2006-01-15. Worship, There Is No Goodbye
Rio Rancho #130
Topic: Worship, There Is No Goodbye
Group: Rio Rancho TeaM
Teacher: Merium
TR: Gerdean
Opening
Reneau: Someday we will be able to put these on CD so people will be able to hear the lesson as well as the music that goes with it! Will wonders never cease?
Men-O-Pah: Father, we come to you this afternoon, leaning on your promise, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there shall I be,” and so, Lord, come and sit with us and guide our thinking. Amen.
Group: Amen.
MERIUM: I’m coming, too, if that’s okay!
Group: Oh, welcome!
MERIUM: I have been holding on to the Master’s hand, enjoying my daughterly affections, and I am glad to lure him into this circle of friends – my charges. How wonderful to see you again, children. How great it is to have you as friends and companions on these Sunday sessions we enjoy. Always it feels like an age goes by between visits but every time we come together, it feels as if we have not been apart. I know this has something to do with the dimension of love, which cuts across all barriers and dissolves all time restrictions. This is what it will be like when you wake up in the Resurrection Hall after you have recovered from your transition; you will take up over there where you leave off down here, as if nothing had interfered with the trek toward destiny.
Dialogue
Reneau: Question.
MERIUM: Certainly!
Reneau: Are we not just a wee bit wiser, however, at that point?
MERIUM: No.
Group: No?
MERIUM: Only you will have experienced the transition.
Reneau: No miraculous knowing?
MERIUM: Well, this will depend on the individual, of course, for some individuals feel they are in heaven already and so they will hardly bat an eyelash except to recognize that they were right all along. And yet those who are not so sure about this afterlife business will certainly be surprised and they will have perhaps more adjusting to do, but wiser? No. Just more experienced. In time, however, you will realize that you have made a hurdle into another realm of being and you will embrace your new life and your morontia existence as fervently if not more than this one you enjoy now in the flesh.
Reneau: So not that much different.
Lesson
MERIUM: Not so much different except for the knowledge of having survived. And that is something you experience here. You see a driver cut across in front of you by two lanes and you feel you have missed him by a hair’s breadth, yet you survived. That is not something you normally lose sleep over. These kinds of things happen all the time on a world such as this where disorder, chaos and impulse are behind many actions.
It is to some, dangerous to go outside their front door in the morning, and most mortals spend much of their lives attempting to surround themselves with as much security as possible so that these mishaps do not occur. And while the effort to stay secure and remain safe takes up huge amounts of time and energy, the fact is, accidents still happen, disasters still take place, illness still befalls humanity and life goes on.
It is in the knowledge of the continuity of life itself that security is truly found. Security in the dimension that is outside the finite reality you recognize as your world, your life, your home, your friends, your things, your vehicles, your stuff. There is so much more to life than this dimension. Even as you life here, there is much more to living that simply staying safe and providing for your creature comforts.
In our visits lately, we have spent some time enjoying the culture of the mortal realms, at least a culture that has been presented as appropriate for you, you who like to read and stimulate your minds with one thing or another, be it correspondence, philosophy, science, or whatever, you are people who appreciate stories, and so we have told stories in a manner of speaking, in order to become more acquainted.
This is an element of socialization among civilized people that is a reflection of the brotherhood of man. We can get along and exchange thoughts and ideas because we are sharing ourselves and our interests with others. In other, words, as much of you all enjoyed, as youngsters, reading “Little Women,” it is also true that as you develop, your personal tastes and preferences led you into fields of interest in your reading. Some of you have found the Urantia Papers, some of you have found the encyclopedia, some of you have found literature, some of you have found e-zines. But all of you have found something that interests you that you enjoy and would like to share with others. Again, a dimension of brotherhood and filiality.
You know how to comport yourself as civilized people in this dimension. In future lives … in the future as ascending morontia beings … you will not have the environment you have here, nor will you have the customs. There will not be a stately dinner table, nor will there be fashion, such as you are familiar with, and thus your discourses will perforce be on other matters. But this is not to say that enjoying the life you have here now is not quality experience. It is only to say that this is a beginning of the many experiences there are to come.
