2005-07-31. Coping Mechanisms
Rio Rancho #118
Topic: Coping Mechanisms
Group: Rio Rancho TeaM
Teacher: Tomas
TR: Gerdean
Opening
MUSIC: Elena on Piano: “Learning to Walk” and
PRAYER: “Oh Master Let Me Walk With Thee”
Reneau: Two walking songs.
Group: That was lovely. Amen.
TOMAS: Good afternoon, lovely friends. I am Tomas, a teacher in the Teacher Corps.
Group: Welcome! Hi, Tomas.
TOMAS: I present my credentials as a reminder of our task. But before we commence our walk, I would like to sit with you in a moment of repose, along with the Master who joins us in our moment’s soliloquy with him, in peaceful appreciation of the richness of the moment — the peace and placidity of your love is these circumstances which we enjoy when we come together.
Lesson
I call your attention the fact that I am a Teacher of the Teacher Corps under Machiventa Melchizedek, our Prince, and make our lessons manifest as we can, in and through you who are willing learners. We have talked about learning to walk. We have used the analogy of how it is that when you are reborn, born of the spirit, you are dependent, naturally dependent, on the Father to provide your every need, to feed you that which will nourish you and help you grow, to counsel you and coddle you, comfort you and correct you as you grow, eventually to crawl … as if you were really going somewhere! … and eventually stand and go from one piece of furniture to the other as support, before you have finally gotten your bearings in the spiritual life you are beginning to lead. With your feet on the ground and adventures ahead, you begin to walk, indeed. And walk with the Master.
We have a lot of walkers in the mission today, a lot of walking in other missions as well, that together are heading in the direction of a new world. While one value system falls away, the other is coming into being – not just in your spirit, and not just in your feelings, but in your mind and in time this will be realized in your way of life. Industries and institutions will modify and adapt to accommodate the values and ideals that are emerging in your efforts to learn to walk with the Master. As you proceed, taking his hand — and in many ways being his hands and feet and mouthpiece in the world – you join with others, and soon there is a large throng, becoming as a mighty river of living water, forging its way through the dry earth, to bring renewed life, revivification through the living waters that you are in concert with others of like mind.
You are, to expand the theme of the river, like the bosque — you who stay close to the river, who are related to the living water, who have your feet planted firmly in this fertile ground — and like the trees and cottonwoods of the bosque, your leaves and branches reach high into the sky where you take in your source of energy and sustenance, shading your younger brothers and sisters as they grow, and providing a haven for the many creatures who live in your precious bosque — the bosque provided by you who are believers – not of mere monuments to religion, but as a part of the living, flowing, moving way of life we know when we walk with God.
The difference between living in the bosque with God and living on the streets and boulevards of the concrete jungle or the inner city, is the difference between day and night. It is in the cities, in this analogy, this parable, where you would go to serve those who have not yet met the peace and tranquility of the bosque way of life. Entering into the city fold is radical, loud, jarring and unsafe. And yet, if you go there with a mission, with a purpose, you go there with God’s guidance and protection. You have a reason for being there, and so you can go and minister in confidence of your safe journey and you can return to the riverbank at night to sit around the campfire as we do here, and relish the repose of those who seek to instill the peace on earth that we know is possible if we but set aside our strife.
All of us are dependent on the river, on the living water that flows from on high. All of us take our nourishment from its life-blood, and while as a body of people we can resemble the river, as individuals it is our lot to walk alongside the river and appreciate its beauty, its truth, its goodness, its ways, even its occasional treachery in the business of being a river, as God does in being a creator.
How have you been? Are there stories to tell? Or questions to ask?
Then I will talk more. I had been pondering earlier about how it is that you cope. How, as you go into the cities, as you in fact reside in the cities, as you may longingly look to the bosque as a place to be, it is not so. You then need to adapt and adjust to the circumstances and situations wherein you find yourself. For certainly you are conscious of survival and the needs that must be met at the same time you seek to serve and build a brave new world based on your highest and best ideals for humanity.
Coping mechanisms are tied into your social consciousness as mores, and they stem from your mind — your mind, which is the first arena you must master in your walk, in your work. If you have not self-mastery, you cannot expect to hold up under the swell and flow of the asphalt jungle (as it is called). And so, many of you have spent much time developing ways to make life work for you … without God. And while these coping mechanisms may have served you as a mortal of the realm, they have short-circuited your ability to go beyond your own mind into the regions of the divine mind, which you have access to through your relationship with Our Father.
