[tmtranscripts] Rio Rancho NM TeaM (02-08-04)

[Gerdean O Bowen]

DATE:                    February 8, 2004
LOCATION:          Rio Rancho NM 
                                Esmarelda’s Hideaway
TEACHERS:         TOMAS & ANATOLIA
TOPICS:                Overcoming Difficulty
                                Lesson on Prayer
Q & A:                   Am I a Christian?                      
T/R’s: Gerdean & Matthew
Music: Elena on Piano: "What a Friend We Have in Jesus"
Prayer:
Matthew: Let us place ourselves in the presence of Jesus, the Christ.
Master Teacher,
        We come to you with inquiry and curiosity, but nevertheless faith
and dedication, but inquiring as to why there has to be the strife that
we experience. It seems distant and far off and concerning and
disconcerting, but exists as near as our own interior workings, in terms
of difficulty and tumultuous undertakings – frequently – and why it has
to be that way, I suppose, it is the growth process and to see the
example of a weed breaking through concrete is an example of what it can
bring about in terms of overcoming difficulty. And for this we are
grateful -- for the opportunity to overcome and to be more Godlike, as
you have demonstrated.
        We look forward to the teachings which will bring us closer in
our understanding, as we continue our ascension process to become one
with you and our Heavenly Father as all is One and Complete, we are
forever grateful. And for the cares and concerns that we have,
individually and collectively, we place before you now. 
        Amen. 
TOMAS: Good afternoon, my loyal friends and companions, as well as my
students afar and abroad. I greet you every Sunday afternoon and you here
in this precious conclave hear me, but are you also aware that our voice
is heard throughout the realm? I would therefore like to pause in our
greeting today to extend Welcome to those outside our immediate
configuration, to include the many who receive these transcripts, who
find nuggets of worth within to chew over, in hope of disclaiming my
reality or affirming the truth herein. 
The prayer was offered today in terms of the disparate views within the
extension of the kingdom throughout the realm, even in the kingdoms of
men. And this is not the concern for us as it is for you, but how you
deal with those differences is certainly a matter of interest to us, and
a challenge to us as well, for we know well how difficult it is to convey
a truth that will extend into the hearts of each of you so that each of
you are able to hear the intent and the purpose of my words, our message.

The Master side-stepped those individual differences by the use of
parables. In this way, everyone was free to receive his own
interpretation of the truth within that nugget, something wherewith to
chew the substance of that which was reflected within -- within that man/
that woman/ that child’s consciousness, with its own frame of reference,
experiential background, cultural conditioning and so forth. 
This is the friend we have in Jesus, who can lay his blanket down for all
humanity to sit upon and picnic with him, taking those morsels of truth
which feed and nurture his own soul, leaving the orts and crumbs to
others, even the beasts of the field, to also nourish themselves on the
truth within his being.
Yet, in the structure of this Teacher Mission, there are guidelines as to
how to proceed, and this will bring us back to this immediate circle of
friends who are indeed courageous to present themselves here in this
gathering, to expose their strengths and weaknesses as ascending sons and
daughters in truth, to reveal the integrity they each individually know
and display in their own right, as we offer our own integrity in our own
right as your teachers.
This is how it is that we can speak broadly, across the board, to anyone
who chooses to listen, and everyone may hear something different. But you
may be assured that we are not Republican and we are not Democrat. We
are, however, aware of how these delineations affect you. Nor are we
Christian nor are we Islamic, even though we are aware of what those
words represent to you, our mortal students. Nor are we English nor
Spanish, but through the methods afforded us through the gracious
ministrations of the local midwayer corps, we are able to put forth our
concepts through the transmitter receivers into the language that you can
understand. And I must add "translators" for there are those who delight
to spread the word even farther into the realm by way of interpreting our
lessons into forms that will feed the multitudes – far beyond these
community gatherings as you know in the Teacher bases that are
established and announced as such.
