[tmtranscripts] SE Idaho Transcript 9-7-01

[Bill Kelly]

SE IDAHO/POCATELLO TeaM
September 7, 2001

Prayer by Klarixiska (Virginia): This is Klarixiska.  Father who indwells
us all, we thank you for the miracle of birth, but more than that we thank
you for the miracle that you continue to work in each of our lives knowing
that you are bringing us closer to what you would have us be is indeed a
miracle.  We thank you that you do not look on us as we are, but what we
shall be one day as we stand in your presence.  We thank you for the steps
that you have brought us along in this path.  We would pray that both the
seen and the unseen beings that are in this room might find another step
taken that brings each one joy and happiness, so that they in turn may give
to each that they come in contact.  We ask this in the name of our
Sovereign Master, who was indeed the perfect revelation of you, our Father.
 Amen.

Daniel (Bill): Greetings my friends, I am your teacher, Daniel, as well as
your friend, guide, companion, and staunch supporter.  (Pause.)  Once again
your company brings us great pleasure.  We sit in your midst, and we
cherish your companionship.  It brings to us many a moment of amusement as
well as pleasure, for we see in your lives some of the patterns and
concerns which characterized our mortal careers.  We, also, are not
laughing at you when we are amused, but we are laughing at ourselves in the
truest sense of the word, as humor is indeed a looking back upon one's
ascension progress.

You wish to talk about faith.

Ken: You want a response to that, Daniel?  [Laughter.]  Yes, yes.

Daniel (Bill): Very well, my friends.  We are always eager to provide you
with those lessons which you actually desire, as well as those lessons
which we think you need.  Therefor, we will discourse on faith.

Ken: Is this one we need or is this one we desire?

Daniel (Bill): Both.  [Laughter.]  It is always both, my friends, for faith
is not something that is confined to mortal existence, but faith is an
attribute of all sub-deity level personal existence.  Even the highest
administrators of the Superuniverse of Orvonton are not 100% knowledgeable
about all of the events which are forecast for the future of the universes.
 Much of our free time is given over, similar to your fascination, with
speculation, for we do also question and wonder about God's purpose in this
well neigh infinite creation.  And so because knowledge is always
incomplete, faith remains as a necessity.  

You will have to concede, without a moment's thought, that every sentient
being, and certainly every mortal, operates on faith.  This is not an
eccentric life style confined to the religious fanatic.  Faith is of the
essence of human existence.  You could not drive a car down the highway
unless you had faith to believe that the oncoming car would stay on its
side of the road.  You could not enjoy driving at all if, when you
approached a stop sign, you were convinced that the other cars coming would
fail to observe that agreed upon detention point.  You would become
paralyzed with fear and unable to drive.  If you did not have faith in the
good word of your fellows you would not place your money on deposit in a
bank.  You certainly would not spend your money on the stock market if you
were certain that it was all going to be a lost cause.  Without faith there
can be no social fabric.  Without the trust in agreed upon conventions of
society, civilization would dissolve.

What, then, are we talking about when we talk about faith in God?  What are
you all talking about when you claim that you cannot have the same measure
of faith as Jesus did?  Our Master frequently introduced the subject with
the analogy of the little child.  Tonight you behold a beautiful baby who
resides in the arms of her caretakers as easily as you lie on your beds of
rest at night.  [Ed. Note: Nancy brought her newborn, Abby, to the
meeting.]  For this little one there is no conscious thought regarding
faith.  She merely exhibits it naturally.  She does not scream in terror at
being held in her mother's arms, but comfortably resides there.  To have
faith in God is to have the same instinctive trust of a child.   Therefor
says Jesus "Unless you become as little children, you cannot enter the
kingdom of heaven."  Translated into today's language, this would mean:
unless you can trust the goodness, care and regard of God, your heavenly
parent, with the same degree of trust that a baby trusts their caregivers,
you cannot experience the love of God, which is the kingdom of heaven.

