTA: Historically it is the same. Our focus, however, is on the future. We are not here to fix the problems of the past, but to create solutions for the future. The necessities of families, social life, ethics, and philosophy are such that there must become a new means, a new purpose, and intention for education. Education, particularly in the United States has lost its intention; it has no focus; it is incestuous intellectually, philosophically, and morally. It is a lost soul wandering in the idealism of culture. It thinks it is paramount among the sciences, yet it is of the lowest nature.
What must occur, and will surely occur—as there is no other alternative—but for education to take on the challenge of your species, to learn how to sustain the species through its activities in training, education, and academia. What is the focus of education? What is the intention of education? Whether it is in “diaper daycare” or whether it is in post-doctoral programs—the intention must be the same; it must be the sustainability of the species and of the family, as the family is the founding institution for civilization. It must be upon teaching individuals and families how to socialize children and enculturate them so that they can sustain themselves, sustain their families, and sustain their cultures. Without this, your civilization will die.
Roxie: This question may be a little related to the last one. [81:6.27] The Urantia Book says, “Intelligence may control the mechanisms of civilization, wisdom may direct it, but spiritual idealism is the energy which really uplifts and advances human culture from one level of attainment to another.” Concerning leadership choices in America, are we moving backward?
MACHIVENTA: (Laughing.) If you do not see the answer for yourself, then this conversation is worthless.
Roxie: (Laughing.) I guess I just wanted to see what you would say about it.
Place-finding devices for the unemployed
Roxie: [81:6.31] The Urantia Book gives several ideas for “place-finding devices,” for finding jobs for the unemployed. I think our society is using those ideas, but we still have a great number of those who have been unemployed for so long and on the public dole, it no longer seems to bother them. Would it work if society required them to work on a public project, such as cutting diseased trees in our forests, or building levees in flood-prone areas in exchange for wages instead of handouts, or does this violate their free will?
MACHIVENTA: Those are good thoughts, they are well founded, they are ingenious, yet they will fail if the intentions are not foremost in these placement mechanisms. What is the intention of those placement activities? That is not a rhetorical question; it is a question in reality, for if you do not have the correct intentions for these placement activities then what will develop will be confused and lost. Again, the intentions of placement activities must be first to assist the individual to improve the quality of their life. Most of all, it must assist them to grow, so they become sufficiently capable within their own right, their own existence to improve their quality of life once their placement has provided them with the possibility of improving their quality of life and growing.
This is only fair, is it not, because it allows them to grow equally as those who have opportunities that were given to them by their parents, or by their social class and status, and economic means? In answering these questions, first look to the intention of the organization and these social functions; then you will have the answers that will become very plain to you in the future as you reorganize your social institutions, whether it is employment, whether it is government, whether it is schools, education, and so on.
Roxie: Thank you. [81:34-36] Currently, many of our citizens want to close our borders to Mexicans and Arabs, while the Europeans, Turks, and Jordanians have been letting in large numbers of immigrants to their own detriment. Do you consider the US to have an “intelligent patriotism under these circumstances?
MACHIVENTA: We will decline from offering a comment at this time on that subject.
The role of revelations in our future
Roxie: [92:4.1] Revelations in the past have been successful because the people have been in awe of the charisma and demeanor of the divine being. Before large numbers of people accept the Urantia teachings and all the suggestions of social reconstruction of these transcripts, I believe that Monjoronson will need to incarnate and win the people over with his dynamic presence. Even then, not everyone will follow him, just as the Sanhedrin refused the teachings of Jesus. In today’s world, people will need a strong leader from “off this world” since we do not have strong enough leaders that all, or most of the people will accept. I think it will take a very exceptional being, like Monjoronson, and possibly the return of Christ Michael to be that leader. Am I off base with these assumptions?
MACHIVENTA: Yes.
The real religion of personal spiritual experience
Roxie: That was a short answer.