We are also challenged by the tremendous amount of work that is upon us,
and that is our challenge, not so much yours, but how do we begin to
approach the needs of your soul when your souls are so variously
situated? It is not our desire to be so generic as to gloss over those
specific and particular concerns that each of you hold. It is not our
intent to relegate your personal growth to your personal spirit guides.
Nor is our desire to leave your spiritual development entirely up to God,
as you perceive God and/or Jesus as we recognize Jesus, for these
concepts are not always – not in every case – a reality you agree with,
support or aspire to. 
Therefore, in many ways, our challenge as Teachers would be beyond our
capacity to fulfill, except for the fact that we know -- not only because
we are told, but -- because we see it in you, that you hunger for truth,
and that as you open yourself to truth, you will be fed. The Mystery
Monitor provides the answers to your soul’s needs with or without me, but
I am pleased to be a catalyst for you and your growth as much as
possible, as I realize that, in turn, you will learn these religious
realities for yourself and thus you, too, will put forth these realities
which go beyond words, extend beyond cultures, reach beyond language, out
step even the ideologies of politics and differences which do reside in
the hearts and the craw of all of you mortals of this realm. 
The Lesson
We had thought to speak of prayer. The act of prayer is an
acknowledgement of the inner actuality of your self, in communication
with that which it reaches for. It is the shadow of the Paradise Trinity:
The I AM seeks response, thus the Universal Father expresses this Thought
through the Word of prayer of the Eternal Son, in order that it may be
led to Act in accordance with Universal Mind. Prayer is the song of soul,
the hurt of the heart, the longing of the living, and the joy of the
Children of God. 
What is God? God is a concept that varies with each individual. Thousands
of you are followers of a concept or a faith that is the gift of your
forefathers, though these forefathers may not be the same. There are
those of you who have chosen not to relinquish your will to a nebulous
and unknown god, often regarding the god of your neighbors as defiled and
unworthy of worship, who brings about destruction, disease and allows all
manner of unjust behaviors and beings. 
There are those of you, too, who have what can only be called a personal
response to Deity, and that well may be genuine religious experience, but
is it the same as your brother? It is very rare that any two people
experience the same religious experience, and so each individual is
called to answer for himself and with his own consciousness these answers
that speak to the yearning soul which yearns to know and celebrate its
origin and its destiny. The fact that you have religion or a philosophy
is not the answer to prayer, but rather a course of study en route to the
response to prayer. 
I feel I am going to lose you now if I don’t bring this back to you
personally. Your minds tend to wander. This is not bad. This is your own
seed wriggling in the soil striving to grow and spring forth from where
you are nestled in your reality here in this material world. 
So, as the earth moves before me where you are, let me come into your
realm and derive from you individually and in your own words your
response to these inquiries that we discuss to and for you and for your
own understanding of what that quality is that we yearn to know more of,
that being embodied in the word "Prayer". 
Do we have any volunteers? What is it to you to pray?
MEN-O-PAH: I’m reminded of some lines from an old hymn. "Prayer is the
soul’s sincere desire, unuttered or expressed, The motion of a fluttering
fire, that thunders in the breast."
Paula: You have a good memory.
Men-O-Pah: Yeah. There’s some more to it that I don’t remember.
TOMAS: This "thundering in the breast" is that spark of God that resides
within you, that element of God that is often called the soul or the
spirit that seeks to sponsor your immortality. It wants to return to its
Source. This is one of the gifts that we depend on, one of the gifts to
you humans from the Universal Father that we in the Teacher Corps depend
on. We would be in error to think that what you take from our classes is
due to our skills alone. Perhaps our words can, like the words of that
poet, stimulate thought and feeling. But it is the implantation of the
Divine Life within your own breast that truly nudges you forward, urges
you on, and leads you home.
There is more to prayer. What other comments can we find in this group?
Paula: Well, I think I have almost a childlike faith in God, and when I
pray, I talk to Him the same way I talked to my earthly father, and I
know He listens and He probably figures, "Well, part of the time, you’re
such a dimwit, you pray for the wrong things, so I won’t give ‘em to ya,"
but if He thinks I’m right, then He usually answers my prayer. Of course,
I don’t always get the answer I want, but I know He is listening.