What is it about human experience that causes so many people to have
difficulty trusting in God?  Well, first of all, it's the kind of God
concept that they have been taught.  Can you imagine yourselves comfortable
in the arms of a wrathful, punishing, suspicious deity?  Can you rush into
the arms of a parent who holds a whip behind their back?  Can you imagine a
child trusting in a parent who drops them on the floor on purpose?  And yet
people are told that God is wrathful; keeps a record of wrongs; and will
surely confine the sinner to the flames of hell.  Can such a conception of
God generate faith and trust?  So there is this problem.  The God of many
people's understanding is not someone they really want to be associated with.

Another issue, but related, is, for whatever reason, in one's personal life
experiences the conclusion is reached that the universe is hostile, that
other people are untrustworthy, are characterized by malice and deception,
and therefor one has to take care of oneself.   One has to look out for #1,
for no one else will!  When one has this sort of protective strategy to
ward off the dangerous world around them, the idea of trusting in an
allegedly benevolent Deity is undesirable, unattractive and dangerous.
When one has to control everything it is because they are convinced that
there is no One else who really cares for their welfare.  Behind every
person who appears bend on exercising power over others is a terrified
child who is doing the best they can, according to their understanding, to
survive.

Now, there are other reasons why there is difficulty with faith, but these
are two very large issues, a God too small or too terrifying to trust, and
a universe that has convinced a person that they must be their own
caretaker.   The good news that we are bringing is the same good news that
our Master Son brought; and that is, that despite the appearances to the
contrary which are the result of the Lucifer rebellion and the Adamic
default on this planet, that despite this isolation which was forced upon
you in order to quarantine this System of Satania, there is now evidence
that God is not the God of misunderstanding, but is the loving father
portrayed so perfectly by Jesus of Nazareth.  

His parables have always struck a great cord in the hearts of hearers
throughout the centuries.  God is a father looking for his rebellious,
stressful and dissatisfied son; who when he sees him coming back with no r
resources, greets him before he can blurt out his confession and beg for
forgiveness.  God is like a woman sweeping the house looking for the lost
coin, and not quitting until she has found it; like the shepherd going
after the one lost sheep out of 100 rather than staying with the 99; a true
parent with the love which upholds the universe as well as seeks out each
person.  This is the gospel, the good news.  This is what we're all
about—to reinforce this message that you have been hearing dimly, filtered
through the institution of religion in its many forms.

What can you do about your faith in order to enliven it?  You must ask
yourself, "How can I believe this good news when it has not been my
experience before?"  Well, my friends, you all know this personally.  I am
going through this process because you will have others ask you, as well as
some of those secret doubts and fears of your own.  Your Christian
scriptures say, "Taste and know that the Lord is good."  That's the answer.
 How can you know?  By experience and no other way.  Hearing about it, even
from teachers such as myself, is not enough to make that experience your
own.  You must open up the barriers and allow the presence of God to become
conscious to you.  Then your faith in God will be what that word really
means at its root—trust, for faith is not the same as belief.  Belief is an
intellectual construct of the mind.  Faith is a commitment of the
personality to another personality.  Faith is a trusting relationship.

A final word here: many people throw away their trust in God because they
have been taught that they can make deals and bargains with God; and they
make these deals and God doesn't keep his end.  Then they say God is
unrighteous.  He doesn't follow through.  He doesn't do what he promised he
would.  He is similar to Santa Claus, when Santa does not produce the list
of gifts a child asks for.  The Urantia Book is here because you have
evolved to the point where this new information can up-step these childish
and immature and inadequate notions of God and your relationship to him.  I
continue to recommend that you all pursue with vigor this text for it is
like a gold mine, full of luxurious wealth, full of powerful potential and
enlightenment.  If you were without faith in God, you would not be here
tonight.  If you were without faith in each other, you would not be here
tonight.  You would perhaps be in a locked mental health ward, so, my
friends, continue to taste and see that the Lord is good.  Continue to
practice your silence, your stillness, and continue to manifest your faith
in each other in the service that we have so often talked about; for over
much thinking and introspection is not healthy.  What needs to be done is
the doing, is the participation.  I have ended my discussion, and now I
will open this up for comments and questions.

