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<P>DATE: March 23, 2003</P>
<P>LOCATION: Rio Rancho, NM </P>
<P>TEACHERS: Andromadeus, a Most High</P>
<P> Machiventa
Melchizedek, our Prince</P>
<P>
and the host for Q&A: Tomas</P>
<P>TOPICS: Negotiation as a Teaching Tool</P>
<P>
The Nature of Justice</P>
<P></P>
<P>T/r’s: Gerdean (for Tomas and Andromadeus)</P>
<P> Matthew (for Machiventa
Melchizedek)</P>
<P>Music: Elena on Piano</P>
<P>Selection: "What Wondrous Love Was This!"</P>
<P>Composer: W. Walker’s Southern Harmony, 1835</P>
<P>Prayer: (Matthew) Let us place ourselves in the presence of Jesus, the
Christ. </P><I>
<P>Master Teacher, we seek your company and your guidance on many of the topics
that confront us today. It seems that we are confronted with the real thing,
now. It’s no longer theory, "What if" and "What then, if" and all of the
questions. Now the question is love and our commitment to it. Enable us to be
fully aware of You in our lives and in our life with The Father and that they
become real to us -- beyond simply principle and platitude, but the real thing,
that we know we are survivors because we are alive and living in the spirit now
as we will whenever our time for changing our venue comes about. </P>
<P>We seek the teachings of the teachers you designate today so we are enabled
to be children of faith, the faith that is real and beyond just believe, but in
knowing. And in all of the things that you know within our hearts that are in
need of correction or addressing for someone else who is going through
transition or transformation in one form or another, we place before you now.
And in appreciation for this gift of life and of faith that we are living and
the opportunity to express it as we are, in communion right now, we are forever
grateful. Amen.</P></I>
<P>TOMAS: Gracious assemblage of mortal workers and celestial associates, it
gives me great pleasure to be your host this afternoon in this gathering of
souls in search of ways to be of service to humanity in these troublous times of
growth. </P>
<P>We have a guest here today among the throng of heavenly hosts who hover to
hear your hearts beat in unison with the pulse of Paradise. I remain your loyal
friend and will return in the course of time, in order to follow up and
fraternize, but for now I beg your ear to the focus of our visitor who is a Most
High, Andromadeus. </P>
<P>ANDROMADEUS: By leave of Machiventa Melchizedek, I am here in your midst
today to be of service to your efforts as soldiers of the circles, as devoted
students of beauty, goodness, and truth. </P>
<P>I have been sent in this capacity by the Ancients of Days who administer in
the local universes as well as in the superuniverses, in order to embellish your
appreciation of the value of <B>negotiation as a teaching tool.</B> In support
of the Teacher Corp of this system, I am eager to give you a lesson in the art
of negotiation in terms of your teaching ministry. You who are the children of
God, conscious denizens of the mortal world as well as the cosmic neighborhood,
are called upon to serve in the capacity of Ambassadors of the Kingdom, and not
merely as temporal beings embroiled in a mortal conflict affecting the evolution
of the world Urantia. </P>
<P>You will not be able to step outside of the collective consciousness in your
ministry for the principle of war is upon you all. While you retain your loyalty
in truth to the greater reality, the work of the field portrays itself in many
respects as the attitudes of humanity are presented through the philosophies
they maintain or subscribe to by and through their appreciation of what reality
is – in the main, a material reality. It will not serve the kingdom, thus, to
assert yourself as assuming a position on one side or the other, no, for this
further sets humankind apart one from the other. </P>
<P>As Ambassadors, it behooves you to be a mediator between points of view
because this tactic of (a) knowing who you are and being that "calm in the eye
of the hurricane" and (b) being active in the ministry of the realm in which you
live, in full appreciation of this technique of problem-solving and conflict
resolution, will be a part of your pattern of procedure from now into
infinity. Be therefore open to learning the skills that bridge differences, that
melt down barriers. This is not a simple assignment. </P>
<P>The fact that you have all been a party to conflict of one kind or another,
that your lives are a balance of behavior patterns which conform to the norm,
thus allowing what you might consider the norm to prevail -- even while
growth gives rise to new patterns and new realizations -- be prepared to find
the meeting ground between what is and what will be; the playing field between
what is apparent and what is hidden; the battlefield between what is right for
one as compared to what is right for another. For these differences will always
exist, inasmuch as every living thing is individual and unique, especially in
such a world as yours where experimentation is an applied science. </P>
<P>Judging is complex. When the Ancients of Days ask for a reflection of an
individual entity, it is always allowed for the imperfect entity to be seen in
the best possible light, because of an appreciation of the background and the
motivating factors involved in the development of the human being, as he is and
