1993-03-14-Techniques To Introduce Truth To Others
Tallahassee #29
Contents
• 1 Heading
o 1.1 Topic: Discusses Techniques to Introduce Truth to Others
o 1.2 Group: Tallahassee TeaM
• 2 Facilitators
o 2.1 Teacher: Will, Machiventa
o 2.2 TR: Unknown
• 3 Session 1
o 3.1 Opening
o 3.2 Lesson
3.2.1 Action
o 3.3 Dialogue
3.3.1 Astrology
3.3.2 Education
3.3.3 Media
• 4 Session 2
o 4.1 Opening
o 4.2 Lesson
4.2.1 Leadership, Service
o 4.3 Closing
• 5 Session 3
o 5.1 Opening
o 5.2 Lesson
5.2.1 Teaching Mission, Stillness
o 5.3 Closing
Topic: Discusses Techniques to Introduce Truth to Others
Group: Tallahassee TeaM
Facilitators
Teacher: Will, Machiventa
TR: Unknown
Session 1
Opening
WILL: The love of God surrounds us. The wisdom of God enfolds us. The power of God supports us. Wherever we gather, He is.
Good evening and greetings to you once again. I am your teacher, Will, who loves you.
Lesson
Action
WILL: We have many times and for more than a year now dealt with the concept of openings and closings between people as the means for describing opportunities which exist or sharing and stimulating a higher concept of the Father’s teaching. We have generally limited our remarks to encouraging humans to keenly observe the existence of such openings and closings, but as we all grow more adept at our powers of observation I think it is time to make a transition from a passive to an active role and begin to initiate openings between people.
By initiate we mean something more than simply opportunistically taking advantage of the situation when another party in conversation or activity opens the door to a suggestion. By initiation we mean instead that you make some affirmative act, either by word or by deed in order to create an opening. It can be as simple as acknowledging a passerby on the street rather than averting your eyes or waiting for that person to acknowledge you. We think that a useful tool would be to begin by suggesting the practical benefits that can be derived through humane actions between people. Such remarks could be characterized as “what if” remarks.
We remind you that this effort is nondenominational and request that you do not tie your suggestions to the existence of Christian dogma and themes. We think that the practical benefits scenario might work well, particularly in so secular a society where many people patently refuse to entertain notions of moral, ethical or religious motivation for human activities. And because humans of your society are so particularly enchanted with immediate practical benefits we think it will be useful to ponder suggestions of human relationships, societal interactions that go more smoothly with the application of good faith intentions and observations of the basic requirements of civilized human conduct.
Therefore you might begin your active initiation of an opening by saying, for example, “there must be an easier way to do this” or “isn’t the theory behind this thus and so?”. If your fellow conversationalist takes the bait, the ball is rolling. Once the ball is rolling, once some movement is interjected, then the Adjuster can lead. The Indwelling Adjuster cannot lead in a [[[static]] status]. Leadership presumes motion. It is not possible to make spiritual progress while remaining entirely passive. For those of you who have concerns about the time demands implied by participation in the activities of this ministry, I think we can recommend, without reservation, wholehearted participation will cause you to become a commodity desired by all people. The good cheer, optimism and rugged practicality represented by our teachings will make you an asset for your employers, your friends and your families. [A sentence lost here]
For these reasons, among others, we ask that you exert yourselves this week and do more than seize the chances presented by open doors. Take another step, create those openings yourselves. It is good practice and, like everything we do here, it will get easier with practice for practice exposes you to the potential for success. Success in the spirit is its own reward. This is my message for you this night. We welcome a visitor tonight and I solicit questions as we have for several weeks running. Any questions tonight?
Dialogue
Astrology
RON: Will, this is Ron. I have been speaking to an individual who is on a spiritual quest, a sincere one, but for many years has been entirely wrapped up in astrology. I think his heart’s in the right place but he can’t seem to let go of astrology. Can you give me any tips on how I may be able to reorient him to a little bit to a broader spiritual perspective.
WILL: : The cultivation of an astrological phenomenon contains just enough useful information that people are continually tantalized by the confluences they see between usually generalized predictions and the specific fact sets of their lives. The useful part of astrology is that it lends itself to a cosmic view, but the corresponding detriment is that it unfairly prejudices the human practitioners with the notion that events and developments are determined by the exterior arrangement of planetary bodies.