I had thought today to address you a little bit about the other reason we come together, besides the fact that we enjoy each other’s company and we know how to conduct ourselves in our cultural base, and that is because we all are drawn to the spirit dimension in one way or another, and in our case, it is a dimension that leads into the possibilities of worship. I would like to hear from you all today. I would like to hear what you think worship is. Any volunteers?
Dialogue
Men-O-Pah: Yes, it’s putting aside all the cares of this world and problems that you’re facing, and trying to let your mind go blank, and pray to God that He will speak to you, that you will hear His voice, perhaps in the wind, but it’s emptying yourself so that your mind center is upon God, nothing else.
We have the admonition from the scripture, “Be still and know that I am God.” Being still is very difficult for us. It takes a lot of practice, to push out all the little problems that we are thinking about that don’t really matter.
Esmeralda: You know, this is a subject matter that I give thought to, and in prayers I always think I do worship, I do love Father, and Michael and Mother Spirit, but I am always sure that they know that I do, too, and in my prayers it seems that I always start off by thinking that, and I am grateful, but on the other hand, looking at the ideal prayer that Jesus gave us in the New Testament of the “hallowed” name, I think that maybe there are several ways to do that. Maybe out daily lives and the way we live them, and whether we are kind and helpful and loving to the people around us – I think that in a way is sort of worshipping father, too, because I think if we didn’t have the love of Father, we might not do it. And I may not be making sense right now, either.
Thoroah: The seal of approval.
Reneau: Could worship also be when I gaze out on an incredibly beautiful landscape and just feel totally filled with the beauty and the awe of – that’s when I talk to God and tell him thank you for all this beautiful, beautiful bounty and creation.
Esmeralda: Like the beautiful full moon we’ve had for the last few nights and the clouds that obscured it last night, but that’s awe and worship, too, in what He’s given.
Reneau: Well, worship, too, can be putting out that helping hand, to help the less fortunate or the more needy or the person who needs help. That way our paths cross in our daily work.
Lesson
MERIUM: Service is a result of worship. It is cause and effect. You receive divine love in your worshipful relationship with Deity and it fills you with a desire to bestow that same love on others. Thus, when you see service being performed, you are seeing effects of the First Cause. Beauty, nature, certainly, are reflections of the perfection of the Perfect One, and the perfect world that is created, even while many times it is difficult to see the relative perfection of chaos or difficulty.
Knowing the son and the moon are in the course of the sky contributes to a sense of appreciation and safety in that security that only God can provide. There is no way to tag a mortgage on the moon. It is a gift for all, as is God’s love, a gift available to everyone. How the many children of God perceive that divine affection, if at all, is what makes life so interesting and challenging.
But yes, worship is a personal communion that occurs with divinity that closes out all things extraneous and allows the definition of separation to dissolve in the oneness of being. In time, we will discover worship is such a compelling activity, our guides and mentors will perforce urge us to let go of the worshipful state, for that is where we will want to be all the time – in this blissful presence, without a care, knowing that all is well and that all will be forthcoming.
It is in the experiential task of living that we extend our reach into the chaos and the difficulty. This is our task as we serve. Some take this very seriously and very academically, as if they had a ruler and a pencil and a chart and a graph. Some take this quite differently, as if they were children skipping rope and playing marbles in the sandlot. But no matter what your propensity or your preference, you who worship will be enriched by the experience and your life will be enriched as well.
Worship is not going through prescribed motions. That is ritual. Ritual is wonderful. Everyone enjoys a degree of ritual, for it represents order and continuity and teamwork, even security, but it is not worship. Worship is the relationship between the created and the Creator — living, loving, laughing, and dancing in the light.
When we come together, we take time to lift up. We reach up into the realms of the divine and seek to touch that perfection which is our goal, our aim, and our adoration. And having experienced this worship with others, we come back refreshed, renewed and invigorated, to serve, to respond in kind to those around us as we pass by. It is the breath of life that keeps us alive, breathing in God, breathing out God.
I liked your selection, Elena. It fit in perfectly with what I wanted to talk about today because indeed we must rise up. God will certainly reach down, but if we don’t reach up, it becomes difficult for the twain to meet. When we consciously direct our will toward the divine, we have given our consciousness permission to focus on that which is greater than we are, and in faith we are able to perceive that which comes to us through our own indwelling adjusters – that aspect of God which resides with us and speaks to us and comforts us and assures us that we know more than we realize and that we will experience more than we know.
