1993-04-04-The Stillness Practice
Tallahassee #30
Contents
• 1 Heading
o 1.1 Topic: The Stillness Practice
o 1.2 Group: Tallahassee TeaM
• 2 Facilitators
o 2.1 Teacher: Will
o 2.2 TR: Unknown
• 3 Session
o 3.1 Opening
3.1.1 Vision, Stillness
o 3.2 Lesson
o 3.3 Dialogue
3.3.1 Practice, Communication
o 3.4 Closing
• 4 Session 2
o 4.1 Opening
4.1.1 Purpose, Change
o 4.2 Lesson
o 4.3 Closing
Topic: The Stillness Practice
Group: Tallahassee TeaM
Facilitators
Teacher: Will
TR: Unknown
Session
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.
Vision, Stillness
WILL: Good evening, I am your teacher, Will, who loves you. Material human eyes are excellent for some applications. They are excellent for judging midpoints. They are excellent for judging the distances between things. They are excellent for zeroing in on brightly colored objects. But, as in all things, there is a trade-off. Human night vision is not so great. The arrangement of the particular cells which makes human eyes so useful during the daytime is itself the cause of humans’ poor night vision. When you try to locate a dark object in a field or even a luminescent body in the nighttime sky by looking right at it, it is difficult to see. The harder you look the less sure you are that it is even there. But if you relax a bit, look off to the side just a little, then you see that it was there all along.
Lesson
WILL: There is every kind of way doing stillness practice represented in this group. Some people go at it as if it was a daytime vision exercise. They pursue it relying only on their strong stills. Others attempt day and night practice, with mixed results. Yet others are pursuing so single mindedly with the kind of vision analogous to night vision. They can’t see what it is they are after and begin to question what they are doing there in the first place. I think some of you might fall into these categories and so, for this reason, we welcome the visit recently of one of our daughters. I will say to you now that we approve of her technique. It is a good technique for beginners, especially for those people who are staring harder and harder, feeling less and less sure. It is a useful technique. That should bring back a little balance into the effort. That is all I have to say. Perhaps you have some questions.
Dialogue
JUDY: Will, this is Judy and I wanted to ask a question specifically about my stillness practice. I seem to have divided it into three parts. The first part is I’m thinking about the day and thinking through what all needs and how I would like to meet [those needs]. The second part is listening and trying to be still for any impressions or any insights I might receive. Third, inviting the Father to be with me in the stillness. It seems pretty comfortable but I would like some feedback on my technique.
WILL: In an ideal situation our lives would be geared towards preparing ourselves for an opportunity for one-to-one communication with the Maker so that as the appointed hour drew near we would find our worldly concerns falling away layer by layer, issue by issue, and when the time had truly arrived we would feel peace within ourselves that would be ideally suited for linking up with the eternal and cosmic peace of God Himself. That is not our situation here. Each person is on his or her own resources to develop the techniques which suit the moment and the situation in preparation for communication with the Heavenly Mystery. There is no such thing as a right thing or a wrong thing. There are only practices which, plotted on a number line, would be seen as more productive or less productive. But then, the fact is that your very lives are so very inconsistent, so very changeable from hour to hour that the differences between weeks encompass shifts in mental attitudes not commonly found on other planets which would occur over years.
Practice, Communication
This is the long way of saying, whatever works for you is fine. I know that your question is sincere. I will say that until some orderly pattern of thought progress is adopted by each of the members of this group, it is impossible for one of us to say, well you should apply this technique with regularity. If by review of the day you mean the productive events of the day, those with any spiritual component whatever, then, by definition, that would be a productive technique. On the other hand, a review of material events having no spiritual value would be unproductive. If by review we are talking about opportunities for kindness, for service, or for insight of our place in the scheme, then that would be useful. Recently the reading group read the story of Bartimeus, [[1] who called on the Master in spite of the efforts of bystanders and other disciples to silence him. His voice was heard. The Father hears you. This technique can be useful.
But communication between human and Creator may be likened to tuning of a musical instrument. It takes practice. It takes precision. I’m searching for a word. It takes composition or triangulation, just as the notes played upon the scale. The Father’s scale is vast and takes in every potentiality and, for this reason alone, communication will not always feel comfortable or even recognizable, but that type of tuning is communication nonetheless. Our visitor made a good point last week when she described this process as cumulative. That you work away trying to cause yourself to be still, perhaps achieving some success and no matter what the time length set aside for communication it is always in the last few moments that you feel – it’s always in the last few moments that you feel something happening, some bond, some contact however fleeting, some identification, as if you had a visit and then it’s back to the ordinary work until next time. Is that helpful?