Every organizational scheme has some credence. If astrologic projections of human qualities were not occasionally successful, then the discipline could not have survived, and it has thrived to a greater or lesser degree for nearly ten thousand years. It is true that the answer to all things lies in the heavens but the true chart through all of the star paths lies not on a piece of paper but in the hearts of individual humans.
The Father/Son lived and died as a normal human of the realm on this planet. He received no certification. He was advised by no seers, no luminaries, no interpreters of God’s message to man. Wholly man, he realized the full measure of his humanity and his connection with the Maker of all things and his earth life, to the moment of his baptism, is a demonstration that that same perfect attunement to God’s will can be accomplished by every human, single handed.
The coming and goings of the planets exert force upon your lives because you are composed primarily of water, electrolyzed in aqueous [?] solution, vitalized by electrical energy and stimulated by the breath of life. Those exterior astronomic bodies exert a fine force upon you however the comings and goings of your fellow humans, those of your family, your friends, even the strangers that you meet, the personalities whose images are nothing more than an electromagnetic projection upon a phosphorescent television screen provide a thousand times more influence than do the movements of the heavenly bodies. Because the material life force is subjected to increasingly strong magnetic and personality power pull by the mere association with other material life forms, it is correspondingly necessary to follow the inner compass. Star charts are for star travelers. The Adjuster will chart the way through the human experiences of life. Try that notion. None of you are ready for star travel. Someday, yes. Not today. Does that help?
Education
RON: A very nice answer. Thank you. I have one more question on an unrelated subject. I am very concerned about the educational system in this country. I think about it a lot being a teacher. I see some good points and a lot of bad points in my job as a teacher. My question is, will this Teaching Mission address a problem as specific as education or is it something that our society will have to work out largely on its own?
WILL: : It is difficult, nigh unto the description extremely rare for us to make contact with adolescent humans of your culture. They are awash in conflicting biological urges, hormonal surges and numerous inconsistent messages from your society as to how they should look and conduct themselves not only among their age peers, but society at large. Although this ministry is intended to turn all hearts toward God, individual by individual, in practical effect it is presently foreseen that the example of adult humans will be required before any substantial influence is felt among adolescents. The short answer is, its your problem but we will do all we can to help you. Still, the effects should become increasingly obvious until even teenagers cannot deny that something is afoot. Teachers are ready. But the demand is great and we look to the declining effectiveness of self acting Adjusters as a reliable indicator of the probable effects of contact initiated from our side among adolescents. Time is on our side although it is true that much useful time is wasted. Still, we console ourselves with the notion that the wasting of time is a necessary part of the material life experience. You are all still largely animal. It is calculated into the equation. The Father will never punish you for what you are. I hope you find these remarks useful.
RON: Yes I do, thank you.
WILL: : Next question.
Media
LOREN: Will, this is Loren. If this is not out of your province, I am curious what drives the violence on TV which seems to increase as time passes and is this expected to peak some time in the future?
WILL: : Finally, a question I can answer with one word without fear of damaging any person’s sensibilities. The answer is: Profit.
So long as the exploitation of violence and depravity is rewarded with profit, nothing will change. However, through recent technological developments, diversification in the entertainment marketplace seems to indicate that other forms of passive entertainment may find a useful share of the television marketplace. This industry is subject to tremendous swings in popular taste and is, by its very nature, tremendously consumptive of money and talent and I would not counsel anyone to seek enlightenment from the television. Occasional useful facts can be gleaned. As a communication medium it is still in its infancy. It is presently seen as a one way medium. [Rest of message lost to equipment failure]
Session 2
March 21, 1993
Opening
WILL: : The love of God surrounds us. The love of God enfolds us. The love of God supports us. Wherever we gather, He is.
Good evening to you all once again. I am your teacher, Will, who loves you. For several weeks now we have been practicing on an exercise designed to make the initial step from the passive to the active, from observation to interaction. I think you are doing well. We are pleased with your response – when you remember. But then that is what this ministry about. Each week we gather here for fellowship, exchange of information, exchange of insights and, occasionally, another assignment which builds upon the last.
