[tmtranscripts] S.E. Idaho transcript 11-12-01

[Bill Kelly]

SE IDAHO/POCATELLO TeaM
November 9, 2001

Prayer by Daniel (Bill): Breathe deeply of the Spirit.  Take a deep breath.
 Let the poisons of stress fade away out of your bodies, out your feet.
Another deep breath.
Our Father, the rain of your goodness comes down into our souls, and we
drink it up like parched and thirsty ground.  You are the giver of all good
things.  You are our most intimate companion and dearest friend.  I,
Daniel, worship you, and so do these, my brothers and sisters.  Let your
stillness quiet all anxiety, sweeten all sadness, relax all tension so that
we may completely trust in your care.  Give us all ears to hear the truth,
eyes to see the vision of glory, and hands to do your work with our
brothers and sisters.  Amen.

Daniel (Bill): Good evening my dear friends, I am Daniel, your guide, your
companion, your friend, and your stanch admirer.

Ken: And brother.

Daniel (Bill): And brother.  I was delighted to hear your conversation this
evening.  Your understand has increased immeasurably over the years since
we first began our association together.  You know things that you did not
have the faintest understanding of before.  You have experienced spiritual
reality and have become comfortable with its presence in your conscious
life.  Your conversation this evening belies that fact.  Now you are asking
the much more pertinent, value laden, and meaningful questions than when
you were more astounded at the phenomenon of contact with us.  One can
almost make the generalization that your spiritual progress can be measured
by the content of your questions, the proportion of curiosity as compared
to the proportion of earnest spiritual desire.  

Don't misunderstand me, my friends, for curiosity is not a spirit poison;
not at all.  Curiosity is an innate part of your personality structure and
is facilitated by the adjutant mind circuits of the Adjutant Spirits. My
point is that what you find occupying the most space in your mind also is a
measure of your maturity level.  So understand my words to be a
commendation to you all.  Despite what you may think of your status, it is
my observation that you err on the side of diminishment rather than on the
side of ego inflation.  None of you in this room are truly arrogant or
overconfident.  You tend to diminish yourselves more than is accurate.  But
enough of that.  Even in that area are you also progressing.

My thoughts this evening have to do with the comfort of kindred spirits,
with the joy of sharing company with those whose spiritual experiences have
a common thread, and whose goals and directions in life are sympathetic.  I
am describing you.  Some of you have thought about your level of comfort in
different group settings, how you may feel politically akin in one setting,
but spiritually dissimilar; or comfortable in an activity which you share
as a recreational pursuit with those of like mind.  But I know that you all
come to this gathering neither for politics nor recreation.  You are here
for the spiritual food that you gain in each other's company.  Yes, we have
stressed the importance of stillness as an individual activity.  We will
continue to do so.  Tonight I wish to have you focus on the comfort of the
spiritual renewal which comes as a result of this gathering together of
compatible souls.  

I know for a fact that your politics are not in agreement.  [Mutterings of
agreement.]  I know for a fact that you all enjoy different activities.  I
know for a fact that none of you have had identical experiences.  These are
not the reasons that you gather together.  You come as our students, and
you come as brothers and sisters with a common spiritual goal—to do the
will of God and to become more like Him.  Since this is your rallying
point, you experience the deepest satisfaction!  

Contemplate this, my dear students.  Look at how little ego plays in your
interactions with each other.  At this time you comfort each other.  You
listen to each other.  Yes, you laugh and joke with each other, but truly
treat each other delicately; and you value each other's uniqueness and
dignity status.  This does not happen very often in your other group
settings.  What you experience when you get together like this is really
Light and Life, let us say, the early stages, but truly a taste of Light
and Life.  This is not the barbarism of life as it is often lived on this
planet.  It is the way life is meant to be and shall be some day throughout
Michael's home planet.  As we view you, you are one of many pockets of
light.  Don't get me wrong.  I am not saying that only members of the
Teaching Mission are these pockets of light, no.  But you are among the
brightest, for you are burdened with the great privilege, with the
responsibility of a level of knowledge and commitment that reaches upward
the morontial borderlines.  

Let go completely of your need to criticize anyone, starting with
yourselves!  Discernment, as we have spoken before, is not the same as
criticism.  It is not the same as judgement, which is a form of criticism.
Not only are you incapable of merciful judgement and criticism, but because
you are incapable, you should not be engaged in that process.  