TOMAS: Yes, child, this is a desired response, for you have taken for
yourself the father/child relationship to your own religious frame of
reference. That gives you the opportunity to remain open to the greater
wisdom and counsel of the divine that you know, too, that God is greater
than the earth father, even while your relationship has been similar, in
terms of admiration and anticipation of your needs being met, being
provided for, being cared for, is still not so foolhardy as to give man
that same adulation as you would offer up to Deity. 
And the conversational exchange you engage in is indeed an ideal, for you
consciously bring yourself to the conversation and, without fear, express
your heart and soul’s desires to Him On High, and then await a response,
that is often called the meditative response. And while you may not get
the answer you want, you will eventually get the answer you need. 
This is what many yet need to learn: that you may not even get the answer
you need immediately, but you will find it throughout the course of your
life in the echoes of God’s response to you through others, and through
the many variables of creation, not excluding the reflective aspects of
your own mind which is capable of formulating the response that you would
be given were you to be open to it. "Auto revelation" this is called in
your terms, but it is also an element of the divine working with you,
working with your mind, which you, by your will, have made malleable and
willing to open itself to His counsel. 
Yes, indeed, this is a definition of prayer. Are there others?
Elena: Well, the way I think about it is: I think God always has the
answers for us, like an energy field that is constantly there, but prayer
is a way of trying to be an open link to receiving that energy or that
information that we would have, and it’s the stepping stone to what I
would like to have on a continual basis but there is too much activity or
noise in the world, whether that noise be activity or whatever, for me to
concentrate and allow God’s presence to enter me, but it’s my active
seeking Father.
TOMAS: You are opening up now another dimension of prayer, that being
what might be called a "walking prayer" or a consciousness of divinity
even an awareness of your morontial reality. Let me define what I mean by
morontial reality, which is basically what you imparted in your prayer,
that being walking consciously within His presence, even finding a
pattern of perfection within which to walk, one which is identified by
the grace and peace which you would imagine having as a perennial
presence -- a natural supposition since these qualities are to be found
in your silent prayers you enjoy "in the closet" with Him. 
This walking prayer will be the way of the future when more and more
individuals enter into the personal phase of light and life which will
set the stage, then, for the full planetary realization of light and life
wherein every citizen of the planet walks with God, acknowledging his
participation in the affairs of men, thus fulfilling the prayer of Jesus,
the believers prayer, of heaven on earth – "on earth as it is in heaven".
This is a dimension. And the lament of your soul seems to be the prayer
that you are able to retain that precious connection, even with the
pressures and unrealities of the world at large wrenching you away from
that reality or sufficiently distracting you from that state of being
such that you feel uprooted or disenfranchized or somehow unable to make
that connection that you would desire to keep with and through all you
do. 
This is a worthy prayer, one that, with conscious diligence, you will
master and attain, for it is within you, as it was within your friend
Jesus, to carry the relationship he shared with divinity into everything
he did, even up until and through his death, in joy and in suffering.
Part of your challenge, which is similar to mine, is to recognize that
there are areas where you will not be able to engage this energy (to the
extent that you can in your own environment) because in your own
environment you are not limited by the walls that are erected in the
world at large that disallow the expression of God to extend beyond your
own portal.
This does not limit God, nor does it limit your relationship with God –
except insofar as they have limited His inclusion into their lives in
such a manner as it would be reflectable to you. Therefore, you must
realize the temporary aspect of the situation and forge ahead in great
glee of your future victory with God when He will be able to extend
himself out from you and through you to them and back again. This is
indeed a prayer worth praying and a value worth seeking. 
Are there others? 
Paula: Well, you just might be interested in something that happened in
my life a number of years ago when my first husband died. I took it
pretty hard, and somebody said, "You ought to read the book that this
rabbi in Boston wrote." Now I can’t think of his name to save me, but
anyway, I got the book and I read it and he had just lost his only son
when he was 14 years old, and instead of wallowing in self-pity, which is
what I was doing, he sat down and wrote a book – which helped him and
helped everybody else. So I thought, "Golly, he’s a really terrific man.
