<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><BODY BGCOLOR="#ffffff"><FONT SIZE=2>DATE: July 21, 2001
<BR>LOCATION: Spokane, WA
<BR>T/R: Gerdean
<BR>TEACHER TOMAS
<BR>TOPIC: GLORY
<BR> P.S. Word study
<BR>
<BR>TOMAS: Good afternoon, my intimate associates. I am Tomas, your friend,
<BR>companion, counselor and guide. Your loyalty is endearing.
<BR>
<BR>Glory. This is what we will discuss for now. Glory is God's. It is a part
<BR>of His radiance, His perfection. Glory is a product of omnipotence,
<BR>omniscience, even omnipresence. I say "even omnipresence" for glory then is
<BR>found in you, inasmuch as you are His, you are of Him and your association
<BR>with your indwelling Adjuster is creating within you a personal sense of what
<BR>glory is, what is glorious to you, even in your current reality.
<BR>
<BR>How do you depict glory in your life environment, personal experience. Have
<BR>you a perception of glory we can observe or countermand?
<BR>
<BR>THOROAH: I just had a distinct one, Tomas, because the word glory, I had to
<BR>study it as you were describing it, and maybe it's a cultural thing, but when
<BR>I think of glory I think of "Old Glory" the flag and doing things for the
<BR>glory of the land and thinking of it more in militaristic terms rather than
<BR>the glorifying as something as – It's an upgrade of joy, really, when you
<BR>stop to think about glorious.
<BR>
<BR>TOMAS: It is certainly a joy to feel glorious, yes, indeed, they are equated.
<BR> In the fullness of essential radiance ~ perfection ~ glory and radiance are
<BR>up there with goodness and beauty. As you ascend in spirit reality, as you
<BR>are touched by that which has lasting value, within you swells that glorious
<BR>appreciation for what has given meaning and value to your life.
<BR>
<BR>Thus, you who have had impressions of loyalty regarding your government, its
<BR>history, would have an appreciation for the glory of patriotism. The glory
<BR>that was of Rome was of another day, however it is regarded as a status, a
<BR>situation of accomplishment, such that the relative perfection of the status
<BR>literally sings anthems, if you will, to patterns of perfection that elevate
<BR>the culture, the civilization, the society, the people, the fellowship, to
<BR>glorious heights. These are external, that is to say, social applications of
<BR>that which represents value.
<BR>
<BR>THOROAH: That's the other aspect, I think, that we might run into with glory
<BR>is that we think of that in a sense of someone who wants all the glory, as
<BR>glory for glorification is some form of self-aggrandizement rather than what
<BR>it really is.
<BR>
<BR>TOMAS: "What it really is." Glory in the human sense -- in the emotional,
<BR>mental, spiritual psyche of human beings -- glory will be influenced by
<BR>motivation, intent. And that, of course, is a reflection of the human will
<BR>in alignment with the divine will, and this is most readily seen in those who
<BR>have been reborn of the spirit ~ although many who have been reborn of the
<BR>spirit refer and revert to that which was of former value, (having now
<BR>expanded cosmic consciousness, spirit awareness, to add an entirely new
<BR>dimension to the belief paradigm as it was in existence prior to the
<BR>spiritual rebirth) and this in itself is glory given again to the material
<BR>representation of what is spiritual in nature.
<BR>
<BR>Thus the glory of God indeed infiltrates into every facet of creation. In
<BR>the fullness of time, the omnipresence of God will infiltrate your material
<BR>realm such that light and life will prevail. In this state of glorious
<BR>accomplishment, the planet Urantia will indeed have arisen into glory, as
<BR>will all its inhabitants.
<BR>
<BR>THOROAH: It's a complex word.
<BR>
<BR>TOMAS: Let's look further at that word and put yourself in a position of
<BR>recognizing the quality of glory as you have personally experienced it in
<BR>your life. You cannot not have had a moment of glory at some time in your
<BR>existence. It may have been a very distorted appreciation of what glory
<BR>means in its ultimate sense, but it is a quality even so that has been known
<BR>to be revealed to you even in terms of a birthday party when you are the one
<BR>having the birthday and you get to blow out the candles on the cake. That
<BR>is an example of a moment of glory in a sense that a human can understand
<BR>glory.
<BR>
<BR>Those of you who have no taste for glory are depriving yourself and others of
<BR>the glory of God in and through your representation of sonship/daughtership.