Jesus could always see past the character defects of other mortals.
Sometimes he pointed them out, as he did with Peter, but even he was not
always successful in his feedback.  Each person must learn their own
parameters, their own limitations, their own weak spots, so that they, in
conjunction with their indwelling Spirit, can co-create themselves anew.
You have observed and commented often how we teachers treat you with
surprising gentleness.  We are not perfected yet, but we have learned to a
large degree this skill—to give another one a reflective feed back without
the sting of criticism.  I have digressed on this topic because the degree
to which you feel comfortable with each other is directly related to your
surrender of ego defense functioning, including the need to be critical of
yourselves or of each other.  It is a respite from the storms of ego to
come to these rooms with true acceptance, with true brotherly/sisterly
feelings, and share with each other as you do. 

I do not take my work lightly.  It is the high point of my week when I meet
with you collectively.  While I speak with some of you individually, and
that is truly gratifying, I am most satisfied and gratified when I am part
of this group.  I believe that I have expressed myself as completely as I
need to.  I would welcome your comments or questions at this time.

LaReen: Well, Daniel, it is easy for me to come here and be completely
nonjudgmental, but I love my family too, and I can be judgmental with them.
 What is the difference?  Is it because I don't live with these people?
[Laughter.]

Daniel (Bill): Partly.  I can only guess, my dear, but one of the things
that I am clearly certain of is, your purpose in coming to this meeting is
more focused, is more consciously spiritualized, and your goals here are
much more unified.  I am also assuming to some extent that there is a
considerable history of family dynamics which flavors a person's feelings
when they are in that system.  This is a family setting, but it is not a
birth family.  It is not a blood family.  It is a spiritual family, and it
is a choice family, which is not the same as the family you are referring
to.  If your question has a further level which says, "How can I feel more
like I do here when I am with my family?", then I would say, "Do you wish
to discuss that?"

LaReen: Yes, please.

Daniel (Bill): And this is where the rubber meets the road.  The first
thing you need to do consists in prayer, nonjudgmental prayers for family
members.  As you pray remember you are praying for another child of God.
You are not praying as a superior being for a lesser being.  You are
praying for your family member who, bottom line, is a brother or sister,
whether they be son/daughter, father/mother, aunt/uncle, etc.  

The next step beyond prayer, involving the actual interaction, is more
difficult.  It requires splitting your consciousness so that you transcend
your usual way of viewing this other person, that you see past all the
behaviors and the history which might trouble you and cause you to feel
critical.  You will probably experience the critical feeling, but, at the
same time, you can recognize that this person has dignity status, that they
are just the same as you, a child of God, and just as loved as you are.  

The third thing to do is to move through your day with a conscious
permission to your Thought Controller to speak through your voice and to
act through your personality presence.  And ,finally, realize that this is
a gradual process so that you are not bound up with tension and effort and
self scrutiny, but are relaxed as much as possible. At the same time the
whole question of balance is also a factor.  You need to continually look
after the major areas in life and keep them in balance: nutrition,
recreation, service, rest, stillness, and finally cover this cake, this
whole business, with the frosting of humor.  Has this assisted you?

LaReen: Greatly, Daniel, and I think you nailed it.

Daniel (Bill): Will, I am sure I didn't nail it completely, my dear,
because I am only a brother older than you.  [Laughter.]  But I am pleased
if these words will give you some food for thought.

LaReen: Yes, thank you very much.

Daniel (Bill): Are there other comments or questions?

Bob S: Daniel, perhaps you heard our discussion earlier.  I was pursuing
the issue of pro-active experiences, referring to the ones we select, and
trying to get a handle on which activities have the most positive spirit
potential.  Would you care to comment on that question?

