2004-05-02. Rebelling Against The Status Quo
Rio Rancho #92
Topic: Rebelling Against the Status Quo
Group: Rio Rancho TeaM
Teacher: Paulo, Archangel Michael, Dani
TR: Gerdean, Matthew
Opening
PRAYER: Matthew: Let us place ourselves in the presence of Jesus, the Christ. Master Teacher, We come to you today with eagerness for resolution to many of the difficulties that exist, an urgency for society to be healed, and a need and desire for security within our midst – but I imagine the same thing could have been said by those who were around you at the time of your presence, and before that, and times in between, where our only security is in the belief that we are part of All That Is and we will transcend that which is currently antithetical to what you are and what we are, but it is ours to help transform, to teach and become part of what is whole and unifying. We renew our faith in you as a result, to be able to do that. That is the source and you are the source of true strength and real healing, so we renew ourselves in you today as we do every day, to be aware and to be willing to take a stand for that which needs to be spoken to and defended.
We ask for the Teachers that you will present today, as part of your mission of our growth and onward expansion, to be able to invite them to be with us for our edification and our continued growth and faith. We thank you for this Teaching Mission and for the opportunity to grow with you in love, knowledge and trust. For all of the concerns within our hearts that you are aware of, the special intentions that need to be addressed, we place before you now. And for eternal gratitude, we remain true to you. Amen.
PAULO: Rally round the flag, boys and girls. This is your old friend Paulo, coming to visit for a short while. I am on hiatus from my duties and am happy to be here in your midst, observing your good cheer and chatter in keeping with May Day and this time of year in your world, which will have the children frolicking around the Maypole of divinity, larking and enjoying their childlike qualities, even while we also acknowledge your celebration of Unlaw day on May 1st, and that is why I am here, to once again acknowledge the merits of your own rebellious natures.
I speak to you today about my favorite topic – that of rebellion – not to get you to rebel against God, of course not, but to encourage you to fear not the urge to rebel against that which is inimical to the divine will. That is, to the extent that you have a comprehension of what the divine will IS. This, in fact, is the subject of many a debate in your world, in particular, but in ours as well.
Lesson
I have spent days now in the trenches of the conflict in the Middle East and have sat in on many of the conferences, both formal and informal, wherein the on-going rebellion against the status quo is distressing citizens worldwide. While on one hand we have this seemingly senseless slaughter of human lives, we have also the consistency and constancy of renewal of life, which makes such conflicts seem so far away and removed from that which is real in those of your lives which are serene and sublime in faith and confidence of tomorrow.
The dichotomy itself is a fascinating spectrum of drama, which is unable to be revealed on those worlds that are more docile and more advanced. Thus the raw nature of your planetary civilization gives rise to unique paradigms of relative reality that cannot be denied or ignored in one way or the other, from the far left to the far right of the pendulum swing. There is an element in you that loves this dichotomy – that part of you which is born in the chaos of Urantia – this planet which has been in isolation for so long. And, without the walking meditation of the rest of the universe that would allow you to get into the stride of the comfortable, advancing order and peace of evolution, you are still enamored of the cyclonic behavior that arises … much like children prefer going to Disneyland rather than the local park.
The park may be more convenient and more conducive to reflection and the artistry of leisure, but the pizzazz and drama of the rides and the chaos of the crowd are irresistible to children, and this is what you are still, is children — children suffering from a lack of guidance, so you’ve discovered ways to deal with this lack … not necessarily effectively, but dealing with it nonetheless. Let’s take a look at some of the things that you are seeing that are representative of this tendency in you to rebel against the status quo.
What choice did your president have in the face of his role as leader of your country but to retaliate and rebel against the theory of turning the cheek, when your country was punched in the nose by those who call you the infidel? This is classic behavior for immature people. Your challenge is not so much to agree with him or disagree with him as advancing citizens of the universe, but to withdraw your focus of passionate attention from the ring wherein these prize-fighters are “duke-ing it out” and invest your interests in something more becoming to the world you seek to create.
