2002-10-20. Understanding Yourself & Your Neighbor
Rio Rancho #34
Topic: Understanding Yourself & Your Neighbor
Group: Rio Rancho TeaM
Teacher: Tomas, Anatolia, Bob
TR: Gerdean, Matthew
Opening
Music: Song selection: “Simple Gifts” – a popular old Shaker
Prayer: (Matthew) Let us place ourselves in the presence of Jesus, the Christ. Master Teacher. We come to you with whole and happy hearts, that are presented to you as doers, workers in the field and happy harvesters of that which you present us with. We realize that you are the vine and that we are the branches and that grapes are produced as a result of your work. Remind us to be mindful of that which we have to do and that the juice of the product is the wine that we savor, that our lives are to be savored as that which you presented as the greatest illustration, in this case. We ask for the teachings that you deem helpful and necessary and productive to our onward and upward growth and for each of those concerns within our hearts and our minds and for those who are traveling that they be returned to us gratefully, because we are grateful for their return. For all that is one in you and our heavenly Father, we are forever grateful. Amen.
Lesson
TOMAS: Good afternoon, family and friends. This is Tomas, your teacher, glad to be again in your midst and in our customary environment. What a wonderful time it was when we enjoyed the lake. How reminiscent of when the Master was with the mortals of your world and walked along the rivers and lakes of his native lands, enjoying the terrain and temperatures of the material environment. Now recall a group together in the shelter of a home, that which is the foundation of civilization.
How is it that you become civilized and socialized and spiritized? Through trial and error, for the most part. By experientially traversing the range of possibilities, discarding that which is inferior and embracing that which is superior until, at length, we embark upon a new avenue, that of revealing the divine pattern of perfection, even in the humble human home.
There are lessons galore that speak to the topic of the home and the importance of the relationship between husband and wife, who create the environment and produce the offspring which sanctifies the home environment as the pinnacle of civilized existence, even incorporating the lessons involving the spirit reality which is set forth in the ideal example of the parent and child that Jesus taught when he taught the apostles to pray, ‘Our Father who art in heaven.’
The success of this family configuration is because you all acknowledge the Fatherhood of God as authority over you all and inasmuch there is graciousness and cooperation among you, there is no real sibling rivalry, no competition to attain God’s attention, or affections, inasmuch as all of you are blessed in your personal understanding of your own relationship to divinity. This simplicity, that we know in this moment, is living the gospel, living the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man.
This is the simple essence of your work, to realize this atmosphere in the hearts and minds of all those you encounter. And most of those you encounter are yet unaware of the personal relationship that can be had between the Universal Father and each of his sons an daughters, even those of you who are flesh and blood.
I’m going to invite Bob in again for another session, albeit brief. I’ll be back. One moment please.
BOB: Greetings, peoples and associates. I’m glad to be, again, with you and appreciative of the opportunity to instill in you an awareness of your human nature, for in understanding yourself, you are in a better position to understand the motives and devices of your fellows. It is said that if you can understand your neighbor, you can learn to love him. It would seem that there are many who have no hope of learning how to love their neighbor, for their understanding is curtailed by their own ignorance and prejudice, as they cannot see the full scope of their neighbor. For as many will do, they choose to retain the sense of separation. And with that sense of separation the understanding is only partial. It is based not on spirit, but on the limitations of the human existence. And when it is suggested that you understand your neighbor, it is recommended that you understand him in the full sense of the word.
Jesus taught with the eye of perception that included an appreciation for the highest, as well as the lowest common denominators of humanity. For whereas a human may be base and selfish, it is true that he may also be noble, good and altruistic. And thus to limit your view of your neighbor to any degree, is to limit your understanding, and therefor to limit your love potential. But to look with understanding upon your fellows with this full-range vision, it must be possible for you to look first at yourself and recognize your own dimensions. In this way it is possible, then, for you to understand you neighbor fully, from the high road and the low road view.
There are many among you who cannot even acquiesce to the fact that human beings are animals. That is truly laughable. In fact, much of humor is derived from a sense of the ludicrousness of the human animal and his antics. Have you not all watched toddlers and young people before they’ve become involved in the prevailing cultural mores, being themselves and speaking from their perspectives /perceptions all manner things that can only be regarded as funny, if not culturally correct? How many time have you observed monkeys at the zoo and laughed at their antics and twittered at how closely they resembled friends of yours? And how often have you admired your dog for his loyalty and appreciated the same loyalties in yourself? There are great qualities about the human animal. It is no shame to be born an animal-origin creature.
