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<p>08/24/2003</p>
<p>Ham: Greetings, my children, I am Ham and I welcome each of you here this
evening. This evening, we shall discuss the slow and steady process of understanding
yourselves more completely. No human being is born or presently lives in
perfection. All individuals carry many different obstacles to growth. Most
of these obstacles are borne unaware. It takes time for human beings to be
unafraid of themselves in order to examine their imperfections. But this
very process is the engine of spiritual growth. Without imperfection to
overcome, human beings would not have the foothold to propel themselves
forward in growth. </p>
<p>Each human being has personal weakness which manifests perhaps in vanity
or pride, envy, things which have traditionally know as venial sins. These
are the handholds and footholds of growth. They are the rungs of the ladder
you climb. As you step closer toward God, you must step over these personal
weaknesses recognizing and overcoming them in some sense. </p>
<p>Life is designed in order that seeming obstacles can become footholds
once they are recognized and acknowledged. Each person must, over the course
of a lifetime, recognize these little weaknesses within themselves and once
recognized, once accepted, they are transformed into the propellant for
growth. </p>
<p>The Master always encouraged living life fully in full social contact,
full engagement with the arena of life for this is the only way imperfection
can be seen. His later followers who cloister themselves and isolate from
the world actually have great difficulty with growth and can live an entire
life like a struggling seedling in need of nourishment and light, barely
growing at all. And so their usefulness in the world is very limited. Outer
piety cannot take the place of the rough and tumble existence life affords.
</p>
<p>Many times people who live a sheltered existence become completely dominated
by weakness. Those who are shown their weaknesses through failure and defeat
learn to take hold and keep going, they learn to change and grow. In the
unforgiving arena of commercial life, any weakness can easily create failure,
and I am speaking of things like pride, vanity, things that can project
self-satisfaction but hide a lack of self-awareness. </p>
<p>For each human being, there is not one Achilles heal, one overwhelming
tendency that bespeaks immaturity. No, for most human beings a combination
of things working in tandem creates those obstacles and also opportunities.
It is therefore incumbent upon the faithful to feel overwhelming gratitude
for these human failings. Without them, you would have nothing to overcome,
nothing to get a foot hold on. </p>
<p>It is exactly the little failings which can lead to great spiritual success.
Also I don’t want you to magnify your supposed failings in your own minds.
These are small things. These are part of your path and the way in which
you overcome these things can lead to great moral victories and set you
upon greater paths than you have known before. </p>
<p>Be unafraid of who you are right now, this moment. Be unafraid to admit
your failings honestly and openly for this is all part of the way and a
very important part of the way. Be grateful for your imperfections, but
be ever more grateful for the Father’s plan of perfecting. </p>
<p>Would you say that you are still engaged in this process of uncovering
your own perfections.</p>
<p>Yes, all ascending sons are likewise engaged. I would say that over time
these things grow more subtle and more insidious. As you know they are even
found among such highly created beings as Lucifer was. </p>
<p>But they weren’t ascendent beings. </p>
<p>Ham: Yes, that’s my point. </p>
<p>Q: It is hard to understand how we act like we are more when we feel we
are less. It seems like a high created being like that, pride is always
a lie. </p>
<p>Ham: The sons of that order you must remember are created to function
in the realm of the ascending sons. Therefore, they are not created in perfection
as on the higher worlds, created directly from the Father of from the eternal
son.</p>
<p>Q: The point I have always puzzled me, I understand how people, pride
in people, overcompensation for low self esteem, but those other, do you
see what I am saying.</p>
<p>Ham: Well, yes, but pride has dimensions you have not explored. </p>
<p>Q: It is kind of pretending.</p>
<p>Ham: Yes, it is a kind of delusion. All human beings have their delusions,
it is safe to say that none are without them. When personality and mind
interact, there is then a personal aspect of mind that is individual and
within this realm are many different delusions which are personal colorations
of perception. Character is the willingness to let go of delusion. Human
beings are under a delusion in general that the morontia and spiritual realms
are peopled with perfect beings. But this is untrue. Perfect beings are
found in Havona and scattered throughout the universes one finds them. They
are perfect, but they are also incomplete. They are limited in their experience.
Only the Father can be said to be complete, absolute, as well as perfect.
His creation must be fragmentary in some way. Even your indwelling adjusters
are sub-absolute. Though they partake of the Father’s absolute nature, they
themselves are a fragment of him. Their experience gives them greater and
greater completion over time. And this is the Father’s plan, this is creation.
This is existence. And this is the Father’s great love for his creation,
that he would personally indwell the lowliest will creatures and partake
of their experience in time and space. No, the universe is not perfect immediately
upon leaving this world. You will find imperfection all the way to paradise.