Rejoice in the fact of your relationship with something you can worship that will give you the sense of divine affection, that will infuse you and us with the desire to do good to others. It was the mark of worship that we choose to do good. Good little boys and girls, how are you? How have you been? And what would you like to talk about today, if anything?
Dialogue
Men-O-Pah: I thought it was interesting in your early remarks about the transition of our lives from this one to the next, that it wasn’t really such a quantum leap as we had imagined. I’ve always looked forward — especially when I was younger — with great anxiety about that transition, but our language has something to do with conditioning the way we view that, I think.
Some wise fellow has said that the hardest word in all the English language to say is “good-bye” and we find that word in a lot of languages, especially those of European countries, but in the Native American language, there is no such word. We never say “good-bye.” It’s always (in Cherokee) “until we meet again.”
Merium: Indeed. Many of your perceptions of the afterlife are based on old patterns of thinking, coupled with fear — fear of the unknown, and projections of the undead, or “evil spirits” — even hell. These have given horrible implications about a natural process of leaving this realm to partake of the next one. Far better for you to think in terms of the moth, that builds himself a cocoon and sleeps in the cocoon until it’s time to awaken as a butterfly, for this is far more in keeping with truth.
Your transition will be one of which you will be conscious, in part, because there is great light and there are accompanying seraphim, and so, once you have passed over that threshold, you will be met immediately by the next dimension. Even, sometimes, mortals waver back and forth between this one and the next one until they are ready to take that final step. It is in this transitioning that people come to grips with their fate. They forgive old wounds. And others are drawn to seek forgiveness of the one leaving, so that their life can be lived without regret at the passing.
Yes, one of the difficulties is because you do not know what to expect, but if you can remember that transitioning from this life to the next is a process, as much an event, you will be able to stay with the process and appreciate the process as you transition. Knowing you have nothing to fear should give you all a great deal of encouragement about not only the next life, but this one as well, for you need not fear reprisal or punishment from that which lies ahead.
Your most pressing concern will be your vehicle, your material vehicle, which is shutting down. One way or another, it cannot go with you, so you need to be able to be aware of your vehicle and make sure its comfort is tended to, but remember that you are not your body. You are above and beyond your mere material vehicle. And so, that which is you genuinely — your personality … that aspect of yourself that has thought in advance to worship the Creator in order to reinforce your selfhood — will continue to ascend to the Source, and you will retain your consciousness of your life, your friends, your memories and all that you have had of value.
Thus, you do not leave empty-handed nor do you arrive on the shores of Mansonia without all you need to begin a full and replete life on the other side. You will be met by friends and guides. You will enjoy a reunion with friends and family who preceded you. You will have an opportunity to recover from the stress of the transition and to orient yourself to your new environment, your new morontia body.
The less you fret over the process, the more you will be in awe of it, for it is yet another miracle in the course of your long and eternal career. There will be other sleeps, but this first sleep is the one that catches you up because you have not done a long sleep before. In truth, you may not even notice that you have been asleep because, as I said earlier, you may waiver back and forth between this life and the next in the process of the transition, but that will depend upon you, your condition, your experience, your faith, your character, and many other elements. In the end, of course, it depends upon your relationship with the Divine, as to what there is to resurrect. And so I encourage you to reach up and take the hand of Jesus and let him lead you into the presence of God so that therein you may find yourself, your joy, your contentment, your rejoicing forevermore. Anything else?
Reneau: You know, that’s a beautiful passage that I think, with your permission, maybe we could use it. That’s sort of the kinds of things we try to pass on to families during that time when the patient is put on hospice and helping them to transition. I think those are– that’s a beautiful little segment. Thank you.
