1998-11-19-Stillness & Prayer
Pittsburgh #70
Contents
• 1 Heading
o 1.1 Topic: Stillness & Prayer, Part 1
o 1.2 Group: Pittsburgh TeaM
• 2 Facilitators
o 2.1 Teacher: Tomas, Merium
o 2.2 TR: Gerdean
• 3 Session
o 3.1 Opening
o 3.2 Lesson
o 3.3 Dialogue
o 3.4 Closing
Topic: Stillness & Prayer, Part 1
Group: Pittsburgh TeaM
Facilitators
Teacher: Tomas, Merium
TR: Gerdean
Session
Opening
TOMAS: I am Tomas. Good evening.
GROUP: Good evening, Tomas.
TOMAS: How good it is to be with you. I am glad that you are all here and in such a celebratory humor. We are always joyed when we recognize your joy, in particular when it stems from your very substance and not necessarily from your external stimuli, for it is the internal value that will sustain you and see you through into yet more sustained joy. I would like to speak this evening for a moment about your inner life — to his arena within you in which your soul grows, in which your Adjuster lives, in which you think and feel and have your very Being. Let’s look at your internal aspects.
Lesson
TOMAS: When you turn inward, you do more than contemplate your navel. You have an active and colorful existence within you. You have passed the days when you sought reality outside yourself, for in seeking stillness you have learned to trust your inner space, your relationship with yourself. You have discovered the joy in being. You have learned, to some extent., to follow the guidelines and direction of your Indwelling Spirit.
As you allow yourself to go inward and upward, it is possible for you to seek counsel and communion, indeed, with the Father Himself, with his myriad helpers, personalities, hosts of space that can assist you in your understandings of the cosmos and your place in it – physically, morontially, spiritually, socially, and so on. All of this is an “inside job”. All of this is within you as a result of your understanding of who you are in your spiritual life.
Inside is where you have your perspective, where you have your creativity, where you have your individuality. Here you are your free will, your personality, your individuality. I am focusing on this aspect of you this evening for it is a good time to review your appreciation of your own existence. We, last week, talked about reviewing your life and seeing the silver lining on your experiences. In asking you to see the silver lining, we must assume there have been clouds, storms, and difficulties to overcome.
This evening you read that adversity is even necessary, but for this upcoming period of time, I would like for you to realize the good stuff, that which has clarity, that reality in you which is an assurance of your own authority, your own viable and unique approach to your course in life.
Character is affirming. All of these many efforts toward developing character are not simply to eliminate negative character, no, but to accept and recognize and foster that which is good character. Each of you have good character. You have value. You have reality. And yet, you are somehow fearful of it. Perhaps you are reluctant to accept it. Much like when we first became your friends, we perforce spent much time reassuring you of your value because of your existence, and not because of anything you had done. You are loved because you are of the Father. You are his creations, and therefore worthy of being.
Now you have come to appreciate and relish your being. You have done much inner work on aligning yourself with divine reality. You have discovered your clouds and silver linings and now we ask you to look at the sun within you, your own bright and shiny element, your actuality, which is of Creation.
This will be an interesting assignment for you, and I ask you to accept yourself in honesty and in sincerity and not in any assessment of pride or humility. Don’t compare yourself, in other words. Just see yourself. See your own personal truth, your beauty and your goodness. See it as yours, as your inheritance as rightful heirs in the Kingdom.
It will be wonderful when you then pray on Thanksgiving, when you, in the stillness and quietude of your heart, are given the gifts of awareness of your being in thanks and in gratitude of being, in this love-filled state, recognizing your place at the Father’s table. You will surely rejoice and radiate your joy in thanksgiving to those with whom you share. I have finished my formal lesson. How are you this evening? Are you awake enough to converse? Are you curious or troubled? Are you anxious? Have you commentary? I am here for you.
Dialogue
RACHEL: Tomas.
TOMAS: Rachel.
RACHEL: How are you?
TOMAS: I am well, my dear. How are you?
RACHEL: Well, I’m feeling a little stagnant, of non-service lately, but I’m sure that will pass. I’m hoping.
TOMAS: Before you proceed
RACHEL: Um-hum.
TOMAS: Inasmuch as I have asked you to look within to your value, perceive now, what’s wrong with your inner space? Are you crowded in there? Are you not feeling you have enough light, and air in which to function?