Lesson
Leadership, Service
WILL: Soon we will greet a visitor, another who comes from afar. This one teaching techniques of meditation applicable to stillness practice. In preparation for our visitor I desire for each of you to write down one question about your personal stillness practice. Not a general question. Not a question about how other people practice stillness, but about your practice. She will cover the generals. The specifics are for you to raise.
I think it is clear by now that our endeavor in the Sunday teacher group is about the general. We would be doing you a disservice if we caused you to become dependent on anything other than the Adjuster’s guidance. This kind of activity is the ultimate in personalized activity and it is not possible for us to say, “What you need is a cashmere sweater of a certain size and cut,” because the business upon which we are now engaged is slippery business. The high ideals and the general ideals are those that will service in the long run, which is all that really matters.
Over the past year, we’ve seen very encouraging developments in each member’s ability to respond to their Indwelling Adjuster’s leading. First, thoughts which break through the chatter and actually make it to the surface as an inspired vehicle for insight and participation in the wrestling and turmoil of daily life on your planet. Second, from time to time, we see you act upon those leadings and this is particularly gratifying to us, for the leadership of the spiritual life is a leadership by service. Not even by example. Only service. With or without an audience. The feeling, the intent, the devotion, and the interaction is the same.
Leadership through service is what we are after. We think that some day in the future each of you will be leaders. It is impossible for us to forecast, at the moment, the number of lives that your service may touch. So I congratulate you. I think you are doing well. I exhort you to spend more time with the Father. I encourage you to deal with your brothers and sisters one by one, taking them as they come without any intention to convert them, to guide them, to provide for them, only serve them. Respond to the needs of the moment. And having satisfied the bread of this world, provide the bread of the afterlife for you well know a hungry belly is an effective blockade to the Father’s voice.
The shift from observation to interaction takes courage. Courage is not born of resolution. It is born of practice. It is born of devotion in spite of failure. So we will be at this assignment for quite some time. On those occasions then when you feel like you’ve lost the thread, stop. Close the door. Unplug the phone. Take a few minutes for communion with the Heavenly Father. He has a way of setting people’s feet back on the right path. We don’t know how He does it. It seems to be His business alone. But we will continue to work with people, one by one, mirroring to the limits of our capacity, the very interaction which the Heavenly Father practices in His personal ministry throughout all the universes. We take them as we find them, provide them a service, share a kind word and an uplifting thought. That’s our work.
Closing
WILL: This is my message for you tonight. We will talk on this again. Until our next meeting, shalom.
Session 3
March 28, 1993
Opening
MACHIVENTA: : All honor and profound respects to the Most Highs and to Michael, the perfect expression. I thank you for entertaining the message of our daughter, come from a far place to share her insight with you this week. Because I am apparently inextricably involved in the presentation of this message, I have a few remarks tonight, if you would entertain them.
Lesson
Teaching Mission, Stillness
MACHIVENTA: I think we can safely disregard the suggestion that the Heavenly Father would take the form of money. I think we can safely disregard suggestions about how individual members of this group should reconstruct the daily events of their lives in order to make most profitable use of their time spent privately with the Father. What I was smiling about was the comic aspects which I anticipated stemming from the reactions of the members of this group to a presentation such as we witnessed this past week. I thank you for the candidness of your expressions. They are all true. Taking them all as a unit I think that, on balance, we learned something; not only on that night, but over the days of reflection which shortly followed. I think we learned that we’re not alone.
I think we learned that there are different techniques for instilling a growing bond with the Father, with and without the application of any particular technique. But I think that the most important thing that we learned is that – that could be you, you know. That could be you responding to an imperfectly received urging from the Adjuster. That could be you describing an imperfectly understood regimen to your fellow seekers. That could be you taking up people’s valuable and useful time with something that may or may not be productive for them. That could be you warmly received by some, tolerantly received by others and outright rejected by others. It is true I approve of this transaction. I think that good things were learned, both that night and following. More lies ahead.
A few more subtle points I wish to touch on briefly. The purpose of this mission is not to proselytize the words which are written in the Urantia Book, although we obviously embrace and wholeheartedly incorporate the entire set of teachings presented in the Urantia Book, still those teachings expressed in that book are not to be invoked by you or anyone else as a justification for your own conclusions and your own presentations to your brothers and sisters. While we are always willing in the teacher mission to speak reverently of Michael and his role, the simple fact is that the mention of the life and death of the man proves a barrier. We are not here to overcome barriers. We are here for bridging.
