2003-09-07. Symphony Revisited
Rio Rancho #69
Topic: Symphony Revisited
Group: Rio Rancho TeaM
Teacher: Tomas, Anatolia
TR: Gerdean, Matthew
Opening
MUSIC: Elena on Piano: “Take Time to be Holy”
PRAYER: Matthew: Let us place ourselves in the presence of Jesus, the Christ. Master Teacher, we take the liberty to walk with you hand in hand, individually or as a group, to ask for you to take us before the Father – not that we prefer you over the Father or vice versa, but that in retrospect with my request, you have made the Father known through you. We look forward to the time when we can share your company jointly and with all of divinity, so that we may, in the process, know ourselves as we are made to be and as we are becoming. And that is the greatest joy of all, that nothing is condemned or set for desecration unless one chooses, but we are destined to be whole and united with all that is good, holy and happy.
We encourage that development here and now, and not just “pie in the sky when we die” but look for the tools and the avenues and to make the right choices, to make that possibility of being wholly happy and one with all now as it will be forever. We appreciate the teachers that you send to us and ask for their presence and yours today, and in appreciation for this gift of teaching that we are privy to, may we open the doors in the world to such understanding that all may be knowing of your loving presence and their role in creativity and love forever.
In lasting appreciation, we are forever yours. Amen.
Group: Amen.
TOMAS: Devoted students and friends, I am Tomas. Good afternoon. Anatolia and I and many other heavenly hosts take great pleasure in joining with you this afternoon in our communal reach toward greater revelation of the divine. Your harmonics are exemplary of the oft-referenced symphony that enables each of you to be true to your own instrument and, in conscious or unconscious accord with the Master Conductor, strike the chords/play the notes appropriate for your part of the song our group sings ~ in upreach and outreach, in seeking, finding and distributing that music which will render you each complete ~ having participated and having received the divine gift of association in making music to enhance reality. This is a noble work.
And while we obviously can enjoy Elena’s contribution to this concept by her skills as a pianist, each of you are also in the figurative sense an instrument.
Lesson
In Matthew’s prayer today, there was reference made to knowing yourselves, in order to be most true to that reality which you bring, which you are, and which you grow in as you become more and more in tune with your fine art of playing in company with your Adjuster, your internal God fragment that pulls you along into a greater awareness of your capacities as a music-maker.
All your lives you have sung your solo tunes and fiddled with your strings or tooted your horn, but now we come together under the direction of the Master Conductor, in order to create a joyful noise, one which will accompany your individual and group light that shines as a beacon to those who would see with eyes to see or hear with ears to hear.
The process of knowing yourself is the same as practicing your instrument, in hopes of gaining greater and greater mastery over the technique of playing. Obviously you cannot become the best coronet player you can become if you are trying to master the viola. And so it behooves you to become true to yourself in such a way as to enhance all that is, and it is in the mind that this becomes workable.
The Teaching Mission, large and small, is a format for those who will to learn to teach, based on what you have garnered to be part of wisdom. That may be the gospel in its traditional sense, or it may be pragmatic in terms of social development. It may be through ministry and healing arts, or in any way the Word of God can be broadcast to and throughout your material realm.
There is a path you take to become excellent. But attaining excellence requires a consistent upholding of those skills which have enabled you to attain your mastery. In your world, which presents itself as very complicated and/or complex, you may feel like a simpleton in playing the purity of your own selfhood, your own excellence; it can be easily drowned out by the cacophony of instruments which have not even warmed up to the opportunity to play, who have not heard the Master Conductor tap-tap-tap on the podium and bring them to attention as a group or even individually. That is the time for you to practice your solo. Invite harmony. Listen for those who have pitch. Engage them in a duet. Enjoy the elementary exercises of the beginner, in order to whet their ambition to become more and better artists.
Observe how many have the words messed up. Rather than “Take time to be holy,” they “Take time to be lazy.” They construe idle time as the time to do nothing, instead of utilizing idle time to engage in up-stepping ones skills so as to find life more meaningful. Those who look to sources outside themselves or engagement and reinforcement of their perceived reality, will not opt to follow the Conductor’s lead and enable, with you, to enjoy being part of the orchestration of the Evolving Supreme. But remember our chamber orchestra here that we enjoy, and begin to consider the notes you play as a part of the necessary composition of the symphony this group is, the music it plays, and the message it projects into the atmosphere – which in turn will soothe the savage beasts in your domain.
Stay true to your own instrument. Practice your pitch daily. Entertain yourself with a practice session. And keep your mind invigorated by trying out new compositions to practice and master, so that your mind is exercised as well as your skills. Eventually we will be able to hear the song you sing, for the echo of your music will begin to return to you. You will begin to see in your efforts together, the reflectivation of the Divine. By shining your Light, you will attract the light of those who also seek the Source of all Light. And thus, of course, (the principle being and the ideal remaining) the symphony will grow and incorporate such a chorus as to enhance the spheres throughout eternity.
I will be back in due course. Anatolia is free to take the baton of this session and lead you into her song of psalms.