[99:2.1] The Urantia Book says that “Only the real religion of personal spiritual experience can function helpfully and creatively in the present crisis of civilization,” and that the current institutional religions are too entwined with politics and economics and need to be reconstructed along with society. What is the likelihood of finding enough religionists that have that “enhanced cosmic foresight and superior wisdom” to serve on all the design teams that will be doing the social and church reconstructions?
MACHIVENTA: Actually, the possibility is very good. As you know, need is the motivator for innovation. A need will become so apparent in people’s minds concerning their religions that they will come to create innovative processes, both within their churches and other social institutions. What is presently being offered by Pope Francis is hope—hope that there is a means of reforming within itself, its own practices within the Catholic Church. What will come about through the renovations of existent institutionalized religions will come about through the recognition of the connection of these values of social sustainability that are innate to humans, and the need for their religions to be in alignment with those values. Just as you will eventually see democracies transforming themselves into organic democracies through the inclusion and use of the values of social sustainability of your species, so too, will you see that eventually God-based religions will become organic religions using those values to validate church doctrine, church policies, and church interpretations of scriptures. We see this time in the future as very exciting for those individuals who are able to think outside the box of their religion, whether that is Protestantism, Catholicism, or the Orthodox Church.
You will eventually see an incredible number of publications regarding religions involving the interpretation of these values associated with your species. It will become known that your species was created by God, and God invested you with these six values so that you understand how to grow into your immense, capability as a mortal. And of course, for those who “will” to do God’s Will, you could grow into this infinite and eternal possibility through your union of the mystical relationship you have with God Within—this is the true religious experience, is to experience God within you, that intimate and personal relationship which brings grandeur to your existence, appreciation from you as an individual of knowing God experientially. A revelation that will overcome your churches is a revelation of millions of people who desire and become able to know God personally and experience that presence. Then you will have true social evolution.
Institutionalized religion
Roxie: [99:4.3] In order for true religionists to experience the new meanings and values it must not be standardized, stereotyped, or formalized. Does that mean the true religionist should not be a part of institutional forms of religion, that its religious practices should be a private matter but incorporating loving social service?
MACHIVENTA: There is no prohibition from being a part of an institutionalized religion. One would want to bring flowers into any home with the fragrance they give off, and so too, the ‘fragrance of a spiritually enthused individual’ who knows God personally would be a welcome individual in any institutional religious setting.
Roxie: Thank you very much, Machiventa. I appreciate all your answers. That completes my long list of questions.
Reinvigorating civilization
Student: I have some questions, please. My first question is about in the Urantia Book. We have been told that there is no new source for the maintenance of civilization, so as it is, it must be maintained and fostered the way it is now. My question is: If we humans engage in partnership with spirit and work with spirit to become more spiritual, and this helps to change our DNA, will this not be a new source for us as a civilization?
MACHIVENTA: No, it has always existed there, and that is one of the facets, one of the means by which your civilizations have progressed. You are simply now at the global limits of your civilization. You, as a civilization, have expanded to the point where there are no places on your world where humankind has not resided or has not explored. The challenge now is to reinvigorate your civilization in diminished numbers in the future. This will require much thoughtful consideration of living in peace, living in harmony with your environment. There is much more that could be said to this, but I will limit myself to that at this time.
Human rights are associated with social duties
Student: Every human right is associated with a social duty. Would you please explain this in more detail?
MACHIVENTA: Certainly, and this will be a very simplified answer. Everyone has a right to life. Your duty is to protect life, life whether it is existent, or whether it is potential; whether it is life in utero, or life that is just born; or life that is now as a family, begetting and procreating new children for the next generations; or whether it is life that is protected in the elderly, who have the wisdom to share from their lives if given the opportunity to share that. Thus, procreation is a right, but it is a guarded right; it is not a right that can be lavishly expressed to the detriment of others. There is throughout that prior right and duty, the right of liberty, the right of self-determination.
