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<DIV><B>
<P>DATE:</B> January 13, 1996<BR><B>LOCATION:</B> Pittsburgh, PA,
USA<BR><B>T/R:</B> Gerdean</P><B>
<P>TEACHER: TOMAS<BR>TOPIC: ACCEPTANCE </P>
<P>Q&A: What is Metaphysics?<BR>How to Attain Stillness</P></B>
<P></P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Good afternoon, my friends, faithful followers of truth and light.
I am Tomas, your teacher. I greet you today on behalf of the celestial hosts who
hover in anticipation of your continued growth and understanding of spiritual
concepts and, indeed, religious experience in your lives and in the lives of
those whom you touch and with whom you associate.</P>
<P>Many things come to mind in this moment of greeting and I will follow through
with one initial thought which might help to focus the minds of all present,
that being the concept I like to discuss about the symphony, and surely your
group here s a sterling example of the symphony, which is in the process of
warming up prior to its production. And as you well know, the individual
instruments, in fine-tuning themselves, create a raucous and inharmonious noise
in preparation for the disciplined strains of music that will eventuate in their
working together.</P>
<P>How we enjoy and appreciate you, the instruments, who have shown up and who
take your musical devices in hand in full awareness of your contribution to the
orchestra. In considering yourselves each as part of the orchestra, I call to
your attention the full range of instruments, from the delicate and lively
piccolo to the clashing cymbals to the blaring trumpets to the slide trombone to
the drums and the scores of strings which resonate their tones throughout. </P>
<P>Each of you, dear students, is its own instrument. Each of you has your own
particular sound; each of you is valuable in the overall performance.</P>
<P>Today I would like to spend some time discussing acceptance, for in your
upcoming symphony, the piccolo must accept that it is a piccolo -- not a
trumpet, not a drum. And, by the same token, the cymbal knows that its
contribution is pinnacle, but too much cymbal would drown out the rest of the
show.</P>
<P>And so each personality brings with it its own unique facets and each
instrument is, indeed, important to the production, but only as they are played
in league and in alignment with the Master Conductor is the music telling, does
it rise and fall with purpose, and affect the hearers with soul-satisfaction.
</P>
<P>The personality of the mortal individual in search of serenity and purpose
must first accept itself with its many aspects and relative drawbacks. You,
individually, must take a look at yourself and accept yourself as you are. In
pretending to be other than what you are, you are not giving full tone to your
own instrument. In denying your delicacy or your strength, you are, again,
trying to be an instrument that you are not. </P>
<P>The phrase "to thine own self be true" has some bearing here but is limited,
for it is not that you are being true only to yourself but you are essentially
aspiring to be true to that which, within you, peals the harmony and truth of
the Divine Coordinator of your life and the music thereof.</P>
<P>Also, and here also is a challenge, it is necessary for each of you to accept
the other instruments in the orchestra. Because you are a cello and have great
breadth and resonance is no reason to look with disdain upon the xylophone. The
xylophone has a tinkling sound which might appear hollow and shallow to the
resonant depths of the cello, but the xylophone has its own purpose indeed.</P>
<P>I would speak also of acceptance in terms of your life experience. In
accepting your life as it is, this moment, today, you are able then to approach
your challenges, your problems and your refreshments of life with equanimity.