Nancy: Daniel, your last statement stimulated a question for me, that
over-much introspection is not healthy, that what needs to be done is the
doing, but isn't some of the doing in faith coming into understanding of a
lack of faith so that they can be cleared away?  I guess that I have heard
both from the teachers.  I remember a session with Abraham in a practice
session years and years ago where he talked about the light switch, just
flipping the light switch, and that would be doing.  You just make that
mental shift, but on the other side is the fact that sometimes you just
can't flip on the light switch if you are having huge resistance to walking
across the room to that switch, and understanding that the distance across
the room is important to make it to the switch to switch it.  And I was
wondering if you would address the duality that I really heard come from
teachers over time?

Daniel (Bill): Over-much introspection was the qualifier.

Nancy: What would you call over-much?  [Laughter.]  That can be interpreted
by the listener, so how would you define it—over-much?

Daniel (Bill): I would define it as over-much when one is using
introspection as procrastination.

Nancy: Well, then its procrastination.  [Laughter.]  Thank you.

[More laughter and comments.]  

Daniel (Bill): My dear, I do not mean to cause you to experience
embarrassment, because of my quip-style answer.

Nancy: You didn't.  It was everybody's response.  [Laughter and comments.]

Daniel (Bill): The answer is that each person must determine for themselves
whether or not they are crossing that fine line between valuable review,
which is necessary in order to correct mistakes of the past, and the
avoidance of action clearly understood as necessary.  And, because of all
the laughter that my comments entailed, I suspect you all know well in your
heart of hearts how this applies to each of you!  

Actually, you see, this is not something that is confined to mortal life.
This continues, this struggle to clarify one's direction and purpose, but
procrastination is not a possibility after the mortal career has ended for
the scenario is different.  The emphasis on spiritual growth that this
mission teaches, in agreement with the Urantia revelation, does go against
the grain of standard religious practice in that all religions have always
taught the importance of introspection.  Jesus did not personally
introspect, but advised his followers that they should gain their joy not
through navel-gazing, but through service to other people.  His emphasis
upon worship was for the purpose of energizing oneself in alignment with
God so that one could be a better servant to another brother or sister.
The purpose of introspection that as been part of the Teaching Mission has
been primarily for the reasons given, i.e. to analyze one's mistaken
behaviors, especially those that are of the repetitive and habitual nature,
so that one can interrupt the process and find a solution to the difficulty
they are confronted with, for the purpose of spiritual growth, which
includes service to others.  Has this been of any help to you?

Nancy: Yes, Daniel, thank you.

Daniel (Bill): Would you like to discuss it further?

Nancy: OK,  [laughter.] but when you made your comment about navel-gazing,
I needed to interpret for myself.  What I was thinking was some religions
teach introspection as worshipfulness in order to find bliss.  That doesn't
go beyond anything but personal bliss, but I guess that I have also
understood that through worship, we certainly come into alignment and learn
how to serve one another, but it also seems like we are served through
worship because we do experience God's peace and Michael's peace.  And I
also heard you and the other teachers comment about worship and how, if you
were allowed to, you would worship all the time, because it is such an
astounding experience.  So it seems to me that there is a personal
component to worship and to being of service to others, and that being of
service to ourselves is also important in that we receive service to
ourselves through worship.

Daniel (Bill): I am afraid that I will not fully consent to your assessment
in that self-benefit, if it is a conscious benefit and concern, turns
worship into a lower-level experience.  Worship in its highest and most
pure form transcends self, totally.  The worshiper is lost in ecstasy of
the adoration of that which he or she worships.  There is no thought of
self at that time.  Perhaps you didn't mean what I am thinking I understand
you to mean, but worship is not done for the purpose of self-benefit.

Nancy: I guess I don't disagree with what you just said, Daniel, in terms
of purpose, but rather that there is a side benefit to it, and where I was
saying that there is a side benefit is that when one is lost in that
adoration, that is a side benefit.  Is that correct?  I understand the
purpose is everything, that the motivation is what is important.

