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<DIV><B>
<P>DATE: </B>January 6, 1996<BR><B>LOCATION:</B> Pittsburgh, PA
USA<BR><B>T/R:</B> Gerdean</P><B>
<P>TEACHER: TOMAS<BR>TOPIC:</B> <B>Religion in Human Experience</P></B><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Good afternoon, my faithful friends. </P><B>
<P>Group: </B>Good afternoon, Tomas.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Indeed I am Tomas, your teacher, and I am pleased that we have had
this festive afternoon in which to socialize and to share insights into our own
spiritual experience as has been set forth in the text.* </P>
<P>Prior to this moment of coming "on-line" as we say, and joining you in this
more formal format of communication, I have been engaged in conversation with my
peers in the spirit realm, and among the many visitors today, Michael himself
came by to remind me to remind you that although the qualities ascribed to him
in the section you read are worthy of note, it is not for you to try to relive
Michael's life but to learn to live your own (life) with your own personality
aspects and characteristics.</P>
<P>And so I come to you today, my friends, in keeping with the evolution of our
group thus far, and say that the reading is on point with where we are in our
development, for last week we began to focus that we would begin work on the one
personality which is your soul, that your soul may then interact with other
souls in social aggregate towards light and life. And how appropriate that these
qualities which we reviewed in the reading today are precisely those qualities
that God-conscious men and women aspire to have in their own unified
personality! </P>
<P>It has been said, and you will recall the adage, "Let there be peace on earth
and let it begin with me." This peace of which I speak is not the peace of
passivity or passive acquiescence to what transpires in your world, no, but more
to that peace which passes all understanding. This is our undertaking, then,
that we begin to develop those qualities of mind, body and soul which will allow
for the human being to find this life a gratifying and joyous experience and,
also, all the while, augmenting and contributing to the spiritual satisfaction
and well-being of all. </P>
<P>Behold the man. Behold the woman. Behold the mortal child of God and man at
once -- the being that you are, of dual nature, born of the flesh and destined
to become spirit, in time. Behold yourself, now, and reflect on Correction. How
can we correct Urantia if we consistently thrust our efforts onto the man or
woman next to us? The work of kingdom building is "an inside job." </P>
<P>In the prayer that the Master taught, He says, "Thy will be done on earth as
it is in heaven" and this is our work also, that the Kingdom of Heaven, which is
within you, shall begin to manifest itself in your environment. And what is your
environment? In its most initial state, your environment is yourself, your soul,
your fertile soil, which remains open to growth and development. </P>
<P>In pondering a moment on the immediate environment of your soul, …One moment.
</P>
<P>(I apologize. I have given my T/R a start, for I myself thought of something
I wanted to include, and in my thinking process this T/R picked up on my thought
change and was astounded that I could forget something in my lesson plan; she
rendered me speechless. Let me try to regain "control" of this situation.)</P>
<P>We were discussing the arena of your soul [which is] your most immediate
environment! And I thought that perhaps before I proceed, what we shall do
regarding your soul, was to review what I mean when I speak of soul. Your soul
is that which is developed in the marriage of your Thought Adjuster, which
indwells you, and your mind, which is your free will agent. As your mind,
through your free will, chooses to coordinate with the desire of your Indwelling
Spirit, your soul begins to grow.</P>
<P>Of course, you know that your growth - this growth - will be unconscious, but
the fact of the matter is that it will grow through your decisions and,
therefore, I am discussing the growth of that which is becoming real, is
becoming permanent, is becoming immortal -- the <B><I>you</B> </I>that will be
eternal. And yet … it also is here now. And so with that brief definition, I
will proceed into discussing the soul environment and on beyond into tits realm
of influence.</P>
<P>Your immediate environment is your soul. It is where you live. It is your
reality. (It is) not that which is external/material, but the exterior and
material is your next immediate level of operation. It is your home environment
- your physical home - and in that it includes your relationships with your
family members, your spouse, your children, your roommates, your loved ones. It
extends into your work environment, your fellows, people with whom you spend
time on a regular basis and, in the long run, it -- (I am speaking of your
environment) -- it extends into the more general milieu of the streets, shopping
centers and the like.</P>
<P>And so, when we say, "Behold the human being," we are speaking of the
potential spirit housed in the material body functioning in a well-unified
personality in this existence. It is important for me to stress this because
this is how life and light will become reality on Urantia -- "on earth as it is
in heaven."</P>
<P>It is meaningless for you to consider only a transcendent spirit reality to
the exclusion of your mortal existence, for your mortal existence is your arena.
