[tmtranscripts] SE Idaho Transcript 8-24-01

[Bill Kelly]

SE IDAHO/POCATELLO TeaM
August 24, 2001

Prayer by Daniel (Bob S): This is Daniel.  Let us be in prayer.
	Almighty and everlasting Father who has created a universe of mystery and
wonder, allow us, your children, to glimpse a bit of your wondrous creation
as we seek through open minds and open hearts, to grow and develop into the
personality you have created.  Allow each of us, visible and invisible, to
hear the words you would have for us tonight, as each of us listens from
our own perspective to the lessons which have been prepared.  We love you.
We worship you.  We seek to be perfect and the patience that entails.  In
the name of the Master Son, amen.

Daniel (Bill): I am Daniel, your friend, your teacher, your guide and your
stanch supporter.  Indeed have you put on universe glasses this evening and
made a conscious attempt to expand your perspective, to see larger than the
usual limitations of your thinking.  [Ed: Daniel refers to the
conversations which took place prior to this recorded session.]  You are
surrounded at all times by a host of companions, and if you could see all
that are here in your support and in your cosmic family you would never be
able to see a limited, parochial view; and indeed, my friends, while you do
not see it all, your horizons are truly expanding.  Tonight I wish you to
think back to your initial contact with what we have called the Teaching
Mission, to the moment of realization when faith burst forth through the
wall, through the barrier of doubt, and you perceived that you are not a
lonely orphan in a universe devoid of love, but that you were a child of
the First Source, of the Ultimate Reality, of God himself.  Think back to
that moment of discovery, of the discovery of your true self.  Remember
whatever your reactions were to the amazing news that the universe was
spacious, warm, welcoming and safe.  (Pause.)  Perhaps for some of you
there was not a dramatic moment, but push your memory banks back as far as
you can, and now fast forward to the moment we are in today.  (Pause.)  You
see how in such a short lifetime you have made such amazing progress in
your thinking, in your understanding, in your relationships with yourself
and others so that to hear from and converse with invisible beings is no
longer even unusual.  You have gone from discovering that you are not an
orphan to being a comfortable member of this cosmic family.  (Pause.)  

Your discussion this evening covered many fields of inquiry, touched on
many aspects of those things which interest you the most, and were, from
our perspective, most interesting and encouraging.  You are becoming as
familiar with truth as you are with the events of your everyday lives.  You
are becoming experts at finding truth and distilling it so that you can
share it with each other.  (Pause.)  Of course, you are correct in
realizing that the Correcting Time has a much larger scope than the
Teaching Mission, and yet the two are completely united and related.  The
Teaching Mission is the application of the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth
for this age, and they do involve celestial teaching in the initial phases.
 The Correcting Time is that span of time which is the result of the
completion of the Lucifer rebellion adjudication process which will stretch
until the beginning stages of Light and Life on all 36 planets of the
system of Satania [those that lost their Planetary Prince to the
rebellion].  Unless some mutation occurs in your science arsenal which
would allow you to live a thousand years I doubt if any of you will see the
end of the Correcting Time on your side of this gateway you call death.
(Pause.)  

Sometimes I feel that I sit in the midst of kindergartners, and other times
I sit amidst graduate students.  Tonight I feel as though I as sitting
among graduate students because of your previous conversations.  The formal
lesson which was to be considered I will postpone, so that we may converse
with regards to your larger perspectives.  In other words, I would like to
join in your conversation.  So let us resume and let me interact with you
as well.

Ken: We talked this evening, Daniel, about the role of the Teaching Mission
with respect to the upcoming international conference and the role that it
should take.  And my suggestion was that we should look at all the
different roles that are part of this Correcting Time, not just the
Teaching Mission, or the Fellowship's role, or the Foundation's role.  Any
Comments?

Daniel (Bill): I understand your interest in branching out beyond the place
that you are at this moment, and indeed this kind of curiosity is inborn
and will be satisfied beyond your wildest dreams in the future.  At this
time it is always good to keep your boundaries flexible and your interests
active so that you do not become a victim of tunnel vision, so therefore I
do encourage you to take an interest in all of these other aspects of the
Correcting Time which are of interest to you.  Such concerns cannot help
but be legitimate.  Jesus himself, at least in his younger years, was an
ardent student of all sorts of things and very knowledgeable in all that
was going on in his world.  At the same time you need a home base, and this
is your chosen home base.  The personal spiritual transformation that we
have been involved with the last 10-years has made it possible for you to
look at your world around you with totally different eyes than you would
have seen it prior to your contact with us in this Teaching Mission.  The
role of the Teaching Mission in the Correcting Time has been primarily a
spiritual one.  We have focused upon who you are as God's children, and who
you are in relationship to each other as brothers and sisters, and how that
fact interacts with your behavior, your thinking, your feeling in all
aspects of your everyday life.  The desire to change the world has been
repeatedly focused inwardly and rightly so, for no one can change the world
while they themselves remain unchanged.  They must first become that change
which they desire to see in the world even as your great human teacher,
Ghandi, stated.  And so the Teaching Mission continues to be very important
for it is a focus point for the inner transformation which will assist with
the outward transformation.  