ANATOLIA: A wonderful day, a wonderful way, to begin our session – with a prayer. As you probably could not imagine starting off our sessions without a prayer, I only encourage you to do so because it is a wonderful way to bring about the correct, proper attitude and impressions that you wish to make upon yourselves as you enter into your part of the bargain to become more enlightened and enhanced beings of creation.
This is encouraged because it is helpful for you to make the adjustment from primarily material beings, involved in the course of life that you are following, and needing to disengage for just a moment to place your emphasis and ideas out onto the table where they belong. It is as if you are saying prayers or placing them before an altar, to have the sacrifice that you are placing, be found worthy and acceptable for the needs that you present. This is most basic, if not primitive, in humanity’s perspective – to place one’s offerings on the altar of sacrifice, wishing to appease an angry god or set of gods. To set the record straight, to beg for acceptance, so that the winds and elements do not destroy those parts of reality which are known and dealt with.
I only bring this up in terms of encouraging you to start anything of importance with a prayer, to place your attitude in proper perspective. This does more in the intent of prayer than any request or placement of your needs before the altar will do. For you see that your God-Presence is with you always, and your “burnt offerings” never have been or ever will be necessary to appease your God. You carry the God-Fragment with you always. You place yourself in the proper frame of mind to be able to receive the graces that are always with you when you begin any effort worth doing, with prayer. You enable your energies to balance and become in balance with those that you place yourself before.
So it is of vital importance to begin any effort with prayer. It is as if you are watering a plant or a flower. In order for it to continue to grow, it needs the proper environment in which to thrive and to become all that it is capable of being. So it is, too, as with prayer, as you place your hearts and minds in proper perspective.
I wish to offer this to you – not as an instruction, as if this is something new, but as a reinforcement for what you have already known. Or for any who may have need of developing a more mature approach to prayer, it is again doing more for you than it is for our Heavenly Presence. Your statement of prayer is the placement of yourselves on the altar. There you are able to commune and to become one with your request. You enable it, as your Father enables you, to become one in the creative process.
I leave this with you to do and to practice. It has marvelous possibilities and results. Prayer, in terms of placement of an adjustment of attitude and perspective, can be accomplished wherever, whenever the situation is needed or you simply wish to commune with your inner presence. I leave this with you and encourage your continued practice of prayer over the simplest of matters, for all that matters is simplicity and a pure heart.
I leave you in good tidings and present each of you with a lily in your hands as remembrance of the purity that you are. It is only your recall that needs to be enlightened. Peace be with you, and may you reflect the beauty that is in your hands.
Group: Thank you.
TOMAS: Are there questions from our sessions over the summer or from the beginning of our existence as a teacher base, or even from the far-reaches of your consciousness?
Dialogue
Elena: I wanted to ask. There have been a couple of comments about this group changing the way that it would work, and I may be misphrasing this slightly, but there were a couple of comments that referred to that and that piqued my curiosity tremendously, and wanted to know if you would care to clarify that a little bit.
TOMAS: Indeed, Elena, it was you last week who properly demonstrated the answer you seek when you indicated that your perspective today is not the same as it was when we were younger in our existence as a group. You evolve, each of you, and as each of you evolve in the spirit and in morontia consciousness, you are like the instrument that can play more and more sophisticated passages. Indeed, up until now, in some regards you have each been playing solo. And even while we have been meeting as a group, your are only now attaining an ability to function as a group, as a “unity in diversity” arrangement, and to develop in your existence what might be called “group consciousness” or a sense of overcontrol in which we invest ourselves for what you are as a group is much more powerful than what you are as individuals.
As you know, ten people working together can do more than ten individuals, for they are exponentially empowered, and we are reaching a stage of development in which we will become more aware and practice the aspects of the group in the initial efforts to exhale the divine breath that you hold jointly, into the ethers of the universe. This practice, this development, will provide you greater strength to go about your business in the world because your growing appreciation of the cosmic chemistry of this greater consciousness will override those circumstances in your daily life in the kingdoms of men such that you will be able to more readily recognize the perspective that you have gained from this gathering and more effectively deal with the matters you find in the arena you have to deal with.
Just as Teacher Ham said in his first few lessons, “The living water is real,” so too are these realities which you are being led to assimilate through these sessions, these lessons. The mortal experience is the experiential laboratory, or playing field, on which the reality of the Living Water rains down upon. In the course of time, the reflection of the divine will be not so much a shadow but the more real and the material life you live will be more easily seen as the shadow of this greater reality.
Now, be advised, I am not saying the group here that meets here on Sunday afternoon is a false god, no. I am not asking you to worship your Sunday configuration, no. I am not asking you to give it more credence than is required for you to recognize the fact that as the Living Waters are real, so is the Family of God.
And as you now are able to recognize the instrument that you are, and determine your own capacity (as far as your skills in playing), you will also be able to recognize how you fit within the configuration of the rest of your fellow players here in this group, such that you are able to develop a harmony that will resonate such that the reality of the Evolving Supreme is made visible and apparent to you and to others by your individual and group application to the process of evolving the Supreme. Does this give you some idea of …?
Elena: Yes, and that makes more sense. I just didn’t really know. Sometimes you – from the lessons you get a little bit of an idea and your imagination takes a hurdle in one direction or another or just a hurdle flinging it out there, not knowing what that might mean, so this brings it into a perfect content. Understandable and doable, so yes, thank you.