JUDY: Yes, but there is one point I would like you to clarify. What did you mean by “an orderly pattern of thought process”?
WILL: : A unified method of dealing with the vicissitudes of life. A way of approaching problems. An organizational scheme for dealing with personal or professional difficulties rather than winging it. Clear enough?
VINCENT: Will, if pretty much everybody is going to make it to the next world, the morontia world, why is it so critical that they be enlightened on this world?
WILL: : The Father desires it. His love is so complete He desires your company whether you appreciate it or not. He does not care particularly about your errors, your failures or your behavior. He desires the normal relationship of a parent to a child. He desires that having set up this process, this procedure, for you, the children unlike any others, that you make the most of the type of experience that is available to you here and can only be approximated by the replenishing features of the afterlife. He desires that you use your time wisely, even if you deny His existence entirely, the better to equip yourselves for the road ahead. Does that answer?
VINCENT: Yes, thank you.
JUDY: Will, its me again. Your answer to Ron’s question about education caused me to think about that and in this group we have talked about emotional progress leading to spiritual progress and it seems to be a similar kind of work. Since I have spent the last twenty years involved in education, it is obvious that is important to me. I have opportunities to speak to groups of educators periodically and my message is generally to help teachers work with kids to help them become emotionally safe and emotionally well. Am I on the right track in terms of this contributing to the spirituality of young people?
WILL: : Persons, for example those taught personally by Jesus of Nazareth upon his visit to Rome, did not even remember the man, yet proved to be pillars of the kingdom when approached by that very teaching but a few years later. Yes, your work is good. It is on the right track. You may not see the results. Others will. We will. And you will at some time. You are a creature of your time. It is not possible to teach today in the manner generally accepted in a planet well advanced in the ages of light and life. People today would think such suggestions hopelessly idealistic. Food for fools. Today’s teachers are appropriate for today. That is why no materializations.
Closing
WILL: Enough for tonight. Next week I will see you all again, God willing. He has provided all for us. Shalom.
Session 2
May 2, 1993
Opening
Purpose, Change
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 and greetings to you all. I am your teacher, Will, who loves you. I commend your efforts to understand our purposes. But because of your inexperience and your insistence on interpretations which suit your human views of the world in which you are actors, you overrun and pass by the true goal. It is not our purpose to change your world. It is our purpose to change you. By initiating changes in each of you and all your brothers and sisters by faith and by the example of service, it will thereby change your world. But the modification of worlds is not within our job description. We work one person at a time. That’s the Father’s desire.
Lesson
WILL: A life lived in faith is a life of change – ever upward. Do not aim at communication with us for, from time to time, you will fall below the mark and this will be an additional burden on your lives. Aim for communication with the Heavenly Father. Then when you fall below the mark, you can communicate with us and it will not be such a burden to you. There is no substitute with time with your Father. He who ordered a universe, Michael of Nebadon, concerned himself with nothing but the discernment of the Father’s desire in every proposed course of action. You would do well to follow his example. We recommend it to you.
The Father’s way has no error in it. You will change based upon your own initiatives. You will change based upon the accidental and opportunistic improvements suggested by the Indwelling Adjuster. You will change from observation and association with others who have preceded you on the path and you will change from the leadership from those who follow on behind you. Do not trouble yourselves about when the world will be changed. For each of you it will be sufficient when you are changed. When that change takes place it will seem like a new world to you anyway.
Closing
WILL: This is my message for you tonight. God loves you. You love God. Show Him by loving each other. That’s all there is to it.
I have missed your company in these last weeks when our communication was interrupted or blockaded for one reason or another. I am your teacher. You are students in the Melchizedek school. It is my privilege to serve you. During the week for minutes and hours at a time we have exchanges, you and I, person to person. It is the background that is the confusion that is your daily lives.
Rest easy. All is well in the universe, though not immediately understandable. The Melchizedek indicates that he will have more to say in the future. We can expect his interaction on a more regular basis. That is my report. I cherish your company. Congratulations to one beginning transmission. It is the only uphill sleigh ride there is. That is all I have to say. God go with you during the week. Until we meet next week. Shalom.