It is not necessary for the child of God to cope, as it is necessary for the human animal to cope. No doubt Jesus had to cope with many situations in his life. He was certainly tried and tested in life’s normal course of events, by his relationships and business dealings, and so the man coped. But when the time came for him to put down his apron and to be about the Father’s business, it was not a question of coping with humanity, it was a matter of pouring out upon humanity the living water that was possible to come forth from him because he let down his coping mechanisms and allowed the Father to pour freely from him.
The same is possible for all of you. There are times when you must cope, when you must endure, when you need be long-suffering and tolerant, patient, forbearing, forgiving in your dealings with men and even with yourself. But there are times in which you are able to liberate yourself from that mental constraint and allow the spirit to flow from you freely. This is like what I enjoy when I get to speak with you. I am not coping. I am doing what I am here to do and loving what I do.
Dialogue
Elena: That’s good to know. You’re not coping with us.
Reneau: Is there anything in your “life” that you do have to “cope with” in between your joys of serving?
TOMAS: Let me express my response this way: When I am with you, I am in the bosque.
Group: Okay. Thanks, Tomas.
TOMAS: When I am with my peers, I am also in a safe place. But as ascending sons and daughters, and not yet perfect, it is sometimes my lot to experience the necessity to cope as I enjoin my peers arguing about interpretations or approaches. These are short-lived, for the most part, because by now we have pretty much learned to go to Machiventa or other (Melchizedek) Receivers for guidance, for there is always someone who has greater wisdom and experience – always. And where we find you fiercely independent and self-determinative, we have relinquished those clutches long ago in order to be about the Father’s business in ways for which we are experientially qualified.
I have expressed on occasion that I do grow weary. But having such a feeling does not require of me that I develop a coping mechanism to continue with my assignment. It is not necessary for me to promise myself a reward if I can get through this. It is not necessary that I blame someone for the effort I must expend. I withdraw. I return to the river. I refresh myself in the living waters. I return to the city renewed, reinvigorated, as the sap returns each year to the maple tree in order for maple syrup to come into being.
Esmeralda: But Tomas, would we be able to cope as well if we did not know that the river and the bosque were there for us?
TOMAS: Now there is a good question. For the more you know about the living water, the more you know how to relinquish your dependency on coping techniques. They become like wool clothing in the springtime. But there are still many, many people who have not the frame of reference of the divine life they live, the divine life that lives within them. They look to God as if he were still in some far off place, a city behind pearly gates, and they short-change themselves. They cannot possibly know what you know. Their whole life becomes a series of coping mechanisms in which there is no surcease.
Is there any wonder there is strife in the world? Is there any wonder there is deception, and manipulation? It is from not knowing about the river of life of which we are a part, a living part, that makes them feel they need to control their own destiny. I know you also have times when you feel you must control your own destiny and be masters of your fate. I know how important it is to the human being to feel as if he is in control of his life and that his life is manageable. No one likes to feel tossed about on the winds of change like some fragile leaf. And yet, in life there are times when you lose your bearings. You are cut adrift from your moorings. And you have a moment or two of insecurity. But as time passes and you continue your journey, you realize that this too shall pass and that you are always brought back to your Source because you know how it feels, what it sounds like. You have a built-in compass that will lead you home.
Elena: Actually, Tomas, I had two or three things that I was going to ask you, but right there, that pretty well provides the answers to all of them. What came to mind was, you know, maybe seeing what your comments on my new position would be, or there was also a deal about, I don’t know, selling my condo, and the way to do that, and then just expressing gratitude over actually having a greater sense of well-being than I had. But really, your comments right there just have actually answered all of those. Minus the specifics, of course, but …
Esmeralda: You know, Tomas always takes care of what I need to know without my really asking. But last night I was watching Bill Mahr and he was doing one of his one-man stand-up things, and I really enjoyed it, but he was talking about the religious right and he made one comment that made me sad for him. He was talking about what the religious right says so many times, and one was, he said, They say “Jesus is always with me.” He said, Jesus isn’t– He said, “You know, you can believe in fairy tales and myths when you’re a child but when you’re an adult, you know, fairy tales and myths aren’t necessary.” And I thought, you know, we all have a Thought Adjuster and our Father Fragment and they are always with us. And if you aren’t aware, that’s sad. And I felt sad for him. So, I enjoy him. I think he’s funny and he’s entertaining, but that, I thought, was a very sad statement.
Reneau: Just a different perspective of who Jesus is, that would be with you every moment, you see. Bill Mahr has a different perspective than what we do.
Esmeralda: Yeah. But that struck me as a sad note.
TOMAS: This is very sad indeed, and it is something that cuts through much of humanity. It is as if in their desire to learn how to live the life — that is to say in developing coping mechanisms — they need to set aside those props and crutches which will hinder their getting where they need to go or doing what is expected of them. This is a problem of evolution that will one day be eliminated as people recognize that Jesus is not Tinkerbell. He is a very valid reality that can make life more meaningful.