TOMAS: Along those lines, yes, there are those groups that/who take these laboratory experiments of the lessons we give and, taking them literally, begin to create, as a group, service opportunities or organizations in an attempt to literally bring the light of the divine into the material realm. And these exercises in expressing values of divinity are always of benefit to the participants, for they are obvious exercises of a nature that will enable them to develop their skills as an instrument. In some cases they will be able to ascertain they are not the instrument they thought they were. They are not a piccolo but a tuba! And thus the experience is good, even though it appear to be a bizarre excursion into unreality or “my science project.” An experience is good if it teaches you more about the divine and about your relationship with the divine, and even about truth, beauty and goodness in its essential nature. Are there other questions?
Elena: Thank you, Tomas.
Matthew: It sounds as if you were suggesting a group project.
TOMAS: I was not suggesting a group project, although oftentimes a group, once formulated, will desire to take on a project in order to cement those bonds of affiliation and commitment that seem to be inherent in the group process. I want to say that if there is a group project, it will be your project; I am not assigning you one.
Matthew: I understand.
TOMAS: If you take on a group project, I want to know all about it, of course, as I want to know about all of your undertakings and entanglements in the process of becoming who you are and mastering that reality, for this is the Melchizedek University purpose on Urantia campus.
Paula: I don’t think we need any projects. I think it is just that we enjoy being together, talking, listening to you. Just generally enjoying companionship.
TOMAS: It is indeed a true hearth you and we create. It is very much like the figurative campfire around which we sit to be mesmerized by the Eternal Flame and allow our thoughts to wander away from the outer reality and focus on the delights of the inner life. And the inner life of each other!
Elena: Well, I have an idea for a project, if one were to occur. I was just thinking that taking my old idea of playing for rest homes, I was wondering if … I don’t have time to organize that, but maybe somebody … Mother, maybe you would have time to call a couple of the rest homes and then go on a … maybe once a month to have us go by before our meeting and spend half an hour, 45 minutes, singing there. We could take the piano. But that’s … I mean, like any of us need one more thing to do right now.
Esmarelda: I could do that. And I’ll be glad to sing for anyone that would listen. They would only listen briefly, and then it would be “take up your bed and walk!” I could probably cause everybody to walk.
TOMAS: I hear you say, “walk out.” I am amused and allow you to make those choices at leisure. It is certainly true that there are many who would benefit from a diversion of the routine existence, especially those who have not learned or have forgotten how to elevate the routine prose of mortal existence to poetry. You would do well, however, if you are going to be lugging around a piano and coordinating your extensive schedules, to take adequate time to do a proper recital. And having mastered that project, it would be easier then for you to perform recitals elsewhere and in other locations. Bringing a smile to the face of the lonely or the disheartened, the ill or the weary, is a service, a ministry, as you all fully appreciate how well you appreciate being righteously entertained.
All of you personally are chugging right along, I take it?
Esmarelda: I was thinking about this project. Most of the group, in one month, relocated their abodes. That was kind of a group project right there. And it seemed to be a group one because almost everyone in the group did.
TOMAS: That may be enough to consolidate us for a time, for there will be individual adjustments that as a group you can share, and yet in time it will be true, too, you will be joined by those who have not relocated, and you must not alienate them for not having had a change of address. Being established as a group enables you to think about the influx of new people, and how they will feel as a result of having been made aware of this reality paradigm. It is not church in a traditional sense, nor is it merely social, but it has to be represented as a reality context greater than entertainment.
The living waters are real. And even those who have drunk deep of these waters know the joy of sonship and are able to learn to swim therein, even while there remain those who are dying of thirst in the presence of the divine that dwells within them. This seed has now been planted in your fertile minds. The prayer then will be that the seed will be fertilized, watered, and benefited by the radiance of the sun, such that in due course, the shoots of growth will sprout throughout the vineyard, giving rise to a new harvest of souls.
Paula: Well, I don’t know about the rest of you, but I just enjoy being together, listening to all of you talk, getting together in each others homes, becoming close, and that’s very important to me. It’s more important than any outside project. To me.
Elena: Yeah. This group is very important to me, too.
Esmeralda: We’ve become a family!
TOMAS: Yes, you are right, ladies, to recognize that the kingdom is not alone in the exalted realms of the spirit, but realizes itself as well in the fibers of the finite lives you live. In this way the group will enmesh and provide a tapestry of such substance, we will be able to use it for a magic carpet ride into morontia mota. Gerdean wants me to say, “We will go for a ride on God’s mota-cycle.” Well, friends, have we come to fruition this afternoon?
Matthew: Yes, thank you.
Esmeralda: A great lesson.
Elena: A wonderful lesson!
Closing
TOMAS: It is a good new start to a new season, as we begin another semester of study and aspiration in this classroom environment, in this communion of souls, and in this worshipful place we call “home”. Enjoy your lives. Return safe, fulfilled and effective for more next week. Farewell.
Group: Thank you, Tomas.
Gerdean “Life, and therefore love, is eternal.”
