2004-09-09. Knowledge and Experience
Woods Cross #470
Topic: Knowledge and Experience
Group: Woods Cross TeaM
Teacher: Abraham
TR: Nina
Opening
ABRAHAM: I am ABRAHAM. Greetings. You certainly have me held captivated this evening by your thoughtful discussion. You have each exhibited an example of a good teacher and a willing student. For us to gather weekly–it is a rejuvenation in mind and spirit. For some this meeting is their only spiritual nutrition.
Lesson
Over these many years you have been continually digesting these and other lessons. Many times mortals tend to hold fast to what they have learned spiritually for fear they will forget it and somehow regress. This is good intentions no doubt; however the desire to force these spiritual understandings into the intellect and soul is in actuality reducing the ability to understand or learn. For you that study your text book faithfully, it is admirable and most definitely the book is always something to strive for. You cannot however study the written word and become it without experience and a willingness to have a personal relationship with Father.
Father is all things to all people no matter what you may label Him to be. Some are defiant of the suggestion toward gender and certainly this must be personally worked through, and understood that Father is simply a word, but the spirit is what you make of it. Perhaps you have had issues in your life that you believe would certainly beat down the best of humankind. Maybe your experiences have made you somewhat timid or perhaps cautious.
Through effort made to understand the spiritual and mortal life, you can certainly understand that experience has brought you where you are now. Experience has been a good teacher and you may have excelled at learning or maybe fear has slowed your progression. Either way, intellectual learning and knowledge does not equal the value of experience. You each know that you can become a victim of your life’s circumstances or become a master with the skills to manage your own life and also assist others.
Just as a home may become cluttered with things that are no longer of use, the mind or arena of thought can become filled with information that no longer serves. This statement leads me to the subject of stillness. Meditation or stillness is the most cleansing exercise you can do for the mind. With everyday activities the mind becomes cluttered with menial concerns, thereby slowing the intake of new information.
If the mind is cluttered with old beliefs that you are determined to keep then certainly is spiritual receptivity diminished. The mind is a continuous mechanism which needs to be calibrated from time to time. Say from this moment on you were just sat upon the earth with a clean slate, no information whatsoever. Feel how that opens the mind to learning and all the possibilities thereof.
It is well known that once a person believes they know everything, they stop learning. It is well that you should rest in all ways–mind, body and spirit. It is well that you should live a balanced life with equal amounts of work, rest and play. It is wonderful that you keep the possibilities of life in motion and ever flowing. Age does not give you wisdom. Experience does not even give you wisdom. Your interpretation in allowing Father to live a full life with you is what brings you wisdom.
Closing
This week let us concentrate on cleansing the mind, body and soul. Let us allow our knowledge to be a flowing current. Let us continue to encourage the child within to be wondrous and enthusiastic about everything. Let us make effort to be an empty vessel so that it can become full in spirit. That is all. Know that with each passing week I grow to love you more and more. Go in peace. Until next time, shalom.