But remember, the universes are perfecting and the Father’s command is "Be
you perfect, even as I am perfect". </p>
<p>Q: Is it ever our business to discuss with someone else their shortcomings
as we perceive them and if it is, how do we go about that, how do we do
it if it is ever our business?</p>
<p>Ham: Yes, of course, it is fine to discuss spiritual struggles. Remember
the Master could teach through questions as well as providing answers. Human
beings are engaged and open when asked a question but often are closed when
receiving an answer. </p>
<p>Q: The awful ordeal of listening.</p>
<p>Ham: Yes. It is wise, as much as possible, to follow the Master’s model
and to help others through the asking of questions before you dive in to
here’s what I think your problem is mode which always causes the other person
to throw up barriers and not to listen. Take your time, don’t be in a hurry
to change someone over night, and you will grow ever more skillful in planting
seeds of thought. Coming at someone with too much harsh truth can also be
a manifestation of vanity, I know and you don’t kind of thinking, and usually
it falls on deaf ears. But, guiding someone into self-realization can be
a very rewarding experience, one where both of you will learn a lot. </p>
<p>Q: Do you have any counsel for me this evening?</p>
<p>Ham: Certainly, my son. You are doing very well. Be at peace with yourself.
Give each day and each job before you your honest full effort. Be careful
not to bite off more than you can chew, in other words be increasingly honest
in your self-assessment. Pray for those around you who need spiritual comfort
and pray that they find spiritual comfort rather than material comfort which
masks and postpones the need and the search for spiritual comfort. Remember
that the human beings who search in the material world for something that
can only be found in the spirit must eventually come to and end of that
search, a crisis point. This is an immutable law of the universe, it cannot
be changed. Remember that their own indwelling spirit is seeking that crisis
point, that time of turning when the person will turn to the spirit rather
than the world. Cooperate then with their adjuster and their angels rather
than being sucked into their material search which will only lead to increasing
pain before the crisis. </p>
<p>Q: May I ask for a message for Jim please?</p>
<p>Ham: Certainly. Be at ease my son, you are well. Remember that you can
serve only one master for some times the things of the world, the material
world, can be a seductive lure. Every time you have a conflict, remember
the simple words the Master repeatedly spoke, "It is my will that your will
be done". This is a psychological method of freeing yourself from ego involvement
and of allowing yourself to be lead and releasing the burden which you keep
picking back up, the burden of figuring things out, being in charge of your
life. It’s OK sometimes not to be "in charge" of your life. It’s OK to drift
with the Master’s leading. Be at ease my son, that is all.</p>
<p>Q: Do you have anything for Rebecca?</p>
<p>Ham: Yes, my daughter. Your way right now is turning, changing and you
are also feeling that drift, that not being in charge which is a help for
you right now in your desire to let go of control. You are finding a way
to move forward and a new and unique way to use your wisdom and skills.
Place your hand firmly in the Masters and he will show you all that you
need and give you guidance at each step. You are growing with the inner
strength you will need rather than the outer strength you have heretofore
relied upon. Abandon one for the other and your way is clear. </p>
<p>Q: Jarad?</p>
<p>Ham: Yes my son, you too are going through some inner change relying less
and less on the old props and finding greater and greater inner truth. This
truth will blossom and your inner strength of character continue to solidify
around it. Your way is also clear as your reliance on the Master’s hand
grows more complete. Trust in that relationship and allow him to provide
those things necessary for the journey. Be at peace, you do well. </p>
<p>Q: Do you have a message for Joan?</p>
<p>Ham: Yes, of course. My daughter, you do very well. You are continuing
to grow and to find your way in the spirit. Remember that the Master’s spirit
is always with you. He is an ever present friend and a willing helper in
your life. Be at ease, you will find the way is easier than you think. </p>
<p>Q: Do you have a message for Norbert?</p>
<p>Ham: Certainly. My son, you do well. Have patience with yourself. Do not
try to move too far too fast. Do not be distressed as you go through the
inevitable difficulties of life for you will have everything you need at
every step of your journey. Have courage and confidence for all is well.</p>
<p>Q: Do you have a message for Charlie B?</p>
<p>Ham: Certainly. My son, take heed of this lesson. Do not be hard on yourself
or rather let go of your need for self-punishment and criticism. You are
a person with a complex mixture of these little sins we talked about. Like
all people, you will not be able to sort everything out at once. Be careful
to be a student as well as the teacher. Become the child as well as the
father. </p>
<p>Q: Do you have any feedback for me this week?</p>
<p>Ham: Yes, my son. Also take heed of this lesson. There are parts of your
personal nature which are quite fragile and have been protected for a long
time but which can use and honest airing and open examination. In many ways
you are stronger than you think you are weaker than you think you are in
other ways, just like all people. See how the strengths can be weaknesses
and weaknesses strengths. Be unafraid of yourself. Be unafraid to be a human
being with human failings and human problems. Being a teacher has forced
you to project a persona of confidence and assurance. Examine this, how
it is a help and a hindrance, in your spiritual life. You do very well.</p>
<p>Is there anything further at this time? Very well then, until next week
my love and my prayers are with you each. Farewell. </p>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="$mailwrapcol">--
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David G. Schlundt, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Psychology
Department of Psychology
Vanderbilt University
301 Wilson Hall
Nashville, TN 37203
Phone: (615)322-7800
Fax: (615) 343-8449
Email: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:David.Schlundt@Vanderbilt.edu">David.Schlundt@Vanderbilt.edu</a>
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Beauty is that which attracts the soul,
and that which loves to give and not
to receive
Kahlil Gibran
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</pre>
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