Unlimited freedom is dangerous
Freedom unlimited is dangerous; freedom that is limited becomes liberty. Liberty is a recognition of the social responsibility between free individuals to limit their freedom so that others can express and fulfill their lives completely as you would. The interesting aspect of these rights and duties is expressed in democracies, and they will particularly become systemic, or systems of systems of rights and duties in an organic form of democracy. It is important that individuals see their rights and the reciprocal obligations of their duties. You cannot have rights without responsible duties; irresponsible actions have a cost affect upon others, and eventually upon all of society, and eventually your civilization. The rights and responsibilities of a nation in a global civilization are immense.
Currently, national entities have no moral obligation to observe those of others, as there is no morality existent that limits or defines their capacities for the expression of their power with other organizations or other nations. This is why the morality of social sustainability is important to become a global phenomena, because at present there is no morality that governs governments or organizations and corporations—they are without limit; they have no bounds other than those granted by your statutes, and your statutes are immensely deficient in moral character to limit the actions of organizations and governments. Because of that, governments and organizations—and individuals who work for organizations—have unlimited capability to manipulate the existent political, economic, and social venues.
You are seeing this with the egregious separation of prosperity and poverty in your nation, and worldwide, where 85 individuals own over 80% of your national economy. This will not last, and if or when very wealthy individuals realize that there is an option to this process that will assist them to preserve their wealth in the future. Even if that wealth is diminished, they will assist that process to come into being. This is what we are hoping for, and this is one of the tangents of probability that we have initiated in the world, so that those individuals who are not egregiously greedy and avaricious would come forward in altruism to assist their societies and their governments to devise statutes, which would protect them and give economic advantage to individuals. So you see, when you consider morality and rights and duties it must all circulate around a rational system of systems, social systems that have a common morality and a very clearly understood value system.
Student: Thank you, Machiventa.
[Daniel: That was quite a question! And quite an answer.!
Student: Yes, and I really appreciate that answer because it reinforces the 6 core values, and because the more and more people that are going to be using the 6 core values, that is going to put more and more pressure onto the people who think they have the right to bear arms, and the have the right to procreate.]
Student: My next question is: Would you please tell us what we need to know about the ethics of “might and right,” or have you just answered that one?
MACHIVENTA: We have just answered that.
Science, philosophy and spiritual experience
Student: I just suddenly realized that. This question I have really pondered about asking, but I will ask it. Would you please help us understand what we need to know about giving equal consideration to the truth of science, philosophy, and spiritual experience in helping us move forward as a civilization?
MACHIVENTA: This has been very well developed and explained in the Urantia Book. As you are seeing now, there is a predominance of the scientific and material aspects of life over the religious, spiritual, and philosophical. There will be a time in the near future within the next 15 years where your civilization, your societies will be in repose. The incessant activity of day-to-day life will come to cessation and slowness, compared to what it is now. And in those times of slowness, there is a time for reflection; and in reflection of going within, that is the old established territory for the development of ideals and ethics and philosophy and morality. There must come a time of repose and reflection for that balance to come into existence.
Scientific developments have been rushing forward with tremendous pace; there are still thousands of inventions that are now in process, which will not come into expression until the years following, which will even make the current pale in comparison technologically. Yet sociologically and morality wise—and philosophically—your nations are going backwards as a whole. Yet we see, and particularly myself as I review the surveys our Angelic Corps and Morontial Corps have done throughout your world, is that there are many lights of intense brightness for the development of what your civilization needs in the future. Yes, this will be sporadic, it will be almost incoherent to begin with as it is now, but it will coalesce soon when the values that are common to your species become globally known throughout all areas of thought and interest. You are on the cusp of an immense social re-invention of your societies and of your civilization.
Factors in early civilization
Student: One other question: Would you please explain the following sentence: “The chief factor in early civilization was the force exerted by wise social masters.” Would you talk about that sentence, please?
MACHIVENTA: Yes, certainly. There was a time in the early history of your species where there was constant hunting and gathering, and eventually they learned the early rudiments of agriculture. They soon learned how to produce agricultural goods and to feed domesticated animals, rather than being on the hunt continuously. Some of them had two home sites—winter homes in the warmer climates and summer homes to the colder climates, which would allow for further growth and farming—agricultural work. And as this abundance grew, there grew sufficient produce to have a creative “leisure class” to begin thinking. And of course, one of the first ones was a shaman, or a religious phenomenological interpreter of what was occurring around them. And the other was a chief of some sort, followed by his/her retinue.