Now this is not to say that other people who are not in the Teaching
Mission do not experience inner transformation, for they do, as God's
spirit is in each person of normal mind, as you know.  Your attitude
towards other groups whose goals are similar should be broad, welcoming,
inclusive and celebrative of that which your planet and all planets in this
wonderful universe of our Father demonstrate. 

 So we have here a polarity, the Teaching Mission, the Correcting Time;
related, with the Correcting Time larger, but intensely related.  We have
individual growth and development, and we have group membership with its
growth and developments, which is what you are doing tonight, you see.
These two are integrally related and equally important, and it is not
appropriate to dwell only on the individual and no longer feel the need to
be part of a group.  Abraham has pointed this out; for there is the
tendency in the Teaching Mission to move away from the group into
individual interactions, and feel that the need for contact with the group
is no longer important.  This is erroneous.  We expect that those who have
left the reinforcing experience of being part of a group will eventually
come into some other meaningful group experience.  A rather long response
to your question, my friend, but has it been of any help to you?

Ken: Your response was superb.  Christ Michael in his life here is the
prime example of that by which we should guide our lives.  Thank you for
bringing up the group versus the individual.  I see this relationship
between our Sovereign Michael and the 12 Apostles.  I can see how that
works.  Thank you very much.

Daniel (Bill): Do you have any further comments on this subject or do
others of you wish to talk about something else?

LaReen: Daniel, when you asked us to go back and remember the first time
with the Teaching Mission I felt such wonderful memories.  It was when I
walked into the Woods Cross group and Abraham said "I know you."  And
another one was when I first met you, Daniel, in the Pocatello group.

Daniel (Bill): My dear, we are aware of your joy in discovering that you
have friends in high places.  [Laughter.]  We truly love you, and rejoice
to see your involvement.  Please accept as true when I say we as teachers
are delighted to work with you people, to be your friends, to be your older
brothers and sisters, yes, but to have you understand in your mortal frame
that you are indeed the sons and daughters of God as we are, and that we
are one family.  So the feeling is mutual on our part as well.  

Virginia: Daniel, when you asked us to go back to our first experience with
the Teaching Mission I realized that our first awareness of celestial
contact was with the New Zealand transcript that was brought to our Urantia
[Book] study group.  I certainly did not know at that time the impact that
it would have in my life, and I'm very grateful for that.  However, if I
understood you correctly, did you correlate the Teaching Mission with our
first awareness of God's love for us?  And, of course, for me that is
separated by 50-years or more.  So I wasn't sure if I heard that correctly
or if I just had it confused in my mind.

Daniel (Bill): It was my intention to make you recall your first
consciousness of being in a relationship with God, as his daughter, as his
son, in your case back to your teenage years, yes, rather than your first
contact with the Teaching Mission.  If I was unclear in my wording I
apologize.  My point was to contrast how you feel today about your
relationship to God and his lovely universe as contrasted to your first
taste of this reality.  Do you see?

Virginia: Yes, and certainly the security is far greater now than the first
impression that God really loved me.  And I don't know why, but it just
flashed into my mind that on the tape [of the Urantia Book] we have the
security of God's love always, but with that comes always the insecurity of
change and growth.   It think that's on page 111 or 112, I don't know which
one that I was listening to in the book.  Certainly the security of God's
love is far greater now than it was when I first heard it.

Daniel (Bill) Well spoken, my dear, and the reason that we can face change
and uncertainty without fear is that security.  Without that security
change and growth are nothing but frightening, and that, of course, is the
reason that so many people cannot rise to the challenge of spiritual
growth.  You must first know in your own mind that you are a child of God,
a precious, lovely person before you can take the adventure of faith which
leads to change in the direction of spiritual transformation.

Virginia: Thank you, Daniel.

