1996-01-06-Religion in Human Experience
Pittsburgh #8
Contents
• 1 Heading
o 1.1 Topic: Religion in Human Experience
o 1.2 Group: Pittsburgh TeaM
• 2 Facilitators
o 2.1 Teacher: Tomas
o 2.2 TR: Gerdean
• 3 Session
o 3.1 Opening
o 3.2 Lesson
3.2.1 Soul, Growth
o 3.3 Dialogue
3.3.1 Faith
o 3.4 Reference
Topic: Religion in Human Experience
Group: Pittsburgh TeaM
Facilitators
Teacher: Tomas
TR: Gerdean
Session
Opening
TOMAS: Good afternoon, my faithful friends.
Group: Good afternoon, Tomas.
TOMAS: Indeed I am Tomas, your teacher, and I am pleased that we have had this festive afternoon in which to socialize and to share insights into our own spiritual experience as has been set forth in the text.*
Lesson
Soul, Growth
Prior to this moment of coming “on-line” as we say, and joining you in this more formal format of communication, I have been engaged in conversation with my peers in the spirit realm, and among the many visitors today, Michael himself came by to remind me to remind you that although the qualities ascribed to him in the section you read are worthy of note, it is not for you to try to relive Michael’s life but to learn to live your own (life) with your own personality aspects and characteristics.
And so I come to you today, my friends, in keeping with the evolution of our group thus far, and say that the reading is on point with where we are in our development, for last week we began to focus that we would begin work on the one personality which is your soul, that your soul may then interact with other souls in social aggregate towards light and life. And how appropriate that these qualities which we reviewed in the reading today are precisely those qualities that God-conscious men and women aspire to have in their own unified personality!
It has been said, and you will recall the adage, “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.”[1] This peace of which I speak is not the peace of passivity or passive acquiescence to what transpires in your world, no, but more to that peace which passes all understanding. This is our undertaking, then, that we begin to develop those qualities of mind, body and soul which will allow for the human being to find this life a gratifying and joyous experience and, also, all the while, augmenting and contributing to the spiritual satisfaction and well-being of all.
Behold the man. Behold the woman. Behold the mortal child of God and man at once — the being that you are, of dual nature, born of the flesh and destined to become spirit, in time. Behold yourself, now, and reflect on Correction. How can we correct Urantia if we consistently thrust our efforts onto the man or woman next to us? The work of kingdom building is “an inside job.”
In the prayer that the Master taught, He says, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” and this is our work also, that the Kingdom of Heaven, which is within you, shall begin to manifest itself in your environment. And what is your environment? In its most initial state, your environment is yourself, your soul, your fertile soil, which remains open to growth and development. In pondering a moment on the immediate environment of your soul, …One moment.
(I apologize. I have given my T/R a start, for I myself thought of something I wanted to include, and in my thinking process this T/R picked up on my thought change and was astounded that I could forget something in my lesson plan; she rendered me speechless. Let me try to regain “control” of this situation.)
We were discussing the arena of your soul [which is] your most immediate environment! And I thought that perhaps before I proceed, what we shall do regarding your soul, was to review what I mean when I speak of soul. Your soul is that which is developed in the marriage of your Thought Adjuster, which indwells you, and your mind, which is your free will agent. As your mind, through your free will, chooses to coordinate with the desire of your Indwelling Spirit, your soul begins to grow.
Of course, you know that your growth – this growth – will be unconscious, but the fact of the matter is that it will grow through your decisions and, therefore, I am discussing the growth of that which is becoming real, is becoming permanent, is becoming immortal — the you that will be eternal. And yet … it also is here now. And so with that brief definition, I will proceed into discussing the soul environment and on beyond into its realm of influence.
Your immediate environment is your soul. It is where you live. It is your reality. (It is) not that which is external/material, but the exterior and material is your next immediate level of operation. It is your home environment – your physical home – and in that it includes your relationships with your family members, your spouse, your children, your roommates, your loved ones. It extends into your work environment, your fellows, people with whom you spend time on a regular basis and, in the long run, it — (I am speaking of your environment) — it extends into the more general milieu of the streets, shopping centers and the like.
And so, when we say, “Behold the human being,” we are speaking of the potential spirit housed in the material body functioning in a well-unified personality in this existence. It is important for me to stress this because this is how life and light will become reality on Urantia — “on earth as it is in heaven.”
It is meaningless for you to consider only a transcendent spirit reality to the exclusion of your mortal existence, for your mortal existence is your arena. It is the arena in which you work and play and have your being. The well-unified personality is at home in this world, is productive and happy, and even though regulated by some mores and rules of the game, can be a diligent disciple of spirit truths by being himself or herself and being also at complete peace within the deep, deep core of his or her being.