RACHEL: (Sigh) I’m just feeling as if I need to be of service somewhere . I’m feeling bereft! And lost.
TOMAS: It is now a matter of rearranging your interior furniture, perhaps, in order for you to extend yourself more fully. How wonderful that you are feeling a sense of expansiveness such that you are yet even more eager to be of service! Proceed then.
RACHEL: I seem to be having an increasing amount of what I call these little teaching dreams toward mornings. It’s this deep level of teaching, ad I can’t really remember them
TOMAS: Yes.
RACHEL: Maybe I’m not supposed to. It’s almost like the fabric way down deep there is being re-woven.
TOMAS: Yes.
RACHEL: Is it necessary to remember? Or is it somehow in preparation?
TOMAS: You are being trained in your deep mind. You are being prepared. Perhaps this yearning to be of extended service is upon you and you are being made ready. I am glad for your testimony of your communion and your guidance through the night. Administrations of spirit upon your mind are evident when you awaken with your clear thoughts.
As your consciousness is required, in order for you to function in your world, you naturally will lose pure sight of these messages. But they are registered. They are in there. You are growing into your new clothes, so to speak. It is not to worry if you cannot specifically remember because they are not necessarily conscious as of yet, but I will urge you to continue to prepare your mind before you sleep. By prayer and meditation allow yourself the psychic willingness to be adjusted in your sleep.
RACHEL: I like the idea of being, in fact, prepared for service. Thank you! I like to think this morning’s little discourse was on overcoming adversity, and you mentioned that word. Interesting.
TOMAS: It is a network of unheard of proportions. As you grasp a thread now and then you may be thrilled by the realization that the weaving is going on all the time. It is wonderful to behold you becoming aware – all of you – of your part in this tapestry.
RACHEL: You have helped us, Tomas. Thank you for that.
TOMAS: Thank you, dear daughter and upcoming ongoing, co-worker. It is indeed a cooperative effort we engage in here. Yes, we rejoice in our mission works – these works we do with each other and for Michael.
ELYSSIA: I love that thing about Thanksgiving, Tomas! I hope I get that transcript before Thanksgiving. Will we?
TOMAS: Perhaps it can be arranged.
ELYSSIA: I’d like to pass it around the table! I don’t force my religion on my family too much – because they wouldn’t LET me! – but .
HESTER: This really isn’t a religion.
ELYSSIA: Well, I know, but I’m trying,
HESTER: to get along with the crew.
ELYSSIA: Yeah. Not really.
HESTER: I’m finding if I just let go and let Just like – he came in today, my husband. I’m reading the Book and he says, “What’s so fascinating in THAT thing?”
ELYSSIA: Well, he has a good mind. If he were to take up the Book, he could probably go through it in zip time!
HESTER: Yeah. He was slow with religion; he’s very smart.
ELYSSIA: Well, men. It did say in the Book, because of our hormones, women are more naturally spiritual.
TOMAS: Oh, I am afraid we will have much objection to that remark.
ELYSSIA: Well, I mean until we get up to where you are, Tomas.
TOMAS: I’m afraid I must interject on behalf of all spirit life, even your mortal life, which is hardly dependent upon hormones.
ELYSSIA: I thought it said that in the Book! That women are just chemically, bio-chemically, electro-chemically, slightly more devout in their attitude.
TOMAS: Insofar as our Mother is concerned, it is true that her adjutant mind spirits are intimately interwoven with your instincts, but they are also affecting men.
ELYSSIA: Well, John Guest was talking about how many men are down at Three River Stadium worshiping every Sunday and I thought it was a perfect description of what I see going on down there. Is that supercilious? Judgmental, maybe?
TOMAS: I ‘m afraid, Elyssia, you will need to elaborate your prospectus somewhat for those who are unfamiliar with Mr. Guest and what goes on downtown.
ELYSSIA: The football game! The Steelers football game. Where tons of men in this city go to worship on Sunday morning, and some of them start at dawn, like some people are religiously, right? And some of these guys start at dawn.
TOMAS: You do the spirit realm a serious disservice when you elevate an appreciation for sport to the plateau of worship.
ELYSSIA: Oh, I’m doing this with irony, Tomas! Total irony.
TOMAS It is impossible to read irony.
HESTER: But there are those who worship sports, Tomas.
ELYSSIA: In our city, it’s a plague.