as he stands in the light of truth today, at this moment. And thus there is
considerable background information that is required to delve into in order to
make an assessment in any situation. And when it involves two people and the
nature of the arrangement or relationship (or lack of arrangement or
relationship) between them, it is even more complicated, and to be the surveyor
of all the world and attempt to discern the conflicts that are in existence on
Urantia today is beyond your capacity. It is in the hands of those of us On High
who are managing the affairs of your world, even with your peculiar situation
and free will. </P>
<P>Your job then, as ambassadors of the kingdom, is to deal with the battlefield
at hand in front of your face -- in the workplace, in the marketplace, in
the area of influence over which you preside. Rather than polarize your fellows,
be a comforting presence, a voice of sanity, exemplary of balanced thought,
unemotional due consideration. Call upon divine wisdom to guide your tongue in
these "negotiations" with your fellows. </P>
<P>Be peacekeepers, even as you become the listener for those whose opinions are
different from your own. Be like the Ancients of Days who comprehend and
appreciate how the entity has been formulated, what value he or she upholds,
what merit they offer humankind, and the divine path they seek to follow. For
like yin and yang, like male and female, like light and darkness, there are
realms of sheer harmony when the conflict is set aside to embrace the values you
share. Seek to find the values you share with each moment, each ministry
presented to you. In this way you will assist the Most Highs and we will be
effective in our efforts to rule in the kingdoms of men.</P>
<P>I am Andromadeus, a Most High. Good day.</P>
<P>GROUP: (Thank you.)</P>
<P>TOMAS: Tomas again here for a moment. I see another guest in eagerness to
speak. I will pass the microphone to Matthew to voice our Prince.</P>
<P>MACHIVENTA: I am with you all. It is again by popular request that I am with
you today. It is furthermore by popular demand that the words of our upward
leadership in the godhead structure was made known to you as well. It is to
bring you hope and encouragement that you are not alone and that in this
struggle to understand your place in this world, it is imperative that you
understand what our view is toward your difficulty. It is not nor will it ever
be impartial distance or the refusal to get involved, as if concerned about
offending one side or the other. </P>
<P>It is as if a parent, seeing warring children, can take preference of one
child to the disadvantage of another, for aren’t their concerns, their needs,
their ambitions inherently the same, however differently viewed? As Jacob and
Esau saw their roles and had roles that were markedly different, their value,
their principles, their intrinsic value, was nonetheless of equal importance. So
it is that we find ourselves as we do with you, concerned about the ultimate
justice to the prevalence of love and the exactitude of justice as it meted
out.</P>
<P>Justice, after all, is like a dove. It has no sharpness. It has no
punishment. It has only what is fair, right and true. Like a dove, its gentle
fluttering wings find roost upon that which it can find its rest. It will rest
upon that which provides stability and certainty for its placement. So, too, is
truth as it lives within the heart of men, but inspired by the Spirit of God. It
is in this placement that justice finds a home. I encourage each of you to do as
Andromadeus delivered, to practice as instructed, to be ambassadors of peace, to
practice that which is necessary to do because in your world at the material
level, there will certainly always be room for disagreement. There will be ample
opportunity for disdain and disharmony. It is calling upon those who have chosen
the path of true righteousness, that is, to seek the right in the situation, to
practice that which they believe to be right, and to find that, in truth, and to
do this instead of taking one side versus the other wherein such placement
you are only left, like Solomon, trying to divide the child and, after all, this
only leaves half of a whole. Such is your world without divine placement and
divine inspiration. </P>
<P>It is the high road, the road less traveled that you are called to take. It
is in this that you will find great of solitude but also great turmoil. For you
to remove your roots from your world in its temporal viewpoint, or materialistic
perspective, will be difficult for you to do from a temporal point of view. To
remove yourself from this, from purely a materialistic mindset, will be
trying to step out of a platform of tar which is stretching yet pulling you back
into place, so it is necessary in spirit for you to lift beyond the limitations
of a material framework into that which is both material and spirit, to be more
than you apparently are called to be, but to be all that you know yourself
called to be. </P>
<P>It is in this stead that I place you truly within our realm as ambassadors
along the Father’s path. Much like the Appian Way was known to be the road
that connected all roads to Rome, the road to your Father’s home is in your
heart and in your mind, leading straight ahead in your connection to the Father.