<BR>The dynamic personality, the human expression of the divine, is a form of
<BR>glory manifestation, and riding on the coat-tails of divinity is very likely
<BR>the highest representation of glory known to man or woman ~ for in it your
<BR>shadowy interpretation of what God's glory is, is honorable and upheld by a
<BR>righteousness and humility that betoken a child of God.
<BR>
<BR>The sense of glory is one of the lures.
<BR>
<BR>But in growing, in advancing in spirit composition, it is also common
<BR>practice for you to learn experientially the glory of God by mistaking the
<BR>glory of God for lesser glories; or, refusing to relinquish that which was a
<BR>representation of glory to those things of yesteryear, for those things which
<BR>are the glories of tomorrow.
<BR>
<BR>THOROAH: There's a glory also in experience that isn't so reflective on the
<BR>individual as much as introspective. A couple of examples at the conference,
<BR>there were two glorious moments: one was while I was watching Mark sing and
<BR>perform, and one watching Gerdean. Those are just two, but those were
<BR>glorious moments. There was a glory there that had nothing to do with my
<BR>glory. I felt the glory, I guess, of the moment. Anyway, that's the way I
<BR>would interpret it, now that we're studying this word ‘glory.' Those were
<BR>glorious moments.
<BR>
<BR>TOMAS: Glorious because they were depicting a pinnacle of mortal performance
<BR>on behalf of divinity, and this shadowy reflection of the greater glory is
<BR>indeed a state of accomplishment which broadcasts. These broadcasts are
<BR>effective, potentially far-reaching. Even the glorious moment wherein one
<BR>ministers to a fellow in confiding trust or in merciful ministry, that moment
<BR>of communion between two fellows in the presence of Deity is also an
<BR>invaluable moment of glory. It's audience is a more supernal reception, but
<BR>inasmuch as it is true that your efforts to implant divinity into the
<BR>material realms as en route to planetary light and life, you will see an
<BR>increasing tendency to lead by spirit than by the power paradigms of the past.
<BR>
<BR>Power and glory are peculiarly terrifying emotional qualities for humanity.
<BR>They are either exalted beyond reason or ignored and discounted. It seems
<BR>hard for you to assimilate the qualities of power and glory into your
<BR>construct, for fear your behaviors will be perceived as self-aggrandizement.
<BR>This is an antichrist. (Long pause) These remarks regarding glory have
<BR>seemed to pacify the mind of the querant, and so I am free to go on to other
<BR>matters unless or if you care to dwell longer on this.
<BR>
<BR>THOROAH: Let's dwell on it.
<BR>TOMAS: Alright. Let us dwell in glory.
<BR>
<BR>Glory is not the same as grace. Grace is that "yellow blanket" that softly
<BR>covers you like the mantle of the Mother. It protects you from harm. The
<BR>grace of divinity, in giving you this peace which passes all understanding,
<BR>allows you to stand tall while with grace. Glory is grace enhanced, animated,
<BR>radiant.
<BR>
<BR>Glory is the silver lining around a dark cloud. Glory is the particles of
<BR>life comprised in such a way as to impress the universal mind with the
<BR>perfection of itself, in its physical array, in its demonstration of
<BR>perfection, even in the finite, material realm. Glory is a state of being.
<BR>
<BR>In divine glory there is room for more glory in and through the glorious
<BR>personalities of your fellows also radiating the glory of God. There is no
<BR>friction, there is no disharmony, there is no resistance or competition, for
<BR>the glory of the parts are in service to the whole, the Absolute.
<BR>
<BR>Glory is a quality of perfection. To aspire then to "Be ye perfect" you will
<BR>come to experience glory - the glory of God Himself in Paradise, as well as
<BR>the glory assigned to you from Divinington in your Adjuster, that which you
<BR>are becoming - thus the glory of God that you develop as you aspire to fuse
<BR>with your Adjuster, as you become one with your divine fragment, you can
<BR>recognize as a fragment of the Universal Father in his absoluteness on
<BR>Paradise, and that all the other Adjusters that hail from Divinington to
<BR>indwell your kin throughout the far-flung universes of time and space, are
<BR>but the dancing lights of the prism which is reflecting the radiance and
<BR>glory of the sun [sic], the power on high.
<BR>
<BR>And this is true radiance: when the light of God, the eternal illumination,
<BR>the power of infinite personality, approaches you through your Adjuster and
<BR>strikes a chord within you that reflects the beauty of the prism of divine
<BR>perfection throughout your realm. You glory in the experience because your
<BR>fellows, as other shards of divine light, are harmoniously and joyously
<BR>dancing with you in a perfect pattern of harmony that reflects the glory of
<BR>God. (Long pause)
<BR>
<BR>[Recess, tape turned; interim conversation about the last line in "the Lord's
<BR>Prayer."