TOMAS: I am also a sports fan, but I distinguish between sportsmanship ON the field and sportsmanship IN the field.
ELYSSIA: Well, I guess I wanted to say – about my question – I keep wishing that – I keep struggling. The Book keeps saying, “sincere” and then it came up again tonight. The Book says this word sincere ALL the time. And I just can’t figure it out. I’ve asked you before and you’ve tried to tell me I’d like to know more about that sincere business.
TOMAS: We would too! We would like to see more sincerity reflected in terms of reality rather than sincere appreciations of unreality, and so you are the arbiter yourself of what sincerity might mean. What brand of sincerity do you feel will further your spirit? For it is in that context that you heard t he word used. If you intend to be alive and well in the Kingdom, it is necessary that you manifest sincerity in your making of decisions. What kind of decisions are going to further your spiritual reality? Is it which team to root for?
Is that the sincerity that is at issue? If you are going to look at the word “sincerity,” you must look to see what it is modifying. I have said before that it is possible for the human being to be sincerely selfish and sincerely deceitful. This is not the sincerity t hat will further you into spirit reality. We look once more to your intent, to your motives. How have you rationalized and justified your human sincerity that it might be construed as spirit-motivated, or is it truly spirit- motivated?
RACHEL: At the clinic, we get children who ask questions. A little girl asked me, “How did you know that you were going to be doing this? How did you get your job?” and in all sincerity, I looked at her and told her, “God showed me what I was to do.” And the looks on the faces! I mean, the eyes got very round! My comment was being sincere in my belief. And presenting that sincerity that resonates that truth that you really live it.
TOMAS: You will find that children are more inclined to honor your sincerity in that context. Adults, alas, have heard many people say, “God told me to” and sometimes their motives fall short of the ideal.
RACHEL: There are so many cliches about God and Jesus that have got such bad connotations on this world.
TOMAS: This is true.
RACHEL: It’s hard to get around that!
ELYSSIA: But you’re getting through because you yourself said that you were!
RACHEL: That was a spirit-led comment. I felt that. I let that go.
TOMAS: It is also a viable inquiry, if you will, Rachel, into your learning to be of further, deeper, greater service, for you are stating that you recognize that you have responded sincerely, but in using a cliche phrase, it is an affirmation – of a dependence on spirit, certainly, and a phrase which is unlikely to frighten anyone, — however, it is within you to be effective in your own right. It will require more courage perhaps, or greater command of yourself, however. You sense your capacities and you perceive the need, and so you will find yourself having yet more opportunities wherein you may stand more firmly upon the rock, the foundation of your faith, and speak those words which will come forth from Father in order to witness to His reality.
These value lessons are vital to those who see in you a spark of truth, beauty and goodness, and you are given the opportunity to be sincere in feeding his sheep. These morsels of spiritual food, they hunger for. If they have had in them a hunger and thirst for righteousness, for answers, and they have com e to you in their sincerity for guidance go at once to your inner citadel and allow your spirit guide to speak for you and answer simply and purely in words that are not cliches, the reality of your divine guidance – that same guidance that is available to ALL children.
RACHEL: I rehashed the conversation in my mind of what I could have said differently.
TOMAS: Yes.
RACHEL: Beautiful things flow through my mind. Such poetry! But at the given moment!
TOMAS: You perhaps halt in fear.
RACHEL: Yeah.
TOMAS: It is also possible that you have not given yourself credit for having the inner fortitude to manifest such reality. Perhaps this week’s exercise will enable you to be courageous in allowing your very being to come forth with these flowing words from the Father for surely this is your Source and the Source of these concepts, these words that appear in your mind, in reflection. You are teetering on the brink of walking transmission.
ELYSSIA: Frequently when you are working, there are children.
RACHEL: Sometimes children; sometimes adult. I like children better! They’re so open. Adults just have shut down a lot.
ELYSSIA: You are making an impact, I’m sure.
RACHEL: I don’t know about that!
ELYSSIA: You are talking about God to children. They don’t hear it too often.
RACHEL: Well, you don’t hear it seven days a week. You hear it one! so they are lucky.
TOMAS: Elyssia has a flock of children in her care also, and herein is yet another opportunity to be of vital service to these young souls and to the Father in introducing one to the other.