MERIUM: And thank you. Yes, these are valuable pieces of information to convey to those who would benefit from learning about the process of transitioning. This, of course, is what the Teacher Corps is here for, to help you incorporate these things into your own consciousness so that you can minister to others as you pass by, and what a great service you would provide for those who have no idea of what is coming, and who may still be blocking their transition experience and resisting their destiny calling because of residue fears from the old wives’ tales, rumor mills or late night movie depictions of zombies and vampires and whatnot, not to mention the way fear has a way of depicting Hell and the fire licking gaily at your ankles. These are horrors, dreadful horrors of ignorance that lodge in the compartments of the mind of those who do not know, and so they need to be eviscerated from the consciousness by supplanting that dreadful fear of death into an appreciation and anticipation of the glory of God that awaits.
Learn to encourage others to run to the arms of the Divine, as a child runs to the embrace of his parent, where he is safe, looked over, cared for, comforted, strengthened and encouraged.
Reneau: And yet, when they try, a lot of times their families grab them back, and as such as in the case of Mr. Blank, who seems to be having a lot of trouble with his transition, and it’s not totally due to his family. I think a lot of it is his own fears, apparently.
MERIUM: Ask Mr. Blank, then, to face his demons, and slay them.
Reneau: Um-hum. I think it’s the fear and the guilt that people carry with them, that they’re taught in their childhood religions, on the hereafter, that they carry these fears and guilts…
MERIUM: And they wait until the last minute to deal with these things, instead of dealing with them as they are able in the bloom of life.
Reneau: Um-hum. And then we find ourselves in the reality of dealing with, here we are, “poor Mr. Blank is having trouble making his transition.” So.
MERIUM: Ask Mr. Blank also to look for that divine fragment [of God] within him that will help him make the transition. If he understands the concept of faith as a living experience, God will catch him up and comfort him on the spot. Most folk get caught up in the mortal frame of reference to the exclusion of the spiritual; they feel that emotion and intellect is all there is, when there is another dimension of reality: that which you see when you look out across a field of perfect waving grain, blue skies and puffy clouds. That is something every mortal has seen and enjoyed. Every mortal has seen a flower or a tear on the cheek of a child that has touched some part in him. Help him find that place within him that will lead him into an appreciation of that which is Divine in him, so that he can — even for a moment — allow himself to believe, for in that moment is when God will reach out and grab his child and assure them. Even if the mortal, in fear, draws back, it will have been at least an impression that God had a chance to convey and this is all it takes, just a little introduction to the Light and soon the Path will be well lit, whereupon they may walk.
This is ministry. To help people across is ministry. And sometimes this involves helping the family let go, helping them come to grips with their foibles and failings, that involves forgiveness of the mortal estate and an appreciation of what flesh is heir to. It requires compassion for that which we cannot do anything about except heal from.
Elena: Merium, I have a question. As you shed the body, do you shed fear? Or is there any fear that goes into the next world or do we leave that all behind?
MERIUM: Fear is left behind.
Elena: Wow! Great!
MERIUM: Fear is a part of your animal heritage. It is part of that which has kept you alive. It is a part of your survival instinct as an animal of the realm.
Elena: But that’s not part of the next world then?
MERIUM: No.
Elena: Wow, that’s —
MERIUM: When you sit in stillness with the Father as you worship, you will not find fear there. There is nothing to fear. Even as you are released from his embrace to go serve in dire circumstances, as the scripture says, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of death I will fear no evil, for Thou are with me.” You can transcend your fear, even here, as an animal-origin being by walking with your hand in the hand of Jesus.
There are some that must have fear; they cannot seem to function without it, and so they amass it and collect it around them; they create things to fear so that they are comfortable in this zone. But this is not a zone of truth, beauty and goodness; it is one of darkness.
Elena: And then just one other question. It was intriguing me that you said about there are one of a number of sleeps. I don’t quite understand that, and maybe now this lesson doesn’t have enough time for that, but if not now, maybe talk about that at another time. I mean, do you get tired? Or … it’s not that kind of sleep.
MERIUM: When you leave the morontia estate and become a full-fledged spirit, you go through another sleep, but by then you are so well imbued with the reality of God, you are not subjected to the same fears and anxieties you have here as you face the sleep from this life to the morontia life.
Elena: Is that just the process of going, leaving the physical body and you sleep while that happens? I think it says someplace about three days or something like that. Is that what we’re talking about? …
MERIUM: Yes.
Elena: … or is it something in addition to that?