Daniel (Bill): My point was to make you all realize how much greater, as
you have just stated, is your sense of security, is your knowledge of how
wide the landscape is, and how full of people it is, this universe we live
in.  Isaac commented on his difficulty understanding how people can view
the world around them and conclude it is an accident.  It is possible to
take that viewpoint when one is disconnected from God, when one does not
know who they are.  Then it is easy to see everything as accidental, but
once you have stepped through that tissue paper of doubt into the realm of
reality, everything becomes clear.  It is obvious that there is purpose,
benevolence, guidance, and direction everywhere.  The difference is you
have experience the understanding of who you are so that you can move
through the wall of doubt into the land of faith.

Virginia: Daniel, that reminds me of the lesson that you gave at Snowbird
at the last session on how our faith rests upon reality, and I am sure that
my faith platform had great, huge stilts holding it up high above reality
due to my belief system.  The beliefs separated  my faith and God's
reality.  That is the real difference that I see the Teaching Mission has
done for me, to bring that platform of faith closer to what I believe is
the reality of God.

Daniel (Bill): Exactly.  Your faith platform is not rigid, resting on
stilts widely separated.  Your faith platform is now very pliant, moving
over the surface of reality much more easily indeed.  The closer you come
to reality contact does the need for belief as a leap disappear, for you
have contact with reality with experience, faith experience through the
trust experience, yes.  Other questions, other topics?

Bob S: Yes, I have a concern.  We've been told that Jesus is our example,
our role model, that his life and teaching are what we should strive to be,
and I am having considerable difficulty.  The standard is so high it is
fraught with failure, and frustration, and anger.  [Laughter.]  What words
do you have for us that would help us work toward that goal and keep our
frustrations in tack, not letting them seize the moment and discourage us
completely?

Daniel (Bill): A good question, Bob, for you ask it out of your spiritual
curiosity, and not your mortal curiosity, and therefor, I give you an
assignment.  [Laughter.]  Please read the last paper in the Urantia Book
carefully, "The Faith of Jesus".  If you read it carefully you will observe
that your very question is addressed, for the writers say that we are not
to imitate Jesus, for his role was unique.  What is most important for us
is the faith of Jesus and how he lived it.  The faith of Jesus and how he
lived it is not exactly the same as following him as an example, in terms
of following the life of guru.  Now this may seem as an arbitrary
distinction, but it is not, because each of our lives is unique.  We are
not to copy anyone else's life, not even the Master Son, but we can have
that same faith experience; and primary in his faith experience was the
very thing we are talking about, the security he felt toward God.  He
never, ever, doubted that God's care and over control in him was perfect
and complete.  When he was asked what he would do to defend himself if he
were to be threatened, he said he would trust that God would take care of
that issue.  It was this absolute knowledge of his relationship to God and
God's relationship to him was at the core of his faith; and that resulted
in his desire to do the Father's will completely; which resulted in his
ability to live his life as he did.  Therefor we should know the same
confidence as Jesus experienced in God's loving care, and then we will stop
trying to imitate some model, for within us will come the expression which
is natural and flowing, which is the result of that trust, that faith.  I
suggest, therefor, that you read this paper again, and see if it will
explain these concepts to you in a way that will be helpful.

Bob S: I struggle with the faith issue as well.  I can't seem to develop
that strength of character, and I don't know anyone who has that in my own
experience.  [Laughter.]

Daniel (Bill): No, and no one on the planet has ever achieved the life that
Jesus did.  No, you're right.

Bob S: So are you saying that we are making progress on that, albeit from
my own view it is very small steps that I can see, because I still feel the
same lack of confidence, the security issues.  I don't see myself making
any progress in those areas.  Have you words of wisdom for your struggling
son?  [Comments.]

Ken: Sons!

Daniel (Bill): My little brother, you are not competent to adequately
assess your progress.  You are being perfectionistic in your approach.  You
need to look at your progress in terms of how much you have moved from here
to here even though you say you don't see any movement.  I suspect others
who know you would not fully agree with that.

Bob S: But doesn't that strength have to come from within?  Don't you have
to feel that strength in order to build upon it, to be the son or daughter
God created you to be?  Don't you have to feel that as part of your being
in order to be the faithful person that I know God wants me to be?

Daniel (Bill): Yes, you are right.  You must feel it.  You must know it.
You must know that God loves you; will take care of you; which does not
mean that you will not experience adversity or difficult times.  It means
you know you are a son of God.  There is no doubt about it.  The sense of
that closeness has best been facilitated by the practice of meditation,
prayer, stillness.  Have you not had some moments where your stillness has
been an enhancement for you?