We need only erect enough of a structure to go across. We have also observed the use of the teachings of the book as a method for people, individually and in groups, to maintain a kind of thought discipline over their brothers and sisters and that is why in this teaching mission we have little to say about the rivalries and disagreements between different groups charged with the dissemination or preservation of the Urantia Book teaching. It is not relevant to our mission. It is not irrelevant to our mission. We are here bridging the gaps between people. That means no doctrines, no teachings, no credos, no tests, no money, no taxes, no requirements [pause] other than you people gathered here tonight dealing wholeheartedly and openly with your brothers and sisters of the material life whenever and however you encounter them as if Jesus of Nazareth was standing by your side and by your every thought, word and deed indicating that you understand the full import of his teachings and that you do this, not for the aggrandizement of yourselves, but as a conduit for the Heavenly Father’s love to flow through you unfiltered, unchecked to the person with whom you are engaged.
And, lastly, that you do these things with appropriate reverence for the activities upon which you are engaged. That is all we ask. You do not need to know even the name of the book. There are no holy words which you or anyone else must utter. There are no correct thoughts. There are no correct actions. There is only service. And when you do these things, do them in memory of the love of God which has been freely shared with you and with all your brothers and sisters. Freely has it been given to you, freely shall you distribute it, in kind, untampered. Pure and undiluted.
I am Melchizedek. This is what I teach. I think that all of us see now, that we have embarked on a project which will consume great time. It is a project that will outlast your individual lives, at least. The lives which we recognize in the flesh. You will be working on this project in the afterlife. The afterlife is not about self absorption, the afterlife is about service. This is what we do.
I am pleased that the people here see with undimmed eyes, determined clearly for themselves the things which go on about them. I commend you. The question is, what will you do with it? But then, that is the question that we apply to everything. We have made a good start, you and I. I am pleased with the progress that we have made. This path is full of surprises and I am gratified to see the humor that I anticipated from the development of these events proved to be as spontaneous and as sharp as I expected. We have had some good laughs. It’s all part of the work. Now let’s go on from here. That is all I have to say. Shalom.
WILL: Good evening. I am your teacher, Will, who always loves you. Our leader has expended some effort to arrange that certain things happen. I, too, enjoyed the frankness of your responses. I’m also happy to see that the underlying, more important message, actually came through with some clarity. In a sense, we must all get more organized about the way we go about things. Spontaneity is good and a sure indication that growth and humor and alertness are present. But if our time is burnt up in inefficiencies and meanderings without getting organized about the really important things, then the spontaneity which we seek and the flashes of penetrating insight which we receive as a dividend from communication with the Father will pass by unperceived. I divine that by those events which Melchizedek has arranged for our group that there is no technique which is promulgated to serve every kind of person. You have a wide variety of personality types in this group which makes it refreshing and I do not foresee at this time that there is any qualified person who might come and appear before this group as a guest speaker and reveal the “correct” way to do stillness practice. In my limited understanding, there is no “correct” way. What matters is, you do it.
I think that we all see the necessity for solid grounding in the goals of this Teaching Mission both on the spiritual and the temporal side of the equation. You do not need to get in a hurry about things, there is plenty of time to go around in eternity. Since we are all headed in that direction anyway, relax. Enjoy this experience as it unfolds. It will not unfold in any particular way according to your desires whether you worry about it or not. There are too many probable choices, too many forks in the road between now and then for any of us to influence the unfolding.
Only Michael could see the most likely unfolding and Michael had a special relationship. Each of you has that same special relationship available. Not different in any way. And the door which you open to that relationship is stillness practice. You can open that door any time that it suits you. God is always there. That’s all there is on the other side.
Closing
WILL: Well, I don’t have much else to say about this recent experience. I sense that in most of you your reaction is still developing. It’s like a kind of medicine, powerful but long acting. We will take these things up again. In the meantime, you are not alone. There is us and, always, each other. Until next week, I leave you in loving hands. I wish you well, happiness and all the developments that you can handle. Shalom.