We only have here a more dramatic representation of reality which was prevalent 10 years ago, or five years ago. This is simply a more overt manifestation of the degree of revelation of truth beauty and goodness on your world. I am going to encourage you to take advantage of the fact of your own sense of rebellion and fear not the desire to rise up against that which is oppressive. I am not encouraging you to punch someone in the nose, no, or to defy civility, but to muster up within yourself the courage of your convictions that would allow you to speak out in the name of that which you uphold as right, good, worthy, just and true as vigorously and steadfastly as those who choose to strike out to destroy that which defies the reality they would have prevail.
You can rebel against what is without being violent. Indeed, the seed rebels against the weight of the dark earth pressing upon it. It forces its way up out of the earth into the sun. There are, of course, those who say, “no, they don’t force their way up, it’s a natural act”. Yes, so is giving birth to a child a natural act, but in the process it seems as if the child must force its way out of the womb, coming into the earth bellowing and crying, making a ruckus in order for the new life to find itself at home in the universe.
This is my way of encouraging you to not be cowed by the drama of the pending war effort, but to consecrate yourself to the battle of the faith child, the war within yourself that becomes embroiled in a local skirmish and misses the perspective of the outsider who dances around the maypole in joy of living, in childlike delight at being, even though there are unhappy and unfortunate things transpiring all around them.
This lesson pertains not only to the current political situation, it also reflects on the sociological realities of such a life on such a planet, for there is corruption and criminality ongoing all the time. This is the natural way that humans evolve, in the main. Your “cross to bear” is your awareness of life on the other side of the veil, and by comparison, the difference between the light and the darkness is enough to cause you to despair or to become overburdene
When you have yourself anchored in the greater reality, you are better able to act appropriately on the conditions at large. It is true that from a higher perspective you can literally transcend the problems overseas or in the barrio, you can say, “I don’t relate to it. It has nothing to do with me. I have work to do or fish to fry otherwise” and you are within your rights to go that way, to “do your thing”. This itself is a form of rebellion. It is saying, “I don’t want to be bothered with it. There is nothing I can do about it. I’ll do what I can where I can.”
There is also the perspective that allows you to disassociate from the problems of the world sufficient to see what you might do that is possibly effective, or that will make you feel better as having contributed to the growth of that which is in development, to replace that which is in decay.
There is a great deal of work involved in transition. This is one of the reasons we got started with you early on, and the dozen years or so of learning you have had offers a solid source of solace and understanding, such that you can go about your lives without becoming overly caught up in the current political drama, but rather, can do something affirmative for the world that will emerge from this chaos and conflict.
You know this because you have seen it happen before. You have the perspective that is necessary. I am saying don’t feel helpless, but muster up your courage. As they say, “gird up the loins of your mind” and put it to good use, all the while remembering your personal identification with that which is perpetual and eternal and not so much with that which is fleeting and transitory. When you seek to rebel against the status quo, if and when the status quo is harming you or stifling the spiritual freedom of others, you will be afforded the opportunity to see the associates of the invisible realm assisting in war and in peace. God does not avoid these difficult zones. You need not avoid them either. But you must count the cost and determine if you have the constitution, the stamina, the drive, the motivation, the yearning to serve in these capacities and once you have made your choice, forge ahead without falling back on your well-known standard of behavior.
It is said that difficult times call for strong measures. This is something Jesus knew and experienced when he was here as well. When you live a vital life, wherever there is injustice or oppression, you will become mindful of it. It is built within your constitution to be made aware of that which stands in the way of the divine will. While there are those who interpret the scriptures literally, the sword may be words and attitudes rather than weapons of destruction. Words being as capable of changing an existing paradigm, perhaps even more effectively, if those involved are of sufficient intelligence to value “the Word”. There is value to rebellion in such a world as this, but I am the first to agree that the methods of rebellion are the meat of the matter.