ELYSSIA: Well, I’d sure be open to a little lesson since you’ve given me one, and the ones you gave me lasted me for several weeks each.
TOMAS: Perhaps, then, you might take our discourse of this evening into your classroom. And weave into the format of your lesson plan an element of sincerity and ask your children to sincerely share something from their life that gives them a sense of comfort in expressing their own perspective, their own real feelings, about what they think. Give them the opportunity to relish their own sincerity so that they have a feel for it. This is good practice, particularly before they become adept in the art of artificiality.
ELYSSIA: Well, I like that very much. Can you say a few more words about it?
TOMAS: I will let Merium address this. One moment.
MERIUM: He is such a bore!
ELYSSIA: Hi, Merium! I love you!
MERIUM: I love you too. I also love dear Tomas, but it is almost inherent in his maleness that he affords me permission. I joke of this because we have discussed with you that men and women will be male and female throughout eternity and always will we differ and always will we stimulate and so on and so forth. And in His perspective, you see, his male perspective, he offers me the platform – graciously – but in MY perspective, you see, being a woman – we go, “Who gave you permission to give me permission?” (group chuckles) It is a peculiar difference in the genders that is more cause for delight than dismay, but I am indeed charmed to be “allowed” to speak to you regarding the exercise of bringing sincerity to your children in Sunday School.
There are two ways we can go about this Elyssia, — obviously the human way and the divine way, and this human way will be for you – very much the way I do when I address you sometimes, sit down as if I were your nanny and tell you a story. And this way, I get your attention, you see. This way, I gain your trust. This way I have put you at ease by appealing to your innocence, your childlikeness. I get you to like me, to trust me, by being harmless, by telling a fun thing, by giggling with you or being in such a way as to disarm you.
And then, if you’ve even noticed, I come in the other door and bring with me my troops, the army of the Lord, and we lay upon you then a blanket of reality and this is also a comfort for you, but you have been subdued and now you are willing to hear me out. And so I can give your open, eager minds something to truly savor and experience because I have very sincerely approached you as my dear and loving children. Now I can tell you about the Father. I can tel l you about our Hero. I can tell you about the romance and about the adventure.
I can bring all the reality to bear upon these children that they can assimilate, and even more, for they will take what they can and hunger for more and yet they are going to be fed by our intercourse, and so I offer you this same teaching tool. If you incorporate them as your brethren in the flesh, it is easy then for you to incorporate them as your younger brethren in the spirit. And give them such lessons as the spirits give you, when you arrive on higher worlds.
Thank you, Tomas, for your gracious acceptance of my undying hope for our relationship.
ELYSSIA: I have another question.
MERIUM: Oh! Yes. For me?
ELYSSIA: Either one of you, certainly.
MERIUM:I see.
ELYSSIA: It seems to me now I recall that when I was reading about techniques in drama they say just because you feel an emotion, doesn’t mean that you will create it in another person. It’s totally wrong. You have to think of a way to create the emotion in the person, not by having the emotion yourself, so when I’m trying to talk to my little friends about how much Jesus means or something, I really am struggling about how to get it across.
MERIUM: Is it Machivellian? Is that the word I’m looking for? Method acting perhaps? That technique that your actors use that puts them in the role entirely. If you are going to express the emotion, you become the emotion.
Therefore you present, you portray, what it is that you are trying to convey, and although they may not be experiencing it themselves, they can recognize the feeling because feelings are universal.
ELYSSIA: But sometimes when you’re talking about religion, you know these people who get real gushy about it? They turn me off, and that’s the technique I’m talking about. Just because you feel something deeply and you gush about it doesn’t mean you’re going to get the point across at all. I n fact, it works in the opposite direction.
MERIUM:Oh, you are getting smart, Elyssia!
ELYSSIA: And I’m trying to figure out to put it across about how much you find your faith a comfort to you and how much Jesus means to you and how he walks with you and he helps you.
MERIUM: An elevated concept of love! How original!
ELYSSIA: I don’t know. I’d like some help on this.
MERIUM:You have read in your text how Jesus employed the technique of capturing the attention of his hearers with an emotional thrust, right? But then he elevated the concept from the emotional realm into the spiritual realm, which is precisely what I have just outlined to you. You get them and then you lift them up. Your recitation there is about those who continue to harangue their hearers emotionally, and this is NOT the spirit, and indeed , this saccharine approach to religion is ineffectual in the long run.