I think I’ll write and tell him how much I enjoyed it, so I did."
Now this man has the biggest congregation of any Jewish bunch of people
anywhere in the whole world! He not only has all these people – a couple
of thousand or so in his congregation – and then he has speaking
engagements. Well, I wrote to him and told him I thought he was pretty
terrific. I said, "If you could handle the death of your only son and sit
and write a book that helped so many people, I guess I’d better stop
sitting around with all this self pity. You helped me a great deal." I
thought, well, probably his secretary would toss it in the thing with all
the other letters he gets. Instead, I got back a letter from him, that he
wrote himself.
His handwriting was none too good but he said he thought I was pretty
terrific too! And I thought, "Wow! That’s pretty darned nice. For him to
sit down and write a letter to me." So I wrote back and said, "Thank you
for the letter and all the nice things you said and blah, blah, blah. And
we kept up a correspondence for about two years! And I haven’t heard from
him in a long time and I would hesitate to start it again, but he was
just wonderful. He was the greatest thing. And he said, "When you pray,"
he said, "you’ve got one up on me." He said, "When I pray, I pray just to
God. You’ve got a little edge there. You pray to Jesus, too!" I mean, he
had a sense of humor as well as everything else.
But it always amazed me that such an important man would take time out of
his busy life to sit and write me letters. He even called me long
distance one time. He said, "How are you doing? Is everything all right,
and are you finding life in Albuquerque pretty good?" And I said, "Yes,"
and he said, "I had a reason for asking. I’m going to lecture in
Albuquerque in about a month," and he said, "Can you come?" and I said,
"You’re darned right! I’ll get my tickets right away – for myself, and my
daughter and my granddaughter!" and he said, "Well, I want to meet you,
but there’s going to be over a thousand people that night, so why don’t
you do it the other way. On the day before, on Saturday, I’m going to
sign books at the bookstore, so maybe so many people won’t want to read
my book and we’ll have more of a chance to talk." And he was right!
People didn’t buy too many of his books so we sat down and talked for
half an hour. And that night, there were just streams of people. We were
about an hour getting out of that temple, because it took so long, and
when I shook his hand, he said, "You see what I mean? Aren’t you glad you
came yesterday?" And I said, Yes!"
Matthew: Was that "Why Bad Things Happen to Good People"?
Paula: Yeah.
Matthew: By Levin, or something like that.
Paula: No, that wasn’t-- Isn’t that awful? I’m terrible on names. I look
at all the people in church and say, "What’s his name? What’s her name?"
and he says, "You know who that is!" and I say, "Yeah, well, I know who
she is but I can’t remember her name," so he clues me in.
TOMAS: Let me respond to your telling. This is another form of prayer,
you see.
And this is rather like my talk last week about the choir, for you two
have been singing harmony. This is a form of prayer, when you can sing
praises to God together. This is the next step indeed from the situation
Elena pointed to wherein your private prayer becomes a shared experience
with those who also respect and adore that On High which we know as God.
Even in the case of the Jew and the Christian. Even so, the divine
presence is enough to help you transcend the differences, to nonetheless
exalt that which goes well beyond words, just as your appreciation for
this fellow goes well beyond mere names. Indeed you will know each other
for eternity for the gift of personality, while names are often changed
in the course of an eternal career.
I see that I have gotten carried away with my ministry with you today and
we are on the second side of our time together and I have not paused to
give my co-worker an opportunity to even say hello. And yet there was
much more I had hoped to bring in, including all of your responses. But
this is one of the limitations of the mortal life I am slowly learning,
becoming accustomed to as you are: there is not enough time to do
everything we want to do. Shall I then push my way through, trying to
make sure that it all gets done, at the expense of a quality experience?
Or shall I rather prioritize my efforts with integrity and let the rest
take care of itself in good time and in good faith? Thank you.
Elena: Wait! We wanted the answer to that. 
