Special Session #20 – Charles’ view on Spiritual Pragmatism – Aug. 27, 2010
Teacher: Charles, a Mighty Messenger
Topics: Definition of spiritual pragmatism
The Melchizedek Schools and University
The staging has been done for this current era
The main intention is to develop a sustainable civilization
Your attitude reflects your intention to accept change
The universe is material, energetic and organismic
Respect yourself as an organism, with the world as an extension
Appreciate the earth’s bounty
Application of spiritual pragmatism to the BP catastrophe
Responding in a spiritually pragmatic way
Assisting others to apply spiritual pragmatism
TR: Daniel Raphael
Moderator: Vicki Vanderheyden
August 27, 2010
Vicki: Dear Father, as we come together, the three of us as a team, with all our unseen helpers, we express our gratitude for the help we’ve received in the last few days to align our lives and place us in a better position to do our work for you. We ask that you surround us in your loving circuit of truth, beauty and goodness, as we receive these messages today. Amen.
CHARLES: Good morning, this is Charles.
Vicki: Good morning, Charles.
CHARLES: Welcome, my friends, it is good to be with you once again. I enjoy your company and your willingness to bend your backs to hard work that is here now and ahead of us. I wish to continue a bit, talking to you about “Spiritual Pragmatism” and try to explain this more fully.
Definition of spiritual pragmatism
Spiritual Pragmatism really is the integration of a spiritual practice and the practicality of living day-to-day, moment-to-moment. There is no separation. I need to explain this to you because most of you have lived your lives in separation, even those of you who are devout religionists who go to church several times a week oftentimes live in spiritual separation, where you see your religion as separate from your personal life, that your religion is not a practical part of your every day life of living, of the problems and finding solutions and asking for guidance. You pray, you provide supplications, you beg for forgiveness, you plead and cajole God to give you what you need, but it is there for you already; it is already present in your life—all you need to do is accept it.
A major difference between a planet that is in the era of light and life, and your planet is the awareness of citizens on a planet of light and life that they are material beings in a spiritual world, a spiritual universe, that there is no separation. Whether it is raising children, whether it is seeking a profession or career, finding your right and perfect home, determining whether you will have children or not, how you will spend your retirement, what will be your mission and goal and criteria for attainment of fulfillment in your life.
Many of you have determined that these are all materially related, determined by your culture and your decisions to accept those or to not accept those in your culture. But on a world that is in the era of light and life, these are all integrated into your thinking as you are raised so that you seek inner guidance to fulfill your life in the material realm by achieving spiritual goals. Your career, for instance, would be one which is in agreement with your life plan, one that contributes to the lessons you are to learn in this lifetime, and that assists you in your morontial development, even while on that world.
This is the same for you here, when you accept it. You can advance your morontial career immensely by how you integrate the pragmatic realities of spirituality into your everyday life. Many of you reject the psychic and the intuitive realm as something that is almost nefarious; however, these are the senses, capacities and faculties of the lower realm of morontial existence. To see with your mind’s eye is an aspect of the lower realm of the morontial. What you see is what your mind directs, and you decide with your will, what you will to see and what you will not to see. What you become and what you do in your life is determined by your state of consciousness. This may sound as though the semantics of this conversation are far removed from the practicalities of everyday life, but they are not; they are intimate to your everyday life.
The Melchizedek Schools and University
Learning to pray, learning to know how to pray effectively is an important facet of the practicality of your life, here on this material world as you grow and develop into your spiritual self. It is necessary that there be no separation in your life’s work and your spiritual development. You will find in the Melchizedek School and the Melchizedek University that we are integrating the spiritual training into the practicalities of daily living, of yourself as an individual and as a family member, and as a member of a community and extended society.
The interest of the triumvirate of Christ Michael, Machiventa and Monjoronson, through the Correcting Time is to infuse in your practical world of everyday life the spiritual principles of an evolving society, evolving family structures and evolving individuals. You will have this opportunity to begin that, whether you attend the school or the university, [or] you can begin at home. These two institutions of training prepare you to work actively under the direction of a celestial consultant, a Melchizedek, who will work with you individually and with your teams. It is essential that you participate in the evolution of your society when you receive your training in the Melchizedek School and University, or on your own, apply these principles to where you live and where you work immediately.