Let this be your guiding light. As it is said "all roads lead to Rome," all
hearts lead to our heavenly father. Let it be true and real today as it will be
for all time and beyond, that the relationship that is you with our
Father <U>must be</U> demonstrated here today among our ambassadors. I
encourage you, I give you strength, and I -- most of all – leave you in the
security of knowing that the love of all time and beyond all ages is yours today
as it always will be.</P>
<P>Peace be with you and may your hearts know only truth, happiness, and the
security that you are one with all that is. Peace be with you, and may you live
well beyond your years. Amen. </P>
<P>TOMAS: Tomas, your teacher, resuming his post. Anatolia and I are pleased to
be assigned to this configuration. The administration of Ham and the guidance of
Abraham have once more proven to me to be worthy of subscription. What a delight
to find myself in your company. How delightful it is to see you again, child,
Miriam.</P>
<P>MIRIAM: Thank you, Tomas.</P>
<P>TOMAS: Welcome! We miss Thoroah and the companionship today of Menopah and
Paula, but we take comfort in the strength and solidarity of the core group here
which has been such a challenge and such an opportunity for us. We give thanks
today, too, for those beyond the circumference of our gathering, in the
hinterlands of humanity who have harkened unto our voices and found value
therein. Be ye advised we are parts of the orchestration of the musical scores
of the spirit which lift us into the harmony of universal sovereignty, which is
the song of angels and the rites of passage through the maze of imperfection
into the glory of perfection. </P>
<P>Have you been diligent in my class assignment of last week? Did any of you
give gifts and/or did any of you ponder the lesson of giving, actually making
that conscious effort to bridge the gap of conflict and apply the oversoul of
creation to your petty differences that stand between you and the oneness of
universal harmony?</P>
<P>ELENA: I do not think I was very diligent but I did put out a couple of
attempts. There were a couple of people on the airplane who were … I don’t know
… just bugging me! There was a woman who pushed her way into the line and she
just … the back of her neck annoyed me. This is really petty on my part, but …
so I just decided, "okay, maybe there was some reason why she needed to…" so I
was just going to try to overlook my annoyance at her. And there was a guy who
had a sound with his teeth after he was eating that just drove me bananas, and I
was really trying to get beyond that and trying to say, "okay, well, you know,
this is really not a monumental thing" so I can’t say I was diligent, but … I
mean, there were a couple of examples where I tried to get beyond annoyance.</P>
<P>TOMAS: Alright. I consider that you have been practicing the admonition to
turn the other cheek. Yes. Anyone else? </P>
<P>MYRA: I did nothing. But I didn’t get angry at something that I heard that
was about a student of mine who really needs a hearing aid and the parent does
not think it is necessary, and they said it would be fine if I didn’t speak with
my hand in front of my mouth and it was very nice. My response was that I did
understand her view as a parent and that was a hard thing to do. I was just
relaying information that I saw as a teacher, and I would have to record what my
feelings were as a teacher and I would certainly record her feeling as a parent.
So I just thought that I validated her feelings.</P>
<P>TOMAS: You are becoming a mediator. Already you are negotiating solutions.