ANATOLIA: Welcome all who join us here in our realm to join with yours,
to become one in worship and in being. Within this day that the Lord has
made, let us be glad and rejoice. 
This brings to mind one simple idea that may or may not relate to what
you have to deal with in your realm, for in ours there is not the
contrast that you have in your own, where you have day and night, love
and hate, peace and war, male and female – not that these are so much
depicting contrast and differences as they are dimensions of the same one
opposing or representing another aspect of the same energy – meaning day
and night for example, depicts the same energy from polar points of view,
as light is present at day and absents itself at night. Hence, energy or
light is the issue. Notice, however, even in the absence of light, at
times in the designated time frames of the month there is light at night
as you have experienced recently – dynamic and profound as it is.
My point is that ours is not a world of dichotomy or of ups and downs or
of give and take even, in the sense of having to depend upon the kindness
and good intentions of those around you. In like manner, the absence of
kindness or consideration and having to fall victim to such crudeness and
lack of consideration. Ours is a realm of choice of believing and
becoming, meaning that upon ones journey into our realm, we find the
choice to become as free and as loving as one is capable of expressing.
Up to the point where one has become perfected in all of his or her
character traits, even to rejoin the creator in that masthead of beauty,
goodness and, certainly, kindness.
My illustration is to present to you that as your prayer had invited
understanding of such dichotomy in your realm and how to live with it and
how to not cast curses upon what you would call ignorance or to cast
curses upon the darkness, but as the saying has been, to light a candle
instead. So where your world is fraught with dichotomy and understanding
challenges, I invite you to not momentarily live in our world with our
understanding, for that is virtually impossible for you at this point,
but you are able to invite what we find in our realm, and that is to
experience the greatest enhancement of your desires by stating it as a
truism. Therefore, what you experience in terms of distortion or contrary
to that which you would desire, all that you need to do is to state your
intention and to persist in your desire to find understanding, even in
the midst of ignorance. This is doable, if for no reason other than your
own growth and development. You will be able to find hope within misery
and determination within hopelessness, and fruitfulness within what
otherwise appears barren.
I expect that you have a glint of what I am speaking, that your
perception and consequently your experience is based upon your perception
and your desire for a whole and complete experience. Why be satisfied
with simply the rind of a watermelon when you can, if that’s all you
have, imagine what it tasted like and, therefore, appreciate what you
have remaining, for all is within your capability both here and now. We
are merely without the physical limitation, or bridge, to be what we were
meant to be. This is what you and I have in common. It is only the
dimensional difference that places us worlds apart. 
So too you can join in our experience by your desire and your intention
to overcome limitation, for it is only in your hearts mind and desire
that such differences exist. So, I wish you all good intentions for this
and every life that is to be expressed, for those who are in the most
dismal of circumstances, or even the most heinous of criminals, can and
will experience peace of mind in their eventual development, for nothing
is lost except for that which desires to be lost. Nothing is wasted but
those who wish to be wasted. Consequently, all live who desire to live. 
I leave you in one frame of mind, and that is the openness to be all that
you are for you have the eternal strand of life right here and now as you
choose for it to continue to its natural conclusion, to be within the
mind of God. I leave you in peace and hopefulness, until we meet again.
Peace be with you.
Group: Thank you.
TOMAS: In summation of our theme this afternoon, on Anatolia’s note of
all of you having your own individual perception, perhaps we can take up
the task next week (or when it is next appropriate) that we take up
prayer in terms of how to pray for others. What to pray for, not in terms
so much our own growth but for the growth of others. This is almost
always an opportunity to reflect on the merit of our perspective and our
desires for others that may or may not be within the will of God.
Let me ask, are there questions? 
Esmarelda: I really appreciate your lesson today, Tomas, and I look
forward as you say to further discussions about prayer. I need help and
this is gratefully accepted.
TOMAS: Are there questions unrelated to the topic of prayer that have
come to your mind this week?