This is my message today. Perhaps in review you will find strength in it. Those of you who feel led to do something to help invite the resolution or the insurrection or the somehow-possible-alternative, those of you who are called to act and yet have no clue as to how to go about rising up against what is, in order to bring about what can be, are those to whom I am directing my message, and I am inviting you to rebel against the powers that be and take your instructions from the Powers On High who will help you see your path, help you soldiers of the circles to reflect your values into your material realm as you do into your spiritual realm, thus living a full and thorough reality for yourself and in service to your fellows, all of which are ultimately for the glory of God.
Carry on then, comrades. I’ll catch you later.
Group: Thank you, Paulo.
Thoroah: Well, carry on!
Gerdean: Tomas isn’t hosting so we’re up for grabs.
Matthew: I’ll put the scanner on. (Pause) Okay. I think I have Archangel Michael, who I have talked to in times past.
ARCHANGEL MICHAEL: Good afternoon, friends and comrades in arms. I wish not to delight or encourage the carrying of arms; nevertheless, in a sense of camaraderie that we believe and feel in a world that is full of indiscriminate passions of one form or another, that feels like and leads to chaos, and irrational pursuits and behaviors, one tends to feel as though all is vanishing before their eyes, and that perhaps the last semblance of rationality has eluded the planet.
I assure you that many troubled times have elapsed, both here and throughout the grand universe, and that despite such difficulty, life goes on, progress in the larger sense continues, and love prevails. Despite the most dire picture I could present, even in such dire examples, one needs to embrace [the truth] that life will prevail and that all will eventually right itself. However, this does not help in the why and wherefore of you in your world as it is, for it does call upon many to join forces to be part of a larger picture that can support the undergirding of your belief system, both temporal and spiritual.
What I am alluding to is that you are encouraged to accept that forces are at work that radicalize your world as you have known it, and that will require the organizing of your selves to a belief system that can support your wider and basic beliefs. I am encouraging support among yourselves and others that you will be able to enlist and support one another in those beliefs that you hold dear. What I am alluding to is essentially a resistance movement, if you will, that may be able to harbor the beliefs that you engender as true libertarians of the flame of life. This is something that I invite you to consider as part of your active daily lives, to be in support of one another and what it may mean to undertake this type of resistance and support.
This may appear to be strange, coming from one of my activities, nevertheless, as you have been informed, I and others have faced troubled times in which we were often uncertain of our outcomes, for nothing was guaranteed, no assurance that we would prevail. However, in virtual pursuit of that which is true, right and good, one can never dispel their conviction that truth, light and goodness will prevail. How could you go into “battle” per se with uncertainty and insecurity in your heart and mind for what you are even on the battlefield for, if you felt that it was defeatable or indefensible?
So whether you form a coalition of resistance or you simply abide by eternal truths that support your way of believing and acting, I encourage you to know what it is you believe in and what it is you are willing to create a counter-resistance to uphold. This I invite you to consider above all else, that if you were to undertake such an effort, at least consider why it may be necessary for you to take such radical action. Why would I even be suggesting such activity if it were not something considering! Troubled times lead to drastic measures. All of this talk is not to invite that the sky is falling; however, unaided, you are in trouble in your life as you know it. There are difficult times ahead — unaided and unbridled.
This is my request of you — to place what you feel to be truly worth living for and consequently what can be defended in your life in this world. It would be much easier if you were allowed to exit stage left and to avoid the conflict. Simply go off into your world of peace and tranquillity. However, when others may not consider this option, or have such an option available, who is to speak for them? Who will defend their right to be? I encourage you with open hearts and minds to join with others in one form or another to resist that which is beyond your realm of righteousness and truth.
I leave you with the hopeful note that peace will prevail when the hearts and minds of humanity are willing to accept that instead of its alternative, when peace is forced into reality after all else is removed from the motivations of one’s heart. I leave you in the aspiration of peace and righteousness in your own and group lives. This is all that I have today, but wish to reinforce that I live and you live; therefore we are testaments to what is and God will prevail over us all. Let us preside over those truths which we know today and can attest to for tomorrow. Peace be with you.