Anyone else?</P>
<P>ESMARELDA: I was trying to think of something this week. I thought about it
several times. I did give it thought. But I really didn’t have any conflicts
this week. I can’t … I just didn’t. But I did consider myself very fortunate
that I had none, but I certainly did give your assignment thought.</P>
<P>TOMAS: Good girl. Gerdean, what did you do, if anything?</P>
<P>GERDEAN: I had in mind all along to give some peach blossoms to this woman at
work who, I think, has it in for me. And I’m therefore rather paranoid around
her. I even picked the blossoms and put them in a vase, but when I walked past
her office … I couldn’t figure out how to get the flowers onto her desk. I
wasn’t able to take that literal walk. However, since I had prayed about it, and
had gone that far with it, I had the good fortune of encountering her in the
ladies room one day and I was able to smile at her openly and without any
residue of our conflict, so I feel your lesson was effective, Tomas, even though
I was unable to act on it 100%. I did act on 100% the spirit of the lesson, if
that counts.</P>
<P>ESMARELDA: I find it interesting, Tomas, my two daughters this week. Dorenda
said that … and they were both paranoid this week … and Dorenda said that two
people irritated her and she coped with it, which she copes very well with most
everything. And then my other daughter, my younger daughter, Deborah (Miriam),
also related to me that on the airplane while she was traveling here, that
irritated her! She was sitting by a man who …</P>
<P>MIRIAM: Oh, now she’s telling my stories! And now everyone knows it’s Deborah
and Miriam. Everyone out there will know who this is. Okay. Go for it, Mother.
</P>
<P></P>
<P>ESMARELDA: But I just thought it was … the reason I mention it is because
they both had the same type of experience. I think Deborah’s was a little longer
lasting than Dorenda’s because Dorenda’s was in the line, but Deborah’s was for
the whole trip. But they both coped with them well, and did the spiritually
correct thing, I think, and, as usual, I’m always very proud of both of them.
</P>
<P>DEBORAH: Well, thank you, Mother.</P>
<P>DORINDA: Then after the tape is over, we’ll hear the full story.
[Laughter]</P>
<P>DEBORAH: Well, actually, okay…. Matthew, did you …Would you care to go?
Because you actually got the official assignment.</P>
<P>MATTHEW: Yeah, I was like dread hearing a teacher say it’s like time to hand
in your homework. [Group laughter] I was hoping they would notice I wasn’t here,
or something. </P>
<P>When Deborah and I were talking, I think yesterday on the phone, about the
whole political thing, I said that I … this doesn’t really relate. It’s like the
antithesis -- but it was at least intended to be a good thing, and not even
gift-giving -- but a friend of mine is a political conservative and just likes
to wear that like a "Kiss me, I’m Irish" kind of sign, and it just invites
conflict. So, he wants to get into it with the political situation and I tried
to avoid it like the plague and every time I just give him some kind of an
answer of my feeling and let it go at that, he comes back with, "Oh, you. Come
on, come on. Tell me what you really think!" and in the process of his sharing
his thoughts with me, he said that because I am apparently a leftist, that I’m
also a socialist, and that I want the government to take care of me. </P>
<P>So I thought, okay, them’s fightin’ words. I’m off the fence. And I wrote
back to him and I said, "I really don’t take … I’m not insulted easily, but this
is insulting." So I went on just to levy it back so hopefully he could get the
point that "How dare you!?" So I said, "Since you’re a conservative, apparently
you’re also in favor of concentration camps and genocide. Is that true?" And I
said, "Erase all of that, but really the point is that my political philosophy
is that if we believe light and life is going to be here eventually, if we don’t
practice it now, how are we going to recognize it when it pops up? So
that’s what I’m about, and let’s not beat each other over the head with our
philosophies any more because it isn’t fun! Peace be with you, and
tootles." I haven’t heard back from him, so … I feel like I slammed him in one
way, but wanted to convey truth in the other. In other words, "open your eyes to
what the message is and get off of this ideological bandwagon." So, no, I didn’t
practice what the point was but I finally at least got off the fence and tried
to not be concerned any longer for ruffling his feathers, and I’ll just let it
go at that.</P>
<P>TOMAS: I will comment, and then we will hear Miriam’s story. </P>
<P>MIRIAM: Oh!</P>
<P>TOMAS: Your preamble included the remark that he was your friend. If this is
true, he will remain your friend. He will perhaps smart at your directed