MERIUM: No, it must shut down in order to pick up. You must open the door in order to step through and close it on the other side. It is that transitioning period we call the transition sleep because, for the most part, you are not aware that it is happening, even though you sleep and are unaware of what is happening. You wake up and it feels as if you were just on the other side because there is no consciousness during that period of “sleep.”
Elena: So each time you progress to a different stage, then there is that process where you have to kind of shed that skin to gain another one, or something.
MERIUM: Well, there are different modifications you will undergo in the morontia life, but they are not as dramatic as this transition from mortal to morontial and the one later, from morontial to spiritual, is not fearsome at all, except as you might understand awe and excitement.
Elena: Thanks.
MERIUM: This is the big hurdle, but if you know what’s going on, it doesn’t have to be that big of a hurdle. It can be a natural process. I would encourage you to become familiar with the process such that it is not frightful, so that it is a part of your waking consciousness and you can become aware of the steps you are taking to make the transition, and as it comes closer, begin to give yourself permission to look forward to the Resurrection Hall and the reunion with loved ones and the myriad benefits that will be yours as a result of having made the transition, such as many more senses and a full range of new companions, where the heavenly music is thousands of times more than you know here. Even as wonderful as your music is, it will sound like banging on a tin cup when you get to the morontia worlds and hear what music truly can be. The pageantry that are put on for your entertainment and education, the relationships you will establish with the seraphim, your guardian angel, and others in the celestial realms as you begin to help them serve other creatures of time in their ascension.
All this that you have to look forward to should help you overcome your fear of letting go of this, which has served you well. There is no “good-bye” indeed, not to that which is important. If you have had more than one car in your life, you know that you recover from saying goodbye to that old Ford because the new Chevy is so snazzy you soon forget the old Ford. And so we can soon forget the old body that served us on this sphere, as we rejoice in the perennially youthful body that we’re given on Mansonia with which to function.
Reneau: And then there’s the other side, of the people that keep saying, “Well, can’t I die? Why am I still here? Why can’t I go?” They go, “I’m waiting! It’s okay!” and yet still they wake up the next day and …
MERIUM: Just tell them the train is on its way.
Esmeralda: I think this lesson has been really helpful to all of us, but not only in our own transition, but I think that it would be very helpful for such as those of us who are close to living out our days on this earth, I think it should be helpful to our children, to be comforted and know that there is nothing to worry about and that life will go on for them and that we’re in a better place and they can be happy and celebrate.
MERIUM: That indeed is another topic, and it has to do with dependency of children upon their parents. And this is a natural and normal estate, as well. Just as you depend upon your Father in Heaven, you depend upon your parents on earth, not only as a truly dependent child, but even throughout your lives. You know that your parents provide unconditional love. They know recipes. They know shortcuts. They know stories that help assure you who you are and that you have a right to be here. They give you a sense of belonging and continuity that no one else can provide.
When a parent dies, the child now feels they have no one to turn to. They miss their parents. Many, many years after the parents are gone, you always miss your mother; you always miss your father, when they precede you. And in unfortunate cases when the child goes first, the good news is you will have an occasion to meet up again with your children, your child, those who have gone before you. But if all of these participants in the experience of life have been duly mindful of worship, they will also understand the wonder and joy and opportunity everyone is given to make that move one step closer to being with Father in Paradise.
This is why death on normal worlds is regarded as a celebration, where fusion is a matter of course, and temples are created where people can travel to the place where they can fuse without destroying the environment, and there is a party. There are angels singing. There is music playing. There is a feast of gratitude for the life lived and the love enjoyed. That is how it’s done on normal, healthy worlds.
And this is one of the things that we hope to correct as we work with you in this Correcting Time — and that is your approach to life as it is lived as you transition through the door of death into new worlds beyond … and rejoicing in the process, knowing, as you say, there is no “good-bye”.
Reneau: Only “Go with God.”
Esmeralda: “‘Til we meet again.”
MERIUM: “‘Til we meet again.”
Paula: You know, I was brought up practically in the church, ever since I can remember, I went to church, and I believed all these things and then when I was a grown woman and I saw my father die and then I saw my mother die, I wondered, “Is there another place that we go to? I don’t know.” I hesitated and wondered, you know. It bothered me a great deal because I had been brought up to believe that and all of a sudden I was wondering what was the truth. And I guess I probably told you about the night that George died? My former husband? Or did I? I don’t know.