And so when it is said, “What does it matter if all things early crumble?” from this bastion of the spirit, from this reality of the soul, the foundation is laid that your external environment is indeed but scaffolding toward higher realities. But as a worker in the field, it behooves you to apply yourself to the arena as you find it. Opportunities will be unveiled and revealed to you as you learn to walk in grace and in anticipation of opportunities to rejoice and to be of service in this arena.
The arena of Urantia-at-large has suffered greatly, and its inhabitants have been dealt many fatal blows. There is much correction to be done before we can expect our kingdom to be manifest in-the-large, but we can glimpse those instances of Paradise pattern which will urge us forward in our growth, and you will begin to comprehend your own sphere of light and life as you begin to know it in yourself; and this, too, will require on-going correction of your own perceptions and beliefs and impressions, for what you have been given is a fruit which has spoiled. The bitter fruit of rebellion, default and the carnage of war and other side effects of primitive evolution have to be recognized and dealt with and set aside in order that the sweet fruits of the spirit can prevail.
The sweetness of the “fruits of the spirit” is only beginning to fill the hearts and souls of the hungry. And so I ask you all today to consider that even though each of you are fortunate in many ways, that you have health, wealth, prosperity, understanding and exposures to great theologies and philosophies, that as a budding morontial soul, you are and have been impoverished. In this, then, I ask you to consider what is spiritual poverty, and consider yourself spiritually impoverished in order that you might then see how far you need to grow from here.
I have just asked you, yes, to become a tadpole, and this is a most humbling experience. Be assured I do not ask you to consider your spiritual poverty in order to belittle your knowledge or your self-respect or your standing in the cosmic scheme of things, no, but in considering your spiritual poverty you can feel that emptiness which will ask to be filled with spiritual light. And now you are giving yourself permission to grow.
For it is a part of the human condition, part of your heritage here, to attain a level of understanding and become self-satisfied, to become adequate to the purpose. And in order that we might accomplish our over-all purpose — Michael’s purpose for you and for Urantia and for his local universe — you must place yourself in a position of being willing to be remade, reborn, re-motivated, revamped, rekindled, renewed at every juncture.
This “blessed are the poor in spirit” beatitude is the beginning of greatness for you — for the man, the woman, that is becoming.
It has been a powerful day in your environment, in your souls, in this room, in this Teacher Base, and there has been ample food placed upon your plate to feed you for weeks, and so I will not pursue further a lesson for today but will rather leave off, that we might have time and inclination now for our delightful communication one on another. May I hear from you?
Dialogue
Faith
Mrs. M: Tomas, I was listening to one of my fundamentalist radio programs again and these people, some of them, are so beautifully devoted to Jesus, and this one delightful person named Carl said, “I’m going to give you a list of ways to increase your faith,” and today in reading about these marvelous reborn times that people experience, it seemed to say there was a total enlargement of faith, and it fitted in with my question that I intended to ask you and that was, can you describe ways in which we might increase our faith?
TOMAS: I will begin by suggesting that as you pray for greater faith, your faith will be greatened. In greater faith your capacities are enlarged and your joys are extended. In those times when your faith is weak, consider your growth at the time. Perhaps you are in a state of confusion because of the unconscious growth which is taking place and you may construe this to be a lack of faith or a loss of faith when this is not the case. Therefore, again, pray for faith and increased faith, for faith shall set you free and shall bring you into confidence.
Mrs. M: Thank you very much.
Mrs. H: I was with a very simple person the other day, whom I respect and admire and I often say that I wish I could be like her more, and I thought that maybe you might have been there, because being with her is a very deep spiritual time, and I just thought that maybe you might remark on this beautiful person for the spiritual delight of my dear friends here.
TOMAS: With respect to your request, I will not, for it is to no purpose. It is exclusive of all wondrous and delightful children of God who also give of themselves in the lives of all, and we only need to be grateful that our peers exist to lend fragrance to our existence.
Mrs. H: Thank you.
TOMAS: You tell me. Have we attained a saturation point?
Group: I believe so.
TOMAS: Indeed, like a thanksgiving dinner, it is time to savor the experience and pat our tummy and pick our teeth in satisfaction that the abundance of the spiritual feast of plenty and of challenge have come upon us once again. It is, again, with great pleasure that I meet with you and encourage your continued aspiration and I look forward to being with you again soon in our formal format. And in the interim, I will pass by and check on you and speak with you if you call me in your private time. Otherwise, my friends, my children, as they say in your vernacular, “Have a good day.” Farewell.
Reference
Paper 100 – Religion in Human Experience in the Urantia Book