You are able to put in perspective the situation as it is and not be burdened by
how you wish it were or how it ought to be. Acceptance of yourself and your
circumstances gives you the perspective, then, to ask in prayer and meditation
how things might go from here toward improvement, toward a more perfect
resolution or configuration.</P>
<P>As you begin to accept your circumstances you will begin to understand that
other people, other instruments, also need to accept where they are and that
they, too, have the potential and constraints which you have. In this way you
can begin to appreciate and understand that instrument across the room which
sounds so different from you.</P>
<P>In the hands, under the guidance of the Master Conductor, this symphony of
life becomes a harmonious outpouring of all these differences. And this is
possible because you have learned to accept one another. It is not necessary
that you all be the same, for you have all been created with your own unique
endowments. Perhaps another word for acceptance in this context is respect.</P>
<P>If you respect your own work, your own identification, your own sense of
timing in response to the Master Conductor, then you will see that the
instruments on the other side of the hall also are responding to the Conductor
as they have learned how. Respect is born of respect for your indwelling
reality. As you would be treated, so too should you treat one another. The
lesson on respect is, however, another lesson, which I will take up at some
other point. Today I am discussing acceptance.</P>
<P>Another facet of acceptance is the condition of your world, and many
individuals become distraught and discouraged by refusing to accept the
condition on Urantia as they find it. They argue incessantly with the
government, with the mores, with foreign shores, with cultural differences, and
find much of life totally unacceptable. This does not foster understanding and
solution.</P>
<P>Those things, which you cannot control, you must accept. Uh-oh. Did I say
that? (Group chuckle) For now we are wrestling with that rascal "control" and
that truly is another subject, but for the sake of acceptance, let us take
control back to the symphony. And would the piccolo indeed try to control the
drum? And would the trumpet try to control the harp? Rather, the entire control
is under the guidance and jurisdiction of the Master Conductor.</P>
<P>Otherwise, how could we make music? And so, "control" as I used it is in that
capacity, for you cannot cure the hunger problem of the world, you cannot heal
the rift between the Arabs and the Jews or the Scots and the Irish, but you can
help to heal your own sense of well-being and self-respect by learning what is
your instrument and learning how to play it perfectly.</P>
<P>I also would like to offer you praise today for the courage and stamina to
present yourself in this way for this influence. It is not just my pleasure to
welcome you here to this format, although it is certainly a privilege for me,
Tomas, to be here. I could not be here were it not for you and I respect your
individual sounds and hope to assist our Conductor in tuning your instruments,
fine-tuning the sections, that we will make such a congealed and harmonious song
as will praise heaven and stimulate earth.</P>
<P>It is not such a big order as you might suspect, for already the instruments
are tuned up and only await the guidance of the Conductor to begin and we have
begun. We are indeed well into the preliminaries and I, myself, am beginning to
hear the melody of you together, and so I ask you to ponder acceptance.
Acceptance of yourself with your own strengths and liabilities.</P>
<P>I accept you and I gladly work with that which I find. If I did not accept
you with your pros and cons, how could we begin to establish rapport. This is
also the case as you learn to accept one another. This is how we will forge
through the differences to find that chord of solidarity among us, that which
connects us --the Spirit, and our destiny as individual spirits, and as a
community of spirits working together toward the whole.</P>
<P>I am finished with my lesson today. Accept it in your heart and ponder as you
deem it desirable. <I>I </I>am eager now to accept your words and
questions.</P><B>
<P>Mrs. Ml: </B>Tomas, may I say your lesson today was so beautifully put. It
was exquisite, -- very beautiful notes.</P><B>
<P>Mrs. M: </B>Tomas, I would like to ask a question based on our study today. I
thought you might discuss nature as we experience it in this evolutionary,
lowest of worlds, and what the problem is when we are falling into pantheism;
and I also was going to ask you to define the Book's words on metaphysics from
your point of view. (Group laughter)</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Such a raucous bunch! (More laughter) Indeed, I will confess to
you that I have compared this group to a field of wild flowers, raucous in its
growing, and this leads naturally into a response regarding nature, and I
perforce must address nature from the eyes of mortality or temporally, that you
may appreciate my response as I would not want to overlook the actual reality of
your nature as you find it here on Urantia.</P>
<P>This beauteous creation is a gift of Michael, the Creator Son. It is a gift
to you as is your physical existence here. And I would suggest that as you, the