Daniel (Bill): My friend, I was ecstatic with your wisdom for, indeed, it
is the difficult situations that require a struggle making decisions that
have the most benefit.  An analogy which has a fair degree of
correspondence has to do with exercise regimes.  While all exercise has
some value there are some kinds of exercise that have greater value for
improving the health function of the body as a whole, and/or improving the
strength of the body.  I am talking here about aerobic exercise and the
kind of exercise that builds strength.  Both forms of exercise are more and
more helpful as the degree of difficulty increases, at least up to a point.
 There is more benefit from 40 minutes of aerobic exercise then from 40
minutes of leisurely walking, even though 40 minutes of leisurely walking
has some benefit as well.  The achievement of spiritual growth, the
achievement of intellectual growth, the achievement of physical strength,
they are all the same in that progress is a function of the degree of
effort.  Think of how this applies to service.
The trouble mortals have with service  is the degree to which the ego is
involved.  The ego, whose purpose is survival, has a need to search for
validation.  It desires praise, recognition, and reward.  The impetus of
the spirit of God Within you has none of those goals.  The impetus of the
Spirit Within is to empower you to assist the needs of another person.  It
is totally altruistic in its intention.  Therefor the degree to which ego
mixes with spiritual emphasis changes the effectiveness of that service.
You didn't exactly ask about service, but I am using that as one of the
areas where spiritual effort causes spiritual growth to improve, and as the
result, service is, itself, enhanced.  In this example the effort is to
become self-forgetful.   Is not accomplished by trying to repress yourself,
by ‘mortification of the flesh', to use an old fashioned term, by fasting,
etc.  Self-forgetfulness is the result of the vision of God which so turns
your eyes from yourself, to out there, to that world of other children of
God, and toward a goal so satisfying that no thought of reward or praise
enters your mind.  Have these thoughts given your any further questions, my
friend?

Bob S: No, no questions, but food for thought.  Thank you.

Daniel (Bill): You see, my friend, service is not merely a mortal affair.
Service is your eternal destiny.  It is my eternal destiny.  I told you
earlier is it my greatest joy to be here.  And yes, I am doing you a
service, but also you are doing me a service, and I just love being with
you.  Really I do.

Marty: Daniel, an extension of that question.  Does the wanting to see
something good come out of the service, does that revert back to the ego
part of it?  Just because you feel good because you went out and did some
service, you helped somebody and you could see that, is that the ego part
of it?

Daniel (Bill): No, Marty, the seeing the good happen and the joy that gives
you is not ego.  It is not ego because the pleasure is not because you have
been recognized or you have been able to do it, but simply that it has been
done, that it has been helpful.  

On the other hand, perhaps there can be a tinge of ego.  The more you think
, "I am so glad that I can be of service", yes, perhaps. However,  to think
or worry about whether it is ego or not pulls you back into ego type
thinking. If you are troubled with that worry  my suggestion is that you
ask the Father to help you become more and more self-forgetful.   Also, be
fair with yourself so that when you observe that you were not thinking of
any reward or any credit; be happy for that fact, rather than scratching
your head and saying "I wonder to what extent I sullied this event with
ego?"   Do you follow the gist of what I am saying?

Marty: Yes.  Of course it's much harder to do the service part if you don't
see any positive results.  [Laughter.]

Daniel (Bill): Now that is an important point; and let me suggest that you
may want to think about the real meaning of the "Parable of the Sower,"
In the parable the sower sows in four different kinds of soil.  Some of the
seed is lost to birds; some falls among thorns and is choked; some falls on
shallow land, very thin soil, and quickly grows but when the sun comes out
it withers and dies.  And the last, the fourth soil is good soil, and the
seed comes up and thrives.  From a business point of view, if the objective
is profit, the sower is not very efficient.  Three quarters of his efforts
are futile, and only one quarter are successful.  Jesus told this parable
to his followers so they would be prepared for any kind of reception of his
gospel.  In other words it is exactly what we have been talking about.
They were serving their brothers and sisters by spreading the good news of
the gospel of the kingdom and Jesus was saying that they would not always
be successful.   
But the parable does not finish with the sower giving up because of his low
production rate, and ceasing to sow the seed.  He is not a modern
capitalist,  [Laughter.]  he is a servant of his master.  He keeps on doing
the work, regardless of the results.

Can you imagine how often Jesus was disappointed with his apostles?  At the
Last Supper they were all arguing over who was the greatest so they could
sit next to him.  But he persists with them. He keeps on working.   He sets
the example and serves them all by washing their feet; and he reminds them
that he who is greatest among them is the one who is servant of all.  In
other words the greatest is the one who thinks least about themselves, and
just does the job.  The work is important.  Who does it, isn't.  Fall in
love with the work, is his advice to us all.  With that I will bring this
meeting to a close.  My friends, let us unite in prayer and stand.  Put
your arms around each other.

Prayer by Christ Michael (Bill): You are one body for you are all my
children.  I am the vine, you are the branches.  Your lives are producing
the grapes of joy, comfort, love, peace, compassion, understanding,
tolerance and fortitude.  I am your Father/Brother who dwells in you all.
Abide with me and I will give you strength.  Go in peace.
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