It is a rare opportunity you have to relish the form and fashion you are. You will perforce leave much of it behind when you translate to the mansion worlds, but there is still much of the animal legacy which will follow you into the future. And, again, these qualities of your animal nature are indicators that you share with others. And when you are honest with yourself about how you behave as an animal, you can better apply yourself to the business of understanding that animal, so as to appreciate its values. In seeing your neighbors values, then, you are able to see how you are alike. And though they may have certain cultural differences, invariably they will essentially represent those higher levels which are also of a common denominator through that in you which is born of the spirit. Thus, pathos and empathy, sympathy, compassion, patience and perseverance are born and become a part of your character.
We talked about impulse, the impulse of life. The impulse to live, to survive and the response to that impulse. When you consider the animal aspect of instinctually responding, you can consider its reactions are going to be fear-based, for they have no faith-capacity. Fright evinces flight or freeze modalities. You’ve seen the deer on the highway freeze when it’s caught in your headlights. You’ve seen the birds flee when they see your shadow. This is the self-preservation instinct. Add now a taste of the adjutant mind spirit, the gift of the Mother that provides you with a sense of intuition. That intuitive sense that allows you to ponder, in advance, how you will react.
When danger is near, you can smell it. Sometimes literally, more often figuratively. You are being cautioned, admonished to be alert, to be aware, to be mindful of something that might be a threat to your survival. This is the gift of intuition, the intuitive sense that can direct you into safety and away from danger. This elemental understanding of the most elementary aspects of existence is universal. It occurs in your friends and it occurs in your enemies. The adjutant mind spirit of intuition is a gift to all of the animal world, including the human animal.
Observe, this week, as you go about your affairs, observe impulse and observe reactions and responses to impulse that will manifest through instinct and/or intuition. Understand intuition and instinct in yourself. Enjoy learning about your own composition. Recognize your built-in capacities to survive. And later we will further examine these profound gifts of nature, in order to help you appreciate how you have developed, not only as an individual, but as a race, into a semi-civilized culture and how it is when you look upon your fellows, your neighbors, you can truly learn to understand them. And eventually learn to love them.
This is fostering spirit reality. This is kingdom building. It is not born of high philosophy nor is it the fruit of a great theology. It is essential reality which none of you escape. All of you have the tools to understand who you are and how you relate to your world and its citizenry. This is an effort toward developing a bigger appreciation for the dimension of divinity that controls you and the growth of universes. I return you to your teachers.
TOMAS: This is Tomas. I am back on the dais with the microphone, as it were, and as we stretch and reflect on the atmosphere our Cherubim left with us, I invite Anatolia to join us here and enjoy her moment with you, as we all do.
ANATOLIA: I am here with you, this afternoon, as Anatolia and am appreciative of the opportunity to meet with you once again. I commend you for your devotion and your dedication, two words being similar, yet distinctly different, and your commitment, another similar but yet different word, to the varied teachings that are brought to you each week. I know each of you have a similar reason for attending, yet each of you has a particular reason for attending. Regardless of the reasons, as noteworthy as they are, in your own personal sense, you are to be commended for the commitment and dedication that you demonstrate each and every week.
You have also entertained and fulfilled bringing new personalities to the group, which is to be encouraged and to be found beneficial. There is, nevertheless, not a great need to proselytize, or to extend the news of these meetings far and wide, for while it is absolutely beneficial that each and every soul who has eyes to see or ears to hear, would, and will, benefit from such messages, it is more relevant that each of you, given your simplicity of purpose and clarity of mind, will benefit most by being true to these teachings and accordingly being greater witnesses than you would be if you were simply committed to having other personalities experience the phenomenon, if you will.
You are to be commended for not encouraging or expanding the group based upon phenomena alone. For as this is not a phenomenal exercise, per se, in spirit-faith dimensions, it does take a certain amount of open-mindedness and expansiveness in your spiritual growth, to accept this method as common place. This is, again, to be commended for your great, stalwart, faith production. If only there were the faith that permitted others to experience this, or yet even more, the world would not be the trouble spot that it is. Nevertheless this is not simply a commendation of your faithfulness and steadfast loyalty to our purposes.
I realize that my participation in your weekly meetings, is to receive further food for thought and re-enrichment of the roots that are deep and grown truly through the lifeblood of your being. It would be of no benefit for anyone of this teaching mission to be reinforced or puffed up, if you will, with gratitude for your devotion to each or any of us as personality. Our purpose mirrors your own in terms of being true to that which you know to be of deity origin. We know, as you know, that this is our purpose. We share the light with you and in your presence. And likewise, your light is shared and bestowed upon us.