<BR>
<BR>GERDEAN: We're not used to looking at power and glory any more than we're
<BR>omfortable with looking at money. That's one of those things that we were
<BR>... Well, not everybody, ...
<BR>
<BR>THOROAH: But we don't trust power and glory. Even if we experience it, we
<BR>fear it. Because we've seen what the euphoria can do to people.
<BR>
<BR>GERDEAN: Well, maybe this is what this conversation is supposed to be about,
<BR>is so that we have a understanding of what it is so that it's not all or
<BR>nothing at all, that we can look at it rationally or in perspective or as a
<BR>viable quality that is part of our heritage – not based on the mortal
<BR>paradigm,... which ... doesn't give ME much power and glory, anyway.
<BR>
<BR>THOROAH: Well, the idea is to recognize the inherent power and the inherent
<BR>glory present in our Thought Adjuster, and our Thought Adjuster is trying to
<BR>teach us how to get along with and work with that power and glory, as well as
<BR>our Teachers have been trying to teach us, trying to deal with that. I mean,
<BR>it sits right in there with the rebellion.
<BR>
<BR>GERDEAN: It's a lure but it's also a reflection. Glory. You're doing it.
<BR>The light's coming through. So whether it's a little private act or a big
<BR>public act, it doesn't matter, it still glorifies spirit.
<BR>
<BR>THOROAH: When I think of glory now I don't think of it as being, say, in the
<BR>spotlight. I think of the moments that are glorious. They are moments of
<BR>inspired appreciation. (Or insight.) You see the universe at work. You see
<BR>the Father at work. You see IT working. Those little moments are so glorious
<BR>when you see IT. It's with the circuitry.
<BR>
<BR>TOMAS: Well, yes you are right. What difference does it make, except that,
<BR>if you repeat, as a mantra, "for thine is the kingdom and the power and the
<BR>glory forever and ever amen," you have more or less disassociated yourself
<BR>from any vested interests by giving it away eternally to someone else to take
<BR>care of, and this is how it is that you have not appropriately assumed your
<BR>power and glory along with your assault on the spiritual kingdom.
<BR>_______________
<BR>
<BR>If you like to think so, you may think of us as students of hermeneutics -
<BR>the study of literature [the art or science of the interpretation of
<BR>literature], but this is what we've been given to work with as a tool, a
<BR>medium of communication. I am not able to indwell you or accompany you in
<BR>the likeness of the Spirit of Truth. I am a personality but I am an
<BR>associate. And, as associates, unless we are in a state of spiritual
<BR>communion, or prayer, as a result of our mutual commitment of time in space
<BR>for that purpose, I am forced to revert to the utilization of words. And so
<BR>it behooves us to have an understanding of the words we are using, and how
<BR>they identify with you or you with them, and how you experience life as you
<BR>understand it by the definitions you impose upon your actions.
<BR>
<BR>It is very interesting, I will add, that your assessments of your behaviors
<BR>are often a definition selected by you to describe your behavior that is not
<BR>the same definition we would use. Therefore we are in a position of studying
<BR>hermeneutics, just like a study of your religion is theology and the study of
<BR>another guy's religion is psychology, so we define our terms and the tools of
<BR>the trade of communication, so that we have a better appreciation of what
<BR>we're talking about because of the language we are using.
<BR>
<BR>Intellectual? Yes. Mindal as compared to spiritual? Certainly.
<BR>Immaterial? Hardly. It's not a safe assumption that we can all stand around
<BR>yet in a state of grace or better yet glory and assume that we are all
<BR>radiating God's goodness. We are busy living the life. You are in the arena
<BR>in order to advance your spirit perceptions so as to make you more real and
<BR>your work in the field reflects that thread. But if we are to understand our
<BR>brother, in order to then understand his/her motives so that we can learn to
<BR>love him/her, it is necessary to look behind the veil, in the closet, under
<BR>the bed, around the corner, on the next page, on the former object lesson, in
<BR>order to realize how we may be of service, if at all.
<BR>
<BR>Any questions? (Long pause) No questions? Class dismissed.
<BR>
<BR>THOROAH: Thank you, Tomas.
<BR>TOMAS: Good afternoon.
<BR>
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