The staging has been done for this current era
Going to another topic — this immediate era that we and you are in right now, this era of 2010 on Urantia — for many of you, you have already been ‘staged’, that is you have already entered into the movements of your life, whether it is a change of residence, a change of employment, changes in your family, someone who decides to divorce or marry or move on to their morontial career, these changes have been taking place gradually. This era now, this year and next year, is an era where you will be placed. The staging has occurred and now the placement will occur.
The staging is much as a theatrical stage where the sets are moved and the scenes changed and all the settings are put in place. Now the actors will take up their locations on that stage and begin to practice and act out their lives in this drama of life. So, too, many of you have been staged, the outwork manifestations of your life have been rearranged and you are now being placed on this stage, for a position, an act, a character, to be fulfilled through your life, that you will play out this work in real time with your fellow brothers and sisters on this stage, in this new era.
Some will not change; they will remain where they are, but some of the major actors who will be a part of this traumatic transition era have been or are being or soon will be placed on this stage, where they will be in powerful positions to act out the roles that are necessary to help fulfill Christ Michael’s Correcting Time in a minor way throughout your world. This is being done not only in this culture, but all cultures around the world. You will find many powerful players coming together soon, to participate in this. Do not resist these changes, nor resist where you are.
If you are not moving, it means that you are a pillar of support in the foundation to remain in your community, who will be an important part of this drama that is acted out, and you will be an important element to fulfill these plans. Not everyone can be a mover and a shaker; not everyone wants to be, and it is not necessary for everyone to be a mover and shaker. It is important that there be a huge inertia, a mass that remains in place to hold fast to that which is important, accepting new directions peacefully, knowing that there is a divine plan in mind.
The main intention is to develop a sustainable civilization
Some of you have resisted this movement. Some of you have seen the elements that would move you forward or change your life and you have resisted. This is a personal choice, of course, and you may enjoy the results, or not. For those of you who have been moved or will move, it does not mean that you will have a life of ease either, for everyone’s role will be difficult; it is the intention you have for your life as you participate in your families, communities, society and your civilization that will be important to develop the world that comes into existence, peacefully.
The main intention for all of this work for the Correcting Time is to develop a sustainable civilization, one that provides a fertile seed bed for the elements of the days of light and life that will surely come into your world. All of you will determine how soon that happens—or how long it is delayed. It is inevitable, in any way, and it requires individuals to will to do God’s will to become active participants in this plan. It requires those who act by commission, rather than omission, making active decisions to remain where they are, or making active decisions to move on, to change to become a part of this new era.
Your attitude reflects your intention to accept change
Many of these changes may not appear to make sense to you. Families are in disruption. Children go to college, you now have an empty nest—what do you do? Do you two or singly rattle around in your big house by yourself, or do you move on to a new location? Perhaps in that new location, you will find friends, acquaintances and associates who can be a part of your new era, your new life. Some of you have lost your jobs to this economic turmoil. For our consideration, this has not been a bad thing, as it allows us to move people thousands of miles geographically and culturally, to positions where they will be most useful – where once you may have lived in Northern Canada, now you may live in Tennessee. It would be quite a change for you, and you would want to be an effective part of that societal community where you move.
You become a much more powerful element for us, with a positive attitude of accepting these changes peacefully and seeing the positive, constructive good that is invested in these changes. Many of you see your changes as material loss; you have sold your house at a loss, maybe you have had to abandon your house, you’ve lost your retirement or it has diminished because of the decrease in investments and the return on investments. These are short-term losses, which may have a very positive effect on the quality of your life in the future, rather than clutching to your material security, you are willing to move on into a much more secure social, emotional, personal, and spiritual life. The choice is yours. Your attitude reflects your intention, and how you accept these changes.
Change is inevitable, it will always be here, it will always continue. This era of your world will be an era that will be known throughout history as the greatest change agent and era of change in all the history of earth, affecting more people than have ever been affected in the history of this world. How you play that out is important to the ends that Christ Michael has designed for you, personally, and with your Thought Adjuster and for your world.
The universe is material, energetic and organismic
Another subject: I have reflected with you upon the energetic changes that are occurring in this special area of the cosmos of Nebadon. The truth of the universe is that it is material, it is energetic and it is organismic. The universe is an organism. You and this world are a part of that organism. You are material beings, but there is an organismic capacity to your world and to this environment, which is living and real, dynamic and evolutionary. You affect it; it affects you. Your very bodies, your brains, your organs—all your physicality—was once part of a supernova in space. You are the living residue of the material organism of this universe. You are part of it; you are it; it is you; you affect the whole and the whole affects you.