Dialogue
Group: Thank you.
Gerdean: I’m winging it, but I figure if we have a question, somebody will show up.
Esmeralda: I think this is a very provocative lesson. It’s certainly been on everybody’s mind at some point.
Gerdean: We’ve been students of the concept of turning the other cheek but both of our visitors today said, “Naw, I don’t think so.” There’s a time to stand up for it and rebel.
Renault: Action is what they are calling for.
Thoroah: Well, in the resistance thing, the flow is going like this, and resisting that is not necessarily punching somebody out
Myra: It could be in voting. It could also be beyond political voting. A lot of times they ask us to go into ourselves, into the fight the demons within ourselves.
Esmeralda: And we all have our fair share of those!
Elena: Or in our own environment. Our working environment.
Esmeralda: But I think it was political, too.
Renault: Larger world out there.
Thoroah: When you have to mix it with everyday life, that’s what politics will do. Wherever you work, there’s politics within that structure, so it’s political from there. Like maybe there’s something going on at work and it isn’t right. Maybe it’s a worker’s rights issue or something like that, somebody could resist what’s being there in saying, “That’s not right. We need to do something different.” That’s real political, in an office situation.
Myra: I’d like to ask a question. How are personal disconnections or environmental disconnections tied into a political climate? Is there a connection between all three of those? Whoever wants to answer that!
ARCHANGEL MICHAEL: The question you ask is large in its pursuit, but essentially answerable at each level, for disharmony is key to the world’s ills, both personal and collective. Disharmony comes essentially from disbelief – disbelief in what is true and what has been purported or reported to be true, often which are disconnected or distortions of ultimate truth. So it’s a house of mirrors, so to speak, in terms of personal, group and raised consciousness, so to speak. This could lead one to ultimate and total despair, which is, of course, a course prescribed only for the leery.
I speak of disharmony as something that needs to be dealt with. The way to deal with dis-harmonizing factors is to place them before the test of light, that if disharmony can prove to be stronger than the light, then you are dealing with the forces of evil. I wish not to totally alarm you with my response. I am essentially saying that disharmony has to be placed in light and tested with truth so that when one doubts, or fears, or has resentment, which can take on any form of disharmony – essentially we are discussing sin, which is lack of love prevailing within, as has countless demonstrations without, of what is disharmonious.
One needs to seek within themselves what is truth, what is eternal, and what one wishes to serve, for you have the opportunity every moment of the day, as to whether one wishes to serve higher truth or self-seeking gratification. You can find countless examples of this. Even down to the ethical consideration of whether to eradicate dandelions from one’s lawn or to allow them to be there. What is the truth, what is the disharmonious consideration to be considered? Is this helping at all?
Elena: No, it just adds to my consternation about fertilizer.
Renault: Leave the dandelions.
Elena: Oh, no! I’m killing dandelions.
ARCHANGEL MICHAEL: The example, nonetheless, is there as an exaggeration perhaps of ethical considerations, which must be considered. There are in nearly every occasion, gradations of higher good. What does an action serve in terms of a higher good? Does one allow evil to run rampant and to stand in silence allowing it to overtake when one could have done something to prevent its expansion? It is relatively simple to give the illustration of how one deals with disharmony in one’s life. That is what I had wanted to present as a working unit of how to build ethical constructs. Does this address your question at all, Myra?
Myra: Yes, it does, because I think that I heard you say that I need to identify the disharmony and put it out in the open, that you do not keep it to yourself, whether it’s personal or environmental or national. If you have a point of view, you do put it out in the open, which may be a form of resistance, or not going with the flow, that you are saying – publicly – that there’s more than one way to deal with the situation. It’s what I’m gathering from what you said. Am I close, Michael?