remarks, but he will think about your remarks, as well. Whether or not they have
an impact on him is his concern and not yours, for you have expressed your
philosophy as he has expressed his philosophy and that is that. </P>
<P>The whole point behind having the knowledge of negotiating skills is to help
you rise above those philosophies which appear to be diametrically opposed and
find a meeting ground. It is not intended for mediocrity to set in and all your
views become the same. But to instill an appreciation for differences. </P>
<P>You are engaging in this exchange long distance and through electronic
communications. If you were face to face, your entanglement may be carried out
differently, but as to that, it is possible we will never know. Even so, you
have a background of friendship and enough in common that I feel you will both
be able to set aside your political ideologies I favor of a social sweetness
that will allow for fraternity to override the differences. </P>
<P>If peace cannot be sought, at least war can be eliminated. If conversations
are still on-going, negotiations are still possible. If the door is left open,
growth is possible. If it comes to you in prayer time to act as a peacemaker in
that relationship context, it would be in keeping with the spirit of our work if
you were to make moves toward resuming discourse rather than allowing the chasm
to remain and widen between you. </P>
<P>But what went on in the airplane? </P>
<P>MIRIAM: Tomas, by reading your lessons I can tell you never miss a beat.
Well, actually, the thing in the airplane seemed minimal to me. I mean, I
conversed about it, but there was a fellow sitting next to me who was really in
a strong place of who he was and what he wanted and how he wanted it, and he was
young, and he was just very set in doing what he was, and as he shared that, he
shared it in a way that just kind of assumed everyone was like that. </P>
<P>And so, he would talk and I would listen and I would listen and I would …
like, for example, he would say, "I hate camping. Why would you want to camp
when you got a Ritz Carlton available?" and I said, "Well, I know the creature
comforts of those places are really nice, but Wow! You can really see the stars
great at night when you’re camping out in the wild." It was an exchange like
that, basically, where what he said would just challenge who I was, but I kept
trying to give him space to be who and what he thought was important, and it
just kept going. So that was what the basic deal was about. Which actually
wasn’t an issue to me, it was just another opportunity, another happenstance to
realize that I’m not the same as everybody and they’re not the same as me, and I
need to give them space to be who they are and then also to just love them, and
… so we didn’t get into any negative words, at all. I just kept giving him space
and thinking, "Okay! Have fun growing up." </P>
<P>TOMAS: He was young, yes, and … what do you say? "Feeling his oats." And you
were a good spar for him.</P>
<P>GERDEAN: Spar?</P>
<P>DEBORAH: Yeah, and that’s really kind of what it was, too. He’d do it and
then I’d respond and yeah, that’s great. Right on, Tomas. Actually, I was
thinking that your lesson this week coincided with Abraham's very well, because
you were saying pray for the one who gives you the most resentment, is basically
what I got out of what your challenge was, and Abraham has been talking about
how we can live better with our Thought Adjusters, and kind of clear the path
that way, and it seems to coincide. And I love the way that Most High guy said
that we were "soldiers of the circles" because, you know, it’s the internal
battle with us in our mind, and then we get to play with our fellows and have
the conflict of their deal with ours and how to remedy all that. How to balance
it. How to-- </P>
<P>So my example this week was my sister in law, who I didn’t give something
special to. I didn’t write something to her and I didn’t give her a gift, but I
gave her the gift of my time in service, because she’s handicapped, and I tried
to do it in a more loving way this week and I tried to just put some blinders on
and not go into the neighborhood where I usually go. And the other example was
with a family member, who has a very different viewpoint than I do, and I tried
to practice some humor and some love with that meeting so we could both exist
where we were. And it wasn’t that easy to do those things but I’m thinking "I
can get the hang of this" and I think it’ll be there. </P>
<P>TOMAS: I am not worried about any of you. I am not fearful that you will
backfire and reflect poorly on the Spirit. You are all beautiful. Even your
individual aberrations are a mere flourish of color on an otherwise solid field.