Respect yourself as an organism, with the world as an extension
In many ways, to draw a perhaps dark metaphor, a parallel, is that your world is much like a protective, loving dog, who is caring but who is inhabited by these fleas, which dig into its skin, and cause it some grief once in a while. On the other hand, there are other organisms on this planet, which exist and provide a symbiotic relationship to the world. Are you a part of that symbiosis, or are you parasitical? You are organismic in any regard; you are part of this larger organism. Do you respect your bodies?
Many of you do not; neither do you respect the earth. It is time for you to respect yourself as an organism, a living organism, and that your world is an extension of your life, and you are an extension of it. You are organismically inseparable from the universe; you are a living part of the universe; you are a living part of the world. Your world is real; it is living; it is an organism; it has a consciousness quotient which makes it real and existent in terms of its potential, infinite existence in the universe. Your living upon this world helps its longevity or not.
As a living organism, to draw another metaphor or parallel, is that the earth is much like your body: within that body there are cells. You as individuals are much like cells of that body. When the body dies, you eventually will die. You can, when there is an infection in the body, the body will strive to heal itself and reject the infection. This is fairly accurate for the situation on your world now that there has been an organic infection of your world due to dark consciousness, misuse of energy and lack of thoughtful, constructive intention for living.
To again draw back to the parallel of the dog, it is though your world has taken a bath in a stream, and that it comes out upon the beach and shakes its coat violently to rid itself of the excess water. Your world is now in the process of shaking loose those elements that are destructive to it, which must be reorganized for your world to regain its wholeness, its integrity. It is important that you think in terms of integrity; are you an integral part of this organism, or are you an antagonistic part of this organism? Will you be shed in the chaos of this transition era, or will you remain and be supported by it?
Appreciate the earth’s bounty
Yes there is a consciousness of support for elements that are friendly to your world. It is important that you gain this understanding and appreciation. Yes, you may extract minerals; yes, you may extract oil and other things from the outer layer of this world, but do so in the same manner as you would lovingly dispatch an animal to slaughter. You would praise it for its life; you would thank it for living, and you appreciate it giving you its life and its produce for your continuation for your sustenance.
And so too, you have an appreciation for the petroleum products, for the coal, for the minerals—the iron that comes from the earth—and you remain in gratitude. Would it not be quite a significant departure to have a stockholder’s meeting where there was praise and appreciation for the earth for sharing its bounty, with the corporation and the dividends which were distributed? Now that would be quite a different change, would it not? Think about these things and apply them, my friends. I am open for questions, if you have any.
Application of spiritual pragmatism to the BP catastrophe
Vicki: Charles, could you give us an example? For instance, how would you take the BP (British Petroleum) situation and apply spiritual pragmatism? How should we respond in a spiritually pragmatic way, to a crisis of this sort?
CHARLES: By the BP situation, you mean the bursting of the wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico
Vicki: Yes.
CHARLES: This is much like closing the barn door after the horse is out. This is too much thought, too late. The spiritual pragmatism applied to this is too late; it is now time to apply spiritual pragmatism of friendliness with the earth, the appreciation for it, respect for it and the protection of those resources. There is a real connection between spiritual pragmatism and material acquisition of the earth’s bounty. It is an appreciation for protecting those resources.
In the case of the BP problems, there was a far more respect for protecting the financial assets of the corporation contractor, rather than expending them to protect the assets that were in the earth. Which weighs more? Which would cost more? There has been the loss of millions upon millions of barrels of oil into the ocean, which are worth billions of dollars, compared to the $10,000,000 it may have cost to upgrade the protective device at the wellhead. This is selfish arrogance of the grandest nature. It is beyond comprehension to understand and to give appreciation to this kind of selfishness.
It is too late to understand the spiritual pragmatism for this disaster. It can only be used to appreciate what is left that remains with the earth and to protect it through appreciation of these resources. When you come down to it, one must understand the organismic connection between yourselves as individuals, as stockholders, as executives and corporate leaders to your Mother Earth, and resources it provides to you.