The Chinese had a saying that religion was an opiate for the masses, and that theory tends to invade all the races and civilizations at some point in time, but it is only a temporary stage in the onward march of humanity and it will pass. But it is sad, because it brings great sadness to those who have been taught they cannot have faith in that which would make their lives so much richer.
There is a scripture to the effect that ‘when I was a child I thought as a child and when I became a man I put away childish things.’ Jesus is not a childish thing. Faith and belief are not childish things. Both faith and belief contribute mightily to the forward movement of the river of humanity in search for God. This is the ultimate destiny of the evolving worlds — to attain God-knowingness and God-responsiveness. And so yes, it is sad, but it is temporary.
Those who can be turned around to see the merit of having a man like Jesus as an inspiration and the spirit of Christ-consciousness to add that dimension to life experience, they become co-workers and peers in the bosque neighborhood. This is why we tend to encourage you to trumpet the good news. There are so many errors that need corrected, many of them errors of childlike faith that tend to do more harm than good, over time.
Let’s take the example of “God told me!” “I was talking to God the other day and he told me!” “In my prayers the other day, I was talking to God and he told me.”
Reneau: Are those Bush-isms?
TOMAS: Those are believer-isms. They may be because of the adjutant mind spirits. They may be because of organized religion. They may be because of superstition. But for whatever reason, when “God told me” something and it came to pass that it was a stretch of imagination and not God at all, it tends to undermine the initial enthusiasm of the faith child. And the backlash is to undermine what God said. And so over generations the errors of evolution must eventually give way to the need to know spiritual substance and so when God tells you something, it is that still, small voice. It is the assurance of things unseen. It is the security of knowing you are in God’s hands regardless of temporal circumstances.
Much of what humanity says must be allowed to go in one ear and out the other, for much of what humanity says is an echo of some noise made long, long ago. If you could train your ear to hear the river itself, focus your ear on the sound of the living water. Become a true listener.
Your comments, Elena, Esmeralda, as to having your questions, your concerns addressed by me in my lesson, is a result of my being able to listen to your soul. Not, perhaps, to you, the mortal, but to your indwelling Adjuster, who knows you better than you know yourself, and who confers with me, or with the Adjuster of the T/R. And so the higher level communicates among itself, and you are the recipients of their wisdom.
This is what it is to allow God to lead, to be in control, to uphold the universe and manage all things therein. I am fully dependent on Spirit to be able to teach you what you need to hear, as you need to be fully dependent on Spirit to allow you to teach what you must teach those who come to you as you pass by. But as you depend upon your own coping mechanism, you rule out the opportunity for this Spirit to prevail. You put yourself in the position, like the fellow you mentioned, of taking up all the space for yourself and discounting the precious presence of the Master Son himself — who does and will and would walk with all of us if we so allowed.
Jesus is not a crutch. He is the staff of life. It is all in the perspective, then, isn’t it?
Group: That’s true.
Esmeralda: Tomas, at one of our conferences, the first one I attended, in Boulder, Michael was being T/R’d to us and this was, what, six or eight years ago, but in this, Michael said, “My arm is around your shoulder and I am whispering in your ear,” and I just simply thought that was beautiful, and have never forgotten it, and I remind myself of that frequently. Probably not as frequently as I should, but it was just something you couldn’t forget.
TOMAS: You did not forget it because your heart was open to the reality. I encourage you to realize that often, that he is beside you, and confer with him often. Allow him, indeed, to whisper in your ear that which you long to hear. Let me also suggest that as a faith exercise you even now, all of you, I challenge you to raise your right hand as if to see his. Extend your hand now. Extend your hand into the ethers and ask Jesus to take your hand.
TOMAS: Take my hand Jesus, and lead me home.
Group: Take my hand, Jesus, and lead me home.
TOMAS: Walk with me in our journey to the Father.
Group: Walk with me in our journey to the Father.
Closing
TOMAS: Experience the bliss of knowing he has hold of you, hold of your hand, has your being in the palm of his hand, indeed, and will not let you go. All right then, Children, are we replete?
Group: I think so.
TOMAS: We have been skinny-dipping in the river.
Group: That’s one way to put it! Tomas, you’re just a joy.
TOMAS: How clean it feels to frolic with you, my friends, on the beach on this bright summer day. Clothed in the raiment of our Sonship, let us go forth into the arena of the asphalt jungle, in order to, like the shaggy dog, spray our wetness everywhere.
Group: Thank you, Tomas! What a way to put it! Farewell. Bye.