How your civilization developed was through leisure time, and from that you had the development of philosophy, ethics, fine arts and so on. This gave time to think about the development and formation of governments, and eventually, need necessitated that a democratic form of government evolves and this developed into what you see now. Due to the fortuitous location of this nation and nations in North America, it has developed into an incredibly prosperous nation that has given rise to even greater leisure time by greater numbers of people. Yet the skewing towards materialistic lifestyle and thinking that is oriented outside of the mind has given rise to a very dulled population, and a very thoughtless population, that is in fact, dependent upon central authority and the largess of government to maintain large numbers of dull people.
There are many people who live in poverty who are not thinking; they are still oriented towards material life and wealth as they see it. But the wealth, as you know from history, has come also from individuals who are impoverished and who lived in simple surroundings to think about what could be, and what could become. Abraham Lincoln is one of those among many who came out of the woods, literally, to become a national figure of immense courage and thoughtfulness philosophically and humanitarily.
What is required and what will also develop is that those who are in this respite time in the future will ask, “Now what?” And so they will search around for the best answers, and of course the best answers involve what is organic to their human nature to sustain and embellish their lives in a more meaningful way. Yes, the improved quality of life can assist you to move from a cave to a shelter, and from a shelter, eventually, to a heated home with running water, power and so on. It does not mean that the improved quality of life generates living in a 12,000 square foot home—quite the opposite. It means that you live simply so that other people may simply live.
Yes, you are asking some very wonderful questions today, questions that will prepare many minds for that coming time when they have to think about these things and then motivate others to act upon those thoughts. You are doing a re-do of history, and what we want to establish is the re-do of history without its destruction.
Dalamatia and the 6 core values
Student: Thank you, Machiventa. One question I would like to ask, and that has to do with social sustainability and the 6 core values: were they first introduced into Dalamatia?
MACHIVENTA: Yes, of course, it was a necessary development that felt natural to those individuals, to come live in that compound. It is important that individuals become comfortable with that. You recall from your readings that there had to be emissaries to go out from Dalamatia to their surroundings and help teach and train individuals to accept these new ideas. This is the same cognitive challenge and difficulty that you experience now with going out and bringing people into the compound of social sustainability to accept the values and what they mean. Those values are so cognitively dissonant from your traditional values in materialism as to be unacceptable and on the verge of being called, “Woo-woo thoughts and culture,” which it is not. It is simply sustainable in the grandest and greatest extent possible. But you are correct; they were known well in Dalamatia and those values were used to develop the programs that they had.
Student: So, we as a civilization now are bringing these values back again?
MACHIVENTA: Yes, those values must now be used overtly; they must be used consciously; they must become intentional to your individual, family, and social lives; they must become institutionalized in order for your organizations and your governments and your social institutions to survive.
Getting started with the 6 core values
Student: One of the things I was thinking about with the 6 core values, and starting to initiate them, and you’ve talked about this many times, but I don’t really think it sinks in as much as it should, is that before you actually start to work with the 6 core values, people have to really work on themselves and get rid of their negative thoughts to do with other people, or just life around them. It’s going to be a hard struggle for a lot of them because that’s they way they have indoctrinated themselves. And I’m just thinking about that here, before people really start embracing these ideas that are going to come forward, but they really have to do a number on themselves to get rid of some of this thinking. And they can do it! That’s the whole thing, they can do it! Am I wrong?
MACHIVENTA: No, you are right; they can do it. There are three principle ways of using the values: First, announce that you are going to have an organization that teaches these values, and then they have within that organization a design solution team to work on those projects; and second, another aspect of doing that is to have these values and these processes in mind, and as you belong to a board of directors, or belong to a parent/teacher organization, and as you are a part of that organization, even as a sole member in the audience in an organization that is struggling to find answers to a problem or issue, you would bring forward those values gently to assist the group to use them in new ways. You would be infusing an organization that already exists with a new solution process using the values. Unfortunately, eventually, you will see the third means by charlatans who will say that they are using the 6 core values, but in fact would be duping other individuals into believing what they are saying to fleece them of their wealth. Discernment must always be a permanent facet of this work.