I have great faith in you as Jesus has great faith in you and have every
confidence that having the spiritual experience you have, each of you, when you
find yourself in a situation -- speaking out or dealing firmly with a situation,
standing up for what you believe in, in the face of attempts to undermine your
reality – you will be reflecting a value. </P>
<P>If it is not heard as a value, let it go. You have a right to be and others
have a right to be here. If, in your learning to negotiate, you fail to
recognize the personal sovereignty of each individual, it is your lesson to
learn that I know you will perceive, recognize and go forth with. Therefore, do
not worry so much about how you have not met certain standards, because who is
to say how those standards came to be in the first place? Rather, be yourself,
and learn from yourself through your efforts, through your mistakes, and through
your strengths. </P>
<P>What a marvelous gift you have been given by being given the gift of life, of
recognizing the miracle of free will, and the rights of others to have a chance
to make their own mistakes and grow their own religious experience as well. Be
at peace with everything. </P>
<P>DEBORAH: Can I ask a question or are you getting ready to go?</P>
<P>TOMAS: Your timing is impeccable. [Group giggles]</P>
<P>DEBORAH: I loved the reference to Ancient of Days! I just loved that! You
know, when I was a little kid I used to be afraid of the whole religious gig,
and as I get to know more and more about it, of course, like the more I get to
know Michael, it’s like a loving thing? And when I read in the book about the
Ancients of Days, it’s like dun-dada-dun! The Ancients of Days! And I loved the
reference! It seemed like they were like this loving entity and I know they are
way up there and really cool, but I really loved the way Andromadeus referenced
them, in that, they look at us in context of where we are and who we – you know
what it said, that perspective of how they look at us? That just gave me a lot
of peace and a lot of really happy intrigue about the Ancients of Days. If you
have anything you can share about them or whatever you want to do. That was
really cool.</P>
<P>TOMAS: This thread we have enjoyed today from the Most High and Prince
Machaventa has reflected the reality of the Ancients of Days in discussing
Justice and this is the quality we invite you to adopt and allow in yourselves:
the greater perspective of love, which judges kindly as compared to the tendency
to convict your fellows that the lesser value of judgment can hold. Inasmuch as
it is beyond any of us to judge according to the value of any individual. It is
only the higher consciousness of the Ancients of Days that are given that
dubious honor. It is indeed a release from the obligations of judgment that we
honor their role in our Greater Universe. In this context, is judgment
understood and enjoyed. </P>
<P>It will mean more to you perhaps when you read the transcript or when you
review the definition of Ancients of Days in your text. But it will become
meaningful when you appreciate in your heart of hearts how loved you are that
your existence is protected by the divine and not belittled by the short-sighted
perspective of the finite. Open your minds, open your hearts, open your souls to
the radiance of divine love, the love that rains upon us, that washes the dust
from our feet as we wearily weave our way. What else have you this afternoon
before we close?</P>
<P>MATTHEW: Just thank you for the cavalcade of celestials today. That was
great. </P>
<P>(GROUP): Yes! Oh, yeah! Thank you, one and all. I’m very grateful to all of
you. </P>
<P>DORENDA: I’m really grateful for some of the pointers on how to deal with the
situations that we find. I really find that to be helpful and examples of how we
would put it to use. That it doesn’t have to be on a national basis, but in our
own neighborhood, and that’s what we’re trying to learn how to do, so I really
appreciate that, too. </P>
<P>TOMAS: You are a joy, all of you. The Teacher Corps and its administration is
full to bursting with awareness of your integrity, as we are also in
appreciation for those other bases of operation which anchor you who hear us,
and who seek to do the will of the Universal Father as has been exemplified in
the life of the Master. Carry on in your realm, in your scope, in your range of
operation in which you are perfect, even as He in His realm is perfect, and we
will see you next week. Amen and farewell.</P>
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