Elena: I have one. It was actually -- my question came up again with some
of the discussion that was going on prior to the meeting, but it first
came up when I attended the lecture by Thomas Borg several weeks ago, and
he went through the audience and asked all the people there to identify
the denominations they came from, and he asked people to raise their
hand, okay, "How many are this?" "How many are that?" and there wasn’t a
single one I felt I could raise my hand up to. And yet, it brings up a
question. When he said "Christian" I almost did because I think our group
and the Teaching Mission is most definitely based on not only what is
commonly known as the Christian information, and yet it seemed rather
strange, I didn’t raise my hand as a Christian because I wasn’t certain
that the other people would actually think that maybe Urantia people are
really Christians, so that is a question. I wonder where I fit. Or if I’m
just a misfit. I mean, I don’t feel bad, but I feel like we’re very much
Christian and yet, even in the conversation before, it was "that
Christian activity" or something, which is not exactly referring to
ourselves. And I’ll stop there because it’s not really my answer I’m
interested in.
TOMAS: Congratulations for you capacity to think for yourself. The
applying of "labels" – designations, is a practice established in order
to allow a sense of belonging, a sense of affiliation. And yet at the
same time it disallows that which you are not. If you are to be free of
these biases, it is well you retain within yourself allegiances only to
that which are without name and number, even though the world as you know
it has busied itself by creating organizations of individuals who support
certain values or causes, be they Boy Scouts, American Civil Liberties,
Zooids or whatever. 
The general understanding of "Christian" is the designation for those who
follow Christ, and yet those of you who have a personal relationship with
Jesus and with Christ Michael, those of you who understand why he came
and what his existence means to you, above and beyond what Paul provided
by creating the church, above and beyond what the Christian history has
been as set forth in the biblical scriptures, has given you a sense of
your religious roots preceding Christianity and not truly subscribing to
the tenets of Christianity, varied though they may be, depending upon
what sect.
In fact, I have seen mortals opt not to involve themselves with any sect,
lest they find themselves appearing to prefer one over another. There are
some who have no need to conform to the tenets or practices of any one
given organization, and yet there are many who prefer to have the
subscribed limitations that are set forth in order to live within that
framework, for the whole of theology is too great, in many cases, and
boggles the mind of those who seek a simple religious association with
like-minded people. 
Even the designation of Teaching Mission, while it affords its devotees
some sense of camaraderie with those who also subscribe to the Teacher
Corp, alienate those outside the Teaching Mission when they limit their
perception of this mission to the handful of Urantia Book readers who
have subsequently found the faculty of Teacher Sons to assist their
learning process. 
Far better for you all to learn to be magnanimous and inclusive, to
devote yourself to opening those doors and professing to being a believer
rather than limiting your beliefs, for this gives you the far-reaching
perspective, and while it may seem you are out on a limb or alone in your
theories, you will find that more and more will be subscribing to that
same field of thought. For the truth herein is that as you are a son of
God, in the highest sense of the word, the more you have a living
religious experience with the divine Universal Father of all and respond
to the call of Paradise. 
You will ascend in the manner you are destined to follow, as will all
other faith sons and daughters, and from that perspective you will be
able to see where the dividing lines are helping and where they are
hindering, and that will be yet more data for you to be able to use when
you seek to minister as you pass by, for you will not have alienated or
aligned yourself with any save the Most Highs. Even though it may require
some courage on your part to begin that path of standing up for your own
spirit consciousness in your own right, it will certainly lead you into
that path of morontia walking prayer that you have yearned for.
Elena: Thanks for the encouragement.
TOMAS: And surely you will find kindred spirits along the way, such as
the many I have come to know and love by my association with you in this
venture we share. I long to lift my voice in praise to that Power On High
that follows our development and that leads us forward, that portrays our
questions and reveals our answers as we pursue the course of destiny
which is ours. Thanks to God, that All- Powerful Presence which is our
First Source and eternal goal.
I will leave you now to yourselves to celebrate your differences and your
similarities in conscious recognition of your sonship together with those
of us who regard you as our charge, watching over you as we do, elder
brothers and sisters in this Family of God that we enjoy. See you next
time. Farewell.
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