It is the arena in which you work and play and have your being. The well-unified
personality is at home in this world, is productive and happy, and even though
regulated by some mores and rules of the game, can be a diligent disciple of
spirit truths by being himself or herself and being also at complete peace
within the deep, deep core of his or her being. </P>
<P>And so when it is said, "What does it matter if all things early crumble?"
from this bastion of the spirit, from this reality of the soul, the foundation
is laid that your external environment is indeed but scaffolding toward higher
realities. But as a worker in the field, it behooves you to apply yourself to
the arena as you find it. Opportunities will be unveiled and revealed to you as
you learn to walk in grace and in anticipation of opportunities to rejoice and
to be of service in this arena. </P>
<P>The arena of Urantia-at-large has suffered greatly, and its inhabitants have
been dealt many fatal blows. There is much Correction to be done before we can
expect our kingdom to be manifest in-the-large, but we can glimpse those
instances of paradise pattern which will urge us forward in our growth, and you
will begin to comprehend your own sphere of light and life as you begin to know
it in yourself; and this, too, will require on-going correction of your own
perceptions and beliefs and impressions, for what you have been given is a fruit
which has spoiled. The bitter fruit of rebellion, default and the carnage of war
and other side effects of primitive evolution have to be recognized and dealt
with and set aside in order that the sweet fruits of the spirit can prevail.
</P>
<P>The sweetness of the "fruits of the spirit" is only beginning to fill the
hearts and souls of the hungry. And so I ask you all today to consider that even
though each of you are fortunate in many ways, that you have health, wealth,
prosperity, understanding and exposures to great theologies and philosophies,
that as a budding morontial soul, you are and have been impoverished. In this,
then, I ask you to consider what is spiritual poverty, and consider yourself
spiritually impoverished in order that you might then see how far you need to
grow from here. </P>
<P>I have just asked you, yes, to become a tadpole, and this is a most humbling
experience. Be assured I do not ask you to consider your spiritual poverty in
order to belittle your knowledge or your self-respect or your standing in the
cosmic scheme of things, no, but in considering your spiritual poverty you can
feel that emptiness which will ask to be filled with spiritual light. And now
you are giving yourself permission to grow.</P>
<P>For it is a part of the human condition, part of your heritage here, to
attain a level of understanding and become self-satisfied, to become adequate to
the purpose. And in order that we might accomplish our over-all purpose --
Michael's purpose for you and for Urantia and for his local universe -- you must
place yourself in a position of being willing to be remade, reborn,
re-motivated, revamped, rekindled, renewed at every juncture.</P>
<P>This "blessed are the poor in spirit" beatitude is the beginning of greatness
for you -- for the man, the woman, that is becoming.</P>
<P>It has been a powerful day in your environment, in your souls, in this room,
in this Teacher Base, and there has been ample food placed upon your plate to
feed you for weeks, and so I will not pursue further a lesson for today but will
rather leave off, that we might have time and inclination now for our delightful
communication one on another. May I hear from you? </P><B>
<P>Mrs. M:</B> Tomas, I was listening to one of my fundamentalist radio programs
again and these people, some of them, are so beautifully devoted to Jesus, and
this one delightful person named Carl said, "I'm going to give you a list of
ways to increase your faith," and today in reading about these marvelous reborn
times that people experience, it seemed to say there was a total enlargement of
faith, and it fitted in with my question that I intended to ask you and that
was, can you describe ways in which we might increase our faith? </P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> I will begin by suggesting that as you <I>pray for greater
faith</I>, your faith will be greatened. In greater faith your capacities are
enlarged and your joys are extended. </P>
<P>In those times when your faith is weak, consider your growth at the time.
Perhaps you are in a state of confusion because of the unconscious growth which
is taking place and you may construe this to be a lack of faith or a loss of
faith when this is not the case. Therefore, again, pray for faith and increased
faith, for faith shall set you free and shall bring you into confidence.</P><B>
<P>Mrs. M:</B> Thank you very much.</P><B>
<P>Mrs. H: </B>I was with a very simple person the other day, whom I respect and
admire and I often say that I wish I could be like her more, and I thought that
maybe you might have been there, because being with her is a very deep spiritual
time, and I just thought that maybe you might remark on this beautiful person
for the spiritual delight of my dear friends here.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> With respect to your request, I will not, for it is to no purpose.
It is exclusive of all wondrous and delightful children of God who also give of
themselves in the lives of all, and we only need to be grateful that our peers
exist to lend fragrance to our existence. </P><B>
<P>Mrs. H:</B> Thank you. [Long silence]</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> You tell me. Have we attained a saturation point? </P><B>
<P>Group: </B>I believe so.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Indeed, like a thanksgiving dinner, it is time to savor the
experience and pat our tummy and pick our teeth in satisfaction that the
abundance of the spiritual feast of plenty and of challenge have come upon us
once again.</P>
<P>It is, again, with great pleasure that I meet with you and encourage your
continued aspiration and I look forward to being with you again soon in our
formal format. And in the interim, I will pass by and check on you and speak
with you if you call me in your private time. Otherwise, my friends, my
children, as they say in your vernacular, "Have a good day." Farewell.</P>
<P> </P>
<P>* Textual reference: Urantia Paper 100, "Religion in Human
Experience"</P></DIV></BODY></HTML>