MERIUM: I haven’t heard the story.
Paula: But anyway, he was in a hospital bed downstairs and just beyond our dining room was this nice little room that he used for an office. It had seven windows going all the way around the room, and so we put his hospital bed in there and I just shoved his desk to one side, so he was very comfortable there. And this one particular night I made sure he was all right. He had clean pajamas and everything was all set, so I said, “Well, I’m going to go on up to bed,” and I had to go upstairs to go to sleep in our bedroom, and we had an intercom worked out so that if he had any trouble in the night, he could, you know, call me.
About 2:00 in the morning, the intercom rang and I quick grabbed it. I said, “What’s the matter?” and he said, “Help me,” and that’s all. Just “help me.” So I went downstairs with my robe on and then I remembered what this girlfriend of mine had told me. She’s a nurse at the hospital that we had in our little town, and she said, “Just remember, if you need me, no matter whether it’s day or night, I want you to call me and tell me.” And I thought, “Well, I guess maybe this is it.” So I called her and she had a phone right beside the bed and she said, “Okay, I know what you mean.” And she said, “We’ll be right over. Just get the door unlocked.”
And she and her husband whipped into their clothes and came over and she looked at him and listened to his heart and so forth and she said, “I think this is going to be it.” And I knew what she meant, that he was going to die. So we just stayed there and stayed with him and he had been very, very weak, and the last, oh, maybe three days before he died, he couldn’t even get up on one elbow. He just lay there on the pillows. So, anyhow, we were there, and long about, oh, just towards morning, he made a funny noise and then he talked a little and all of a sudden, when she and I were sitting there beside him on the bed, all of a sudden he was up on one elbow … and he hadn’t been able to do that, get off the flat of his back, for days.
And he started to look pit the window at something that we couldn’t see, but he was absolutely intent on what he saw, and where he got the strength to get up on that elbow I don’t know, because he hadn’t been able to, and then, that was it. And so he just fell back and she came over and listened and looked and so forth and she said, “He’s gone.” And that was it! But what he saw, I don’t know. And I have always found it very hard to believe that after we die, there really, really is something for us, a heaven of some type, but I … I believed it since then, because I don’t know what he saw, but it was there.
Reneau: His seraphim.
MERIUM: He greeted those who were coming for him, to take him to the next plane. He heard them coming, saw them coming, and went to greet them. That is where he got the strength. He derived the strength from his inner resources that were ready and eager to join with those who would take him home to his new plane of existence. Yes, your faith was born that night, it would seem, for before you believed there was life after death, but after that experience, you had faith that there was, since he met it, and you have no reason to doubt him.
These stories of people’s transition can be so powerfully moving. The stories of those who have been sick, flat on their back for weeks, who suddenly sit bolt upright with a beatific smile on their face, or those who open their eyes and say, “Mildred, I’m coming!” or whatever it is that reflects that individual’s inner life, that is alive and well and ongoing, even in the process of this transition from being a creature of time and space to a morontia being.
Closing
Well, this has been a great afternoon. I feel I have done my duty and you have been most charming, as usual. You are such a lovely bunch of children. How did I get so fortunate to have such good kids.
Esmeralda: Thank you, Merium.
Elena: We’re pretty lucky, too.
Esmeralda: We’re very lucky.
Reneau: It’s just a cover. We’re really very rebellious.
Elena: Speak for yourself!
MERIUM: Well, what goes on outside of these circles is in the purview of others. I can only speak for my experience here with you in these soirees we enjoy in the realm of spirit consciousness. And so I will leave you here in anticipation that you will return, in the privacy of your own personal lives, to enjoy again and again and again, these precious moments of reflection, of what is truly important, who you really are, and what it means to be a faith child.
I know. We didn’t talk about the party. But we will meet again, perhaps, before the party so that we can polish up our shoes and spit curl our hair. I’ll look forward to that time. I’ve got to go now. Bye-bye!
Group: Bye, Merium. You’re beautiful! Thank you.