Daniel (Bill): At the time of worship experience there is no thought of
self-benefit.  After such an experience one may reflect and observe that
they feel better, that they enjoyed forgetting about all of their
self-centered concerns at the moment of worship, and then recognize its
value.  But its freedom is the loss of self-concern, the letting go of all
ego agendas, the total lack of self-interest which also occurs in moments
of service, for in true service there is no motive for reward, no
self-reference.  One does service out of pure love, as one does worship out
of pure adoration.  Am I making any sense to you people?

Nancy: Yes, it is complete sense.

Daniel (Bill): Now neither worship nor service is forced.  It cannot be
manufactured.  It cannot be faked.  It cannot be pretended.

[Long pause.]

You are very quiet.  Have I silenced all spontaneity by the severity of my
responses?

Ken: They were not too severe, Daniel.  [Others agreed.]  What is it
Daniel, that you speak these words and my understanding is different, and
shall I say better than they were when you spoke these same concepts years
ago.  Am I growing?

Daniel (Bill): One plus one equals two.  [Laughter.]

Nancy: I think Daniel is just being a better communicator.  [More laughter.]

Daniel (Bill): Yes, hopefully I am, because I am growing, even as you are.
The other part is yes, you are growing.  You are growing in understanding
these things, in that now you have more experience with it, and this is why
anything that has value and truth in it is always alive and growing,
because the experience component grows, and the reality of whatever it is,
whatever truth it is, therefor gains more vividness.

Virginia (Letah): Daniel, your saying this reminds me  that when I first
started  teaching the classes I had taken before, did not mean nearly as
much to me as when I went back and took additional courses. I knew enough
to ask the right questions after I had taught. I think maybe the problem
with me (I have to make it personal.) is that often I have not consciously
experienced what is being discussed and so it is not as valid to me as
after  experiencing the lessons that have been given to us.


Daniel (Bill): Very good, Letah.  You use an excellent illustration.  I
would ask you now, should we therefor, not require someone to do the
preparatory work of study prior attempting to experience a particular task
in as much as much more seems to be learned on the job than before?  What
do you think of this?

Virginia:  Oh brother, well it is almost like ‘which came first, the
chicken or the egg?'  [Laughter.]  And I wouldn't know how to answer that,
because you need the experience to ask the right questions, but you have to
have some basis to go into the experience.  So I am not sure what comes first.

Daniel (Bill): Our evaluation of education on this planet includes the
observation that its major deficiency is the disassociation of practice
from theory.  There is nothing wrong with teaching theory.  The problem is
in most people's experience practice occurs much later.  A much more
valuable technique is that which is practiced throughout the universes
where each theory is immediately followed with practice.  This would be, of
course, the ideal which was taught and functioned in this manner in both
the Planetary Prince's school as well as the Adamic school.  We are trying
to keep you students close in practice to the theory that we present, but
you must do your homework for the practice to be fully beneficial.  

Ken: Faith and procrastination, right?  Theory and practice.

Lori: Process and reprocess.  [Laughter.]

Daniel )Bill): Well, my friends, I believe that we have done enough tonight
in our Melchizedek school; and thank you for your questions, all of you.  I
was not serious when I said that I had silenced you with my severe talk.  I
was saying that ‘tongue in cheek,' and most of you thought that I really
meant it.  I can't generate the severe effect nearly as well as others
among us, e.g. the Melchizedeks on occasion, Abraham, perhaps.  Know this.
We are never angry with you.  We understand  that you are doing the best
that you can.  We appreciate your efforts.  We know that we don't feed you
pablum, but much more robust food.     So please come back one more time,
as I look forward to our next meeting.  On behalf of all of the staff here
I, Daniel, give you my love.  Let us now stand for our conclusion.

Prayer by unknown being (Bob S): Let us unite our hearts and minds in these
words of prayer.  To those in whose creation we now live, let us each in
our own minds throughout this next week endeavor to grow and learn and love
and serve those who we now ask for permission to behold the universe that
they have created.  May we each throughout this next small piece of time in
our lives be open to the opportunities that always present themselves, and
have the faith that we will be successful because we are sons and daughters
of those who are perfect.  Amen.