For who has not had the fondest desire to bring their younger brother or sister into the fold? Who has not, as an older member of the clan, so to speak, taken sheer pleasure and protective custody of the youngest of the group? This is my care and concern that I share with you, that as an older sibling I share your care and concern with that of others who are entrusted with your protective custody. I have said it before, but will say it again, it is with the greatest care, concern and endearing love, that I, as an older participant in your life story be allowed to share these times with you as an onlooker of the growth and potential that each and all of you have in this life and beyond.
So to summarize, and to bring you to the point at hand, I encourage each of you to look in the mirror this week, each and everyday as you prepare in the morning, to recognize that the cute little bunny, or whatever animal origin you may find yourself to be, you are truly a spirit being of divine origin.
Rejoice and be glad, for this is the day that the Lord has made and you are fully aware and part of every ray of divine presence with us. So be glad and rejoice and know that you are one with us as we progress in this onward spiral in the outer reaches of consciousness awareness.
Peace be with you and all is well.
TOMAS: I take up the microphone again and hand it to you. Shall we engage in discourse or questions?
Dialogue
Elena: I found the discussion about looking at your neighbor and understanding where they are coming from especially pertinent because I’m going to this conference in Austin and there is a person going there that I just abhor. And I find that this will be a re-direction for me in my preparation to go and helps me to better try to aim at understanding this person. I doubt very seriously that I will get to love but I will focus on understanding. So I am very grateful for the advice from Tomas.
TOMAS: There was talk earlier about wanting to incorporate a paragraph, or a point, from your Urantia text into your discourses on your Sunday afternoon get-togethers. This might be an ideal chance for me to recommend that you find the example of the savage with the upraised club. (100:4.5) Do any of you recall that depiction?
Esmarelda: Was that from the earlier stages – before Jesus — a long time before that?
TOMAS: This is not so much a period in history, as it is a point of indication, indicating how you can have short-sighted view of your fellows and by expanding your perspective you get a bigger picture and that will enable you to have a greater perception. It’s not in my software to point you to the page, but there are software programs available that will find it quickly, no doubt. Have any of you got that software that would readily identify the three or four paragraphs I’ve referred to?
Elena: It’s on the internet if you just enter for ‘savage’ and ‘club’….
TOMAS: “…upraised club.”
Matthew: I remember the illustration being used that if you observed prehistoric man in a cave with an upraised club, your impression might be ‘what an animal’ or ‘what a primate’ ‘how beastly or ghastly’ but if you look closer you could see that he had his club upraised because he had his wife and family behind him and he was protecting them. Then you would be better able to understand what one’s behavior is not always what it appears to be; there might be a good reason for it. So I remember the illustration but where it is in the book, I don’t know. [Ed.: Page 1098]
TOMAS: If you can ascertain, for yourself, what he is perceiving as the saber- toothed tiger that is threatening his home and hearth, you have a much better appreciation for how he has reacted to the stimuli of the instinct to survive that Bob discussed.
Elena: Well, I’ll just give it a try.
TOMAS: Don’t curtail your capacities by short-circuiting the potential for success, in this case. You do as many do, you say ‘I’ll try but I don’t think I’ll succeed.’ That is establishing for yourself in advance a reason to not follow through with the assignment. The end result is simply an ability to love another individual and this is socializing the brotherhood of man. It is not required that you invite him over for dinner.
What has been going on in your lives that may have prompted you to soul-search, that you find valuable and would share with your peers, now that we have a chance to spend some time on these matters which matter to your soul?
When, you think about your spirit life during the week, when you think as a son of God, when these matters arise that could be considered “cosmic problem-solving issues,” make a note. Share your findings with your fellows and thus stimulate their willingness to express their spirit-born life as well. In this way, gradually, over time, we will learn to socialize more fully that which we are becoming, that which is at our Source, that which is our origin and our destiny, that which is, and will be, even after this temporal life is ended.
And yet your socialization of those matters which are meaningful to your soul development are also the morsels of mota which will feed those younger brothers and sisters who are, even now, beginning to taste the perfection hunger that has activated you and stimulated you for these many moons.
Remember to pass on that which you have learned. In this way you keep the doors open fr new growth. You keep your lives stimulated and activated. It is by becoming spiritually complacent that you grow fat and ineffective. While it may do well for pussycats, it is not conducive to a wide-spread recognition of the vitality of your place in the universe.
Life is an impulse and you are urged to keep in touch with that impulse, that which keeps you alert and acutely aware of the world around you, both for its beauty and for its ministry opportunities.
Closing
We wish you a vital week, thrilling in its simplicity, profound in its depth, and brilliant in its presentation, as vital and dynamic as the autumn leaves and as enduring as the sands of time. Peace be upon you. Farewell.