There is a direct connection. If one were to have this attitude of spiritual connectedness, organismic connectedness, to the earth and its environments and its resources, then one would protect those resources. One would see the living connection between those resources and your own lives, rather than seeing in terms of the residual of cash and assets that one sees as the bottom line in your corporate ledgers. This is a distant relationship and it is nonexistent; the relationship is with money and value of that nature, rather than with connectedness and integrity with the earth, with the understanding and knowing that there is no separation.
This corporate attitude of separation between assets and finances and those earthly resources is devastating and will continue to wreck havoc, wherever that attitude is expressed. There will always be mistakes because the attitude and intention is mistaken in the beginning. There is no problem with extracting minerals from the earth—it is here for your bounty—it is your attitude, it is your intention, it is your oneness or separation from it that makes the difference.
Responding in a spiritually pragmatic way
Vicki: It seems that we’ve had our share of these blunders, and that there are more to come. When we face these blunders that we’ve created, then we are forced to clean them up. Can you give us some guidelines, some direction, in how we can respond in a spiritually pragmatic way?
CHARLES: Many of you are already doing that. You respect the earth, you love the earth, you recycle materials, you see the recycle of and continuity between the use and the earth’s abundance. This is the way to proceed; this is the connection. There are those who do not do this, and of course they do not help you maintain that connection. What you can do is to help others see that there is connection, rather than separation. Many of these attitudes and separation from the earth are cultural, they are part of a national ethos and it is part of a way of seeing their world.
Those of you who are aware of your connection on this continuity [of] integrity with your world, spiritually and pragmatically, do much to help the future. It would be helpful for you to help educate those who do not see this connection, though where it really begins is deeply within the individual. There is tremendous separation within the individuals who express these flagrant materialistic attitudes towards the earth, and themselves. They are separate, there is a lack of integrity within themselves. There is not a simple, short-term quick answer to your question. It is a matter of turning around your culture, of changing the ethos of a corporation and towards one that is friendly to the earth.
Assisting others to apply spiritual pragmatism
Vicki: When I think about the work that we have to do in this near future that will move us toward this new era of light and life, I reflect upon your words and those of Monjoronson. Both of you have stated that things like right-mindedness, intentional consciousness, spiritual pragmatism, must begin within. And so it seems that in order to take the next baby step, much of our co-creative work has to do with helping others develop this sense within. Would you agree with that?
CHARLES: Most definitely.
Vicki: And in doing so, we can set the examples through the life we lead ourselves, rather than in an evangelistic manner. Would you agree as well?
CHARLES: Yes.
Vicki: So, in spiritual pragmatism there is a degree of tolerance?
CHARLES: Most definitely. There is a need for tolerance, forbearance, patience, forgiveness, allowance for error—in fact knowing that there will be error, but “hanging in there,” as you would say, to remain faithful to the best interests of everyone, knowing that deep within each individual is a potential to become whole and integrated with others, and integrated with themselves. It is not an easy chore to take on the master position, the master attitude, the Jesus the Christ-position and consciousness, but it is necessary as example to others to provide a model to others that allows for differences knowing that the best will eventually come forward when we assist those best interests.
By being rigid and didactic we do not allow others to see the flexibility, the tolerance and forgiveness that they must extend to themselves. This is where it will eventually come to, where the individual is self-reflective and is self-forgiving, tolerant of their own vagaries not to be consistent, not to be integrated or whole, but moving towards that with a positive attitude and the correct intention.
Vicki: I just want to take the opportunity to thank you, Charles. I thought that was a wonderful, wonderful lesson. I think it extended our definition of spiritual pragmatism, and I really appreciate the landscape you gave us toward the change that we are experiencing. Thank you.
CHARLES: You are most welcome. We can be as direct as needed to move us ahead; yet, too, there is a need to be pliant, to be flexible, to be tolerant, for allowance to move and “fudge a bit,” as you would say, to allow for miscalculations as long as we are all moving together. The need for directness is necessary in this case, in this era, because it is necessary—it is vastly necessary to now begin to affect the outcomes that we desire—that both you desire and we desire—and that we come to one mind in doing this, and proceed.
It begins by awareness, a need for education, a need for growth, for the necessity of greater awareness and appreciation for our individual situations and that of the world. You and we are working together and we have many resources. The staging has been done and now the actors are being put into place, and the play must begin. Thank you. Good day.