Student: Machiventa, there are some people who really, honestly believe that they are using the 6 core values, and yet they don’t see any reason—they just believe they are using it, so what’s the point of all this social sustainability? I don’t know how to explain this, but if it is an innate thing in every human being, but at the same time, to me to realize consciously that it belongs to everybody, and I have a hard time explaining that, yes, you have the values, but at the same time are you really using them? I don’t want to knock them and say that “you don’t really have them,” when they think they have them. Do you know what I mean?
MACHIVENTA: I understand what you are saying, and rather than challenging them, invite them to do an analysis of their solution that they have for some problem. You will find that most everyone believes that they are assisting others to have an improved quality of life, and that those solutions assist others to grow into their potential, but the sticking point for almost all people who resist analysis of their issues and their solutions is in the value of equality. And it is from equality that stems the value-emotions of empathy and compassion and “love” of humanity, and that this is where the true difficulty in the analysis comes. Those individuals who say they are using them, will, in the final analysis fail that test of those three value-emotions as criteria for what they are doing.
Very few people treat others as they would treat themselves; very few people would act out in humanity and compassion to assist others to have what they have. Most people simply protect what they have. And very few people who believe in that are willing to be social activists to then infuse their governments and social organizations and social institutions with those values to assure that equality is provided to others. You will find that there are many hangers-on to social sustainability, but many cowards involved in analyzing their motives and their thoughts, and how they do this. You have hit upon a very sensitive area of individuals who are self-righteous in their environmentalism and their ecology, but who would balk at sharing their lives and their lifestyles with others.
Student: So, in giving them the opportunity to participate in using the 6 core values on a larger scale, that would probably open them up to realizing themselves that maybe they do have them, but they are not utilizing to the utmost of their capability?
MACHIVENTA: Yes. As we deal with you, I suggest you deal with others, rather than confronting others and arguing with their position, you simply invite them into what you are doing, and assist them to self-learn what you are doing in a more correct manner so that they fully understand the larger parameters of social sustainability and use of the 6 values.
Student: One more question: So the 6 core values, and the book of Daniel’s* is really being embraced here in a lot of people, and in fact, there is one person who would really like to bring it into his work in the school system where he works. He’s going to do this in his own way—is this acceptable?
[*Note: Social Sustainability HANDBOOK for Community Builders, by Daniel Raphael. ISBN: 978-0-692-41640-2 ]
MACHIVENTA: Most certainly! A little bit of good is better than no good at all.
Student: Okay, thank you. I don’t have any more questions.
Closing statement
MACHIVENTA: Since there are no more questions, let me close our session today. You have been thinking about larger parameters of our work, and we applaud you. We appreciate your deeper thoughtfulness into what we are doing with you, and thinking about how that applies to your personal lives and to your social/organizational lives. You are beginning to wake up, even after all these years of beginning to understand social sustainability and the 6 core values in a much broader way that they are applicable to everything that humans think about and humans do, particularly with their social repercussions. It is a new way of reinterpreting your lives: what you think, what you say and what you do, and how you respond and react to others.
The remarkable aspect of this work is that it gently moves you into a more intimate relationship with your inner source of wisdom and intelligence and spirituality. These values being innate to your species and being given to you by God have an innate aspect to them to help you arise into your greatness, and that is the image of your prophet, whomever that might be, and do this in a peaceful way. You will begin to consider others very similarly as yourself, and in fact, when you develop this and internalize this to a greater extent, you will surely value others as you value yourself and love them as yourself, in spite of the foibles that you express in your own life, and you see so evidently in their life. This is true forgiveness before the act occurs, and this is most Christ-like. Thank you and good day.