Bob S: I believe the words that we have been taught, that stillness is
fundamental.  Therefor I attempt to be a regular seeker of the stillness,
but your question asks have you grown, and I must say that I don't feel
that I have.  I understand intellectually what the process is, and what I
need to be doing, but I haven't been able to make that a basic part of my
life.  I feel that I am superficial, that I know the right words, but I
haven't been able to make them a part of me, yet.

Daniel (Bill): Your scriptures say ‘"if with all your heart you truly seek
me, you will surely find me.  Thus saith the Lord."

Bob S: Are you saying I haven't sought hard enough?  [Laughter.]  

Daniel (Bill): I am not your judge, my friend.  You have to answer that
question yourself.  The chief delight of the residents of Paradise is
worship.  Their experience of worship is so profound that it takes
Directors of Worship to control it, and even then it gets out of control.
The chief delight of mortals on this planet is material concerns, as I see
it, and spiritual exercise has been portrayed as about as painful as
lifting weights.  [Laughter.]  The whole idea of communion with God has a
distasteful flavor in many people's mouths.  I suggest that if your
stillness practice is not effective perhaps you need to change the context.
 If you have sat in the chair in a room and that hasn't worked for you,
then take a walk.  Get out in nature.  Start off by enumerating all the
things you are grateful for, that you are thankful for.  Lift your heart
and your mind above the daily bad news, the daily concerns, all of these
things.  Ask to be given eyes to see like a newborn who looks around in
wonder at the world.  Try some of these things, Bob.  No, I do not question
your sincerity or your effort.  Is this helpful?

Bob S: Yes and no.  [Comments.]

Daniel (Bill): What's the no?

Bob S: I'm really quite happy with my stillness.  I feel that it is
appropriate.  And all those things that you suggested are important, but
they are nothing that I haven't considered or thought about or examined.  I
suspect the one thing that you commented on is probably what's frustrating
me and that is I tend to be a perfectionist.  Rather than looking at the
still, small steps, I want to get to the end [of the road], and I don't
have the patience.

Daniel (Bill): One of the things that you need to do is to let go of your
need to control for it is God's job to run the universe.  [Comments.]  Your
need to control yourself is all connected with this other part, and when
you can let God have you, then you don't have to be the perfectionist.  God
is able to do his work.

Bob S: And how does one do that?  

Daniel (Bill): By sincerely saying "it is my will that your will be done,"
and meaning it.  It is not an instant success, my friend.  It is a process.

Bob S: And how many days do I have to do that?  [Laughter.]

LaReen: There is that perfectionist.

Daniel (Bill):Your friends have your number.

Virginia: We have our number.

Daniel (Bill): Asking the question indicates the problem.  As many days as
it takes; eons upon eons to achieve.  
It is like someone who goes on a canoe trip and all he can think about is
the destination, when he will get to the end of the ride, and he misses the
whole trip.  He paddles furiously but he doesn't see the birds on either
side.  He doesn't see the water moving by.  He doesn't see the fish
swimming.  He doesn't enjoy the sun shining down.  All he can think about
is getting to the end, achieving the goal.

Bob S: I am getting a little better at that, I must admit.  

Daniel (Bill): But that is the perfectionism part.  Well, my friend, I have
been with you in spirit, in heart, and I give you a hug to tell you that
you are making progress.  And then tell you to quit worrying about it.  It
isn't your job to monitor your progress.  That isn't your job!  Your job is
to let the love flow, and to act on the impulse of love.  

Ken: That all?  [Laughter.]

Daniel (Bill): Yes, that is all.  [Laughter.]  

Bob S: I really do appreciate your comments, Daniel.  

Ken: We appreciate your comments!

Bob S: Your comments were as usual very germane and helpful and I think
right on target.  As usual I missed the forest for the trees, and the
answer was there all the time.  I just needed to think about it.

Daniel (Bill): Well you are forgiven if you didn't know the answer ahead of
time.  [Laughter.]  If I didn't have any wisdom from my long experience to
share with you I wouldn't stand here and pretend.  You all do very well.
It is an exciting universe, friends.  Life never ends, if we choose to do
Father's will.  And so let us stand, take each other's hands, and Minearsia
will lead us in prayer.  One moment.

Minearsia (Bob S): This is Minearsia. Let us unite our hearts and minds in
these words.  

To those who have created a perfect universe, let those who are imperfect
find the encouragement, the strength, the wisdom, and the foundation in
their lives to continue the work necessary to establish first themselves,
and then their universe, their environment; to be all that they can be at
that particular moment in their lives.  That is all God's asks us to do, to
portray the truth as we see it today through our eyes, our understanding,
our knowledge today, and let tomorrow take care of itself.  Amen.