MICHAEL: That is an extrapolation from what I have presented, and certainly that is as valid as any other, for my raw lesson, relative to the question, is to present the working elements. If we were talking about sugar, for example, I would give you the chemical formula to be able to work with sugar in one form or another, in t his case I am giving you the formula of disharmony, as a basis for what is a cause of personal or group dysfunction and chaos as you know it — so yes, to present any disharmony within yourself to the light of truth, allowing that evaluation process to determine what of that disharmony is based in truth and what is not.
If this were done more regularly, it would be a world full of more truth than not. In other words, as your question seemed to imply, if your employer suggests that you do something that places children at risk, it would be incumbent upon you in not feeling easy with not acquiescing with such a demand to say, “Isn’t the well being of the children what we are here to uphold? And your possible policy is in direct conflict with that.” To address such a concern out of the truth belief is what is incumbent upon all to do. Building upon that, one can see where they may be forced to consider other possibilities or alternatives to that which is presented otherwise. Anything else?
Myra: Thank you.
Renault: It seems it’s a matter of also helping to change people’s beliefs. They’ve been believing the wrong way, kind of thing. Simply opening your eyes, suggesting alternative ideas or something to help change things through seeing it different ways.
Gerdean: From an alcoholic’s perspective, prompted from all those “dis” words Archangel Michael was using: “disharmony” and all. They say that the disease of alcoholism comes from dis-ease, and being ill at ease in the existing paradigm to the extent that the alcohol or, to carry that theme more broadly, whatever it is that takes the onus off whatever it is that is causing the feeling of ill at ease, whether that is killing off all the dandelions so that you are not the only house in the neighborhood that has dandelions, therefore being looked down upon and askance at, so if you kill the dandelions you are in accordance with the status quo and you lose that dis-ease with the neighborhood but you have, instead, the dis-ease of knowing that you are poisoning the earth. So when it all comes out and we ascertain what values really matter, like you were saying, we all have belief systems, and when the belief system is overriding but it’s not necessarily what you feel at ease with, you end up living a lie, and I think this is what both of the teachers today are saying: rather than live the lie, because that’s what everybody else is doing, find it within yourself …
Renault: The courage.
Gerdean: … the courage to find a way to get outside of that paradigm and live in it and perhaps even be able to find ways of carrying your perspective into the existing reality through shedding light on the subject, so I guess the message may be today one of education. If we education what is, rather than what we would all like to see, those things that make us uncomfortable may be more real than putting polish on things and pretending it doesn’t ex ist.
Renault: And also by saying it, you give other people courage to come out and agree with you or to say their hidden truths and beliefs, you know, just knowing that somebody else is in the same ballpark, a lot of times it’s very helpful.
Gerdean: And that’s probably where the group – the stress on the group, because if you have other people who feel or think like you do, then you have the courage because your group is behind you. You have– You’re not alone with your concept.
Elena: I think it’s important the way you do things. I work in an area where it is practically prohibitive to speak anything against something, so in thinking about how one goes against that, I think it’s kind of important because it’s comparable to the – I mean, you have to be heard. Just saying something and it’s being ignored, it’s important that you are heard, and that you pick a place and a way that you will be heard. Because simply shouting and spitting in the ocean, I guess that has a value to yourself, but I don’t think that that—I think it is important for you to pick the way that you express yourself.
Gerdean: Yes.
Renault: Because you don’t want to alienate—
Elena: That’s right! You get it to where, oh, yeah, that’s only Elena talking, you know, just ignore her
Gerdean: Or set yourself up for persecution.
Elena: Yeah! And that doesn’t help any.
Renault: Maybe approaching it with a functionality –. Does it work or does it not work. If something isn’t working properly, then let’s figure out a better way to make it work, rather than ‘dissing’ it.