ELYSSIA: Yep. That’s exactly what.
MERIUM: You also remember that emotions are exhausting. It is one of the reasons why your races today are so tired. They have heard this before and they want something original and alive and they want their Jesus in it. ( I speak to those of you who work in these realms. It is adaptable to different environments as you need to work with different fields, but the methodology is basically the same.) Lift them up into reality.
ELYSSIA: I’m not sure I understand.
MERIUM: Pray. I will pray also, for your understanding.
ELYSSIA: I do I’m getting flashes here. Flashes of
MERIUM:Yes?
ELYSSIA: And my friends here are going to help me.
MERIUM: Of course! Your personal teacher Maughm is also adept at teaching.
ELYSSIA: Yes. I’m looking forward to that.
CELESTE: Tomas.
TOMAS: Yes, dear.
CELESTE: Today I got a letter from Jewish people in Israel who are starting to want to follow Jesus and now they are being overwhelmed with the other Jewish people who don’t want this to happen in their country.
TOMAS: Yes.
CELESTE: It’s a very interesting letter. And the other Jewish group I h ave really been trying to help, because in Russia, the Russians won’t help the Jews get out of Russia and they want to go to Israel, so I send money ever y once in awhile to help those people get to Israel. And now those are probably the very people who are very upset about the Jewish people who are now wanting to know more about Jesus and to follow him. It’s very interesting. I felt really sad when I .
TOMAS: it is political, what you have gotten yourself into and it is also wonderful that you are finding people who are shared in a political situation who seek to rise above the trappings of politics and traditions in order to feel the freedom of the spirit. Remember Jesus came to free the spiritual captives and these people have been captives of traditional religion longer than Christianity has seen in existence. It is a wonderful thing to see yearnings of this nature, and it is unfortunate that your sincere desire to be of service has become complicated by the vagaries of national situations. It is ultimately one reason why we will continue to press for one United World. I have no specific solutions for you there, Celeste.
CELESTE: Just pray for them.
TOMAS: Certainly. For them ALL. Indeed. But you might also encourage, as the ultimate answer, the fostering of truth. Perhaps some of these real complications could be fruitful. There are many people of the Jewish faith who are seeking Jesus. They are not alone. Indeed, you know there are angelic orders that oversee and affect changes in these circumstances so they too are being of service in these unseen realms. Don’t feel then that the burden is entirely on your shoulders. That is all.
CELESTE: It’s just so very interesting that all these things are happening.
TOMAS: It is, as we have said many times, a very exciting time to be alive on Urantia. It is even more exciting than your perspective allows. It will be ever more interesting for you, I am certain, when you are given the opportunity to yield to the wisdom of the archives and see from that perspective the panorama of Urantia’s unfolding. We are very happy for your participation, for your earnestness and your yearning. These sincere desires to further the peace that passes all understanding is our goal.
LEAH: Is this Tomas?
TOMAS: Yes, it is Tomas. Merium has given me back the reigns. LEAH: When you refer to the archives, are you referring to the temples?
TOMAS: No. My inference was vague. It is really more like living records, which is why I used the word yield as compared to — in your libraries you go look up words in a book; in our libraries, we yield to their information. It’s a process.
HESTER: Do you mean the word the information conveys?
TOMAS: It is sort of like, Hester, if you go into a tanning salon and get tanned. You don’t go looking for the sun, you experience the process by yielding to the tanning salon.
LEAH: You spoke earlier, Elyssia, about a John Guest?
ELYSSIA: Rector John Guest. He’s an outstanding Christian.
TOMAS: He does not play football?
ELYSSIA: He likes sports a lot, so he speaks as one of the testosterone-poisoned people.
HESTER: It takes all kinds to make a world!
TOMAS: He is engaging in his ministry by emotionally capturing his teammates and then, ideally, lifting them up to the Greater Game. Yes, I see his technique.
ELYSSIA: I see that. Very good.
Closing
TOMAS: I think we have saturated ourselves this evening once again with festivities in the range of operation available to us all. It has once again been an esteemed pleasure. I look forward to your upcoming assignment. I will stop in and visit with you throughout this next upcoming period of time in order that you may check in with us about your assignment, and that, again, is to look inward and find your greatness, for it is of God. Amen and Farewell.
GROUP: Farewell, Tomas. Thank you.