Maria: Taking an adversarial stance to begin with is pretty much always going to be counter-productive. When I was in a hypno-birthing class, they were telling us how to defend against the medical practices that you don’t want, at the same time to not alienate the personnel that you are hiring to help you. So, say, for the father to go to the nurse and first, right off, just say, “Please will you help me,” and then start to list the help with the nurse to get certain conditions met. Start off with conditions that they don’t really care one way or the other about and once you get them on your side, get them working with you, then you can start bringing up the more difficult requests. And then certain things kind of slip in, as if it’s not an option. Like, “Oh, you don’t have to worry about this, because we already did this” even though you know they wanted to do something else altogether, so try to put yourself in the position of befriending those who you need to make demands of, in stead of coming right out and saying, “You know what? We are not going to put up with this. We are not going to put up with that. We are not.”
Gerdean: This reminds me of Jesus’ personality, which was so charming. He could get people to do what he wanted or think the way he wanted them to think because he was so charming. The tact and tolerance lesson comes in there as support for what you’re saying. Rather than be antagonistic, have the tact and tolerance to graciously elicit their support and bring them another perspective on reality that can help break down their rigid belief system.
Maria: Also bring gifts before, instead of after. Normally, the nurse gets a bouquet of flowers the next day or next week. Bring the bouquet of flowers with you.
Gerdean: Yeah.
Elena: One of the things I heard in today’s lesson was action, of actually doing something. I’m looking that way. For instance, Willie, tomorrow night, is going to go to that voter registration thing. Mother and I are going to go help in that, I think it’s next Saturday, and positive ways of actually putting ACTION literally into it. I’m talking about the political national sense HERE — of DOING something. And Voter Registration, I think, is a good thing. I mean, again, — we had some people over at our house yesterday (paraphrased) she was a dove and he was a hawk and the hawk is going to be my new boss. The way I approached that was, I said, I said, “One thing about this coming election, it is going to get people away from being so apathetic. I think this election will have that positive reaction, that people will actually get out and DO something about what they believe in. I have never contributed to a party in my life, but this year I sure have. I didn’t say which party!
Myra: But the other situation is that that decision regarding voting, you’ve got to make sure that the news you’re getting is accurate. And that’s getting harder and harder to do because {inaudible} enjoy tampering with that little {inaudible}.
Renault: Although it’s getting easier and easier with international news broadcasts. We now have BBC in the morning, and it’s not just American media anymore. We have – satellite TV can pick up Al-Jezzera and you’ll be right there. You can watch Arabian news; you can watch the other side for what’s happening, all around the world. And e-mail.
Matthew: That’s what I learned yesterday. I went to that conference that Amy Goodman put on, which was excellent. This was very much on target, and she mentioned CNN has the sanitized version and then CNNI (CNN International) is No Holds Barred. It’s what the rest of the world sees. Why we don’t see it is probably obvious, but it’s apparently available but I’ve never sought that out. It’s high time we do. Because I have been somewhat content with CNN lately, because at least it’s more than just the regular …
Renault: 6:00 news.
Matthew: Yeah. But I certain believe it’s sanitized.
Gerdean: I like NPR, myself. KUNM is my channel.
Matthew: Oh, absolutely.
Gerdean: Well, now that we’ve got our – isn’t it wonderful that this group is of like mind, at least. Can you imagine the dissention among the ranks that we would be having if we had avid hawks in our midst? And there are TeaM groups that are hawkish, that do have enthusiasm for the … [Group discussion at large] Well, perhaps before we disintegrate, we probably ought to end this meeting on a formal note. I’m going to find someone who can pray us out of here.
Closing
DANI: Father God and Mother Spirit, I am glad to be your child and glad to know these mortal kin who have so much to offer the world on which we live, who have such greatness of ideals and hunger to know more about how to live your will on our sphere. Help me help them in their efforts to instill a presentation of your design into the pattern of life we share, so as to bring about the greatest amount of joy and effective good will in our desire to do something on your behalf. It has long been my prayer that enlightened mortals become available, with whom I can work, to further the cause of peace on earth toward men of good will. Thank you, Father, for these associates, and for the potential inherent in our community. We pray these things in confidence of the support and assistance of your entire universe through the Master Son who has all our best interests at heart. Amen.
Group: Amen!