human being, play in nature and appreciate its wonders, on the other end of the
spectrum is your Indwelling Spirit, your budding morontia soul, left to play in
the Evolving Supreme, for the wonders of your physical nature are indeed your
playground and to be appreciated for the manger that it is to you in your earth
birth.</P>
<P>The exquisite representation of creation, the veins in the leaves of the
trees, the rotting logs with their pungent colors and aromas, the chirping of
birds in the branches, the babbling of brooks, the sun filtering through the
leaves to dance on the grasses and purple violets, all are gifts to you and
representative of the beauty inherent in our Creator . . . beauty created,
indeed, for your appreciation and in its pristine, unencumbered state provides
that solemnity and tranquillity which affords the soul an abundant nest in which
to seek harmony with the Infinite Creator of all.</P>
<P>Enjoy your environs of Urantia while you are here, for never again in your
career will you be able to enjoy quite the thrill of falling into the snow or
into a pile of leaves or into a stack of hay. Never again will you smell quite
the same things as brewing coffee or baking bread. Although your Creator has
provided many arenas of wondrous beauty, beauty beyond your comprehension today,
in today accept your place as a mortal being on your material realm.</P>
<P>Respect your natal birthplace. Honor the environs of earth. It will not
accompany you to the mansion worlds. And do not discard it, either. Do not
"trash out" your sacred sphere. Thus I pay homage to your environment, your
natal planet, this planet 606, Urantia, as a world unique in and of itself in
the mighty symphony of planets in this superuniverse. All, you see, is under the
Master Conductor. All is music as it responds to the leading of divinity, be it
spiritual or morontial or physical.</P>
<P>You asked about metaphysics as it is conveyed, portrayed, described through
the text. Metaphysics in this context is that realm of energy and mystery which
has a profound effect on the psyche and soul of the evolving mortal. It is
instrumental in strumming the chords of spirit into awakening. Metaphysics is
regarded as a reflection of the light but not the light itself. It is not a
shadow; it is just not the pure light, but a reflected light. It is not darkness
by any means.</P>
<P>Metaphysics has played a vital role in enabling evolving mankind to reach
beyond the mere physical planes toward spirit reality. Metaphysics, thus, has
been a significant stepping stone in the evolutionary religious experience of
many and has been quite activated of late since the spiritual circuits are open.
And metaphysics has played a vital role, has been a viable platform and remains
valid scaffolding en route to the illumination of spirit and true
revelation.</P>
<P>Indeed, much auto-revelation is metaphysical in nature and has been supremely
contributory, and yet metaphysics is not spirituality itself. It is a forerunner
of divine truth. Have we other questions today?</P><B>
<P>Loreenia:</B> Tomas, you mentioned planet 606, earth, Urantia, and I have
done a lot of reading and study on the study of the photon belt. Could you
comment on this phenomenon, if there is such a thing, and if planets travel
through this photon belt, if that is what is happening?</P><B>
<P>TOMAS: </B>My friend, I am sorry. I cannot respond. I cannot respond
initially because this transmitter/receiver has frozen her availability
in-as-much as science is not her forte and she completely "freaked out" at the
concept of photons which is totally foreign to her. I am therefore constrained
in my response since she will not allow my words to come through, even if I were
inclined to elaborate on photons which I am not for it is a phenomenon of the,
shall we say, galactic composition and not necessarily related to your personal
spiritual growth which is my purpose in being here.</P><B>
<P>Loreenia:</B> Thank you.</P><B>
<P>Mrs. McD:</B> Is that a common problem among T/R's, that they will clamp down
on something that they perceive that they don't know? Have others talked about
that?</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> I realize that this, too, is a curiosity question but perhaps one
a little more closely related to your spiritual growth in-as-much as the
viability of the transmitter/receiver has much to do with your acceptance of
various teachers' words and teachings. Let me say that the free will of the
transmitter/receiver is and remains sacrosanct. I cannot say anything that would
violate the belief system of the transmitter/receiver for in-as-much as they
remain aware of what transpires, they are in their right to refuse to transmit
anything that they cannot accept for themselves.</P>
<P>It is the case of some transmitter/receivers that they are less aware of the
teacher's process than this one. This one opts to remain cognizant, and some are
less cognizant -- more "blind faith" if you will, more "by the seat of their
pants". There are always and forever certain colorations that will emanate from
the transmitter/receiver because we are using their language center.</P>
<P>Also be aware that many transmitter/receivers are open to words and concepts
and also visualizations and energy manifestations. It contributes to my being a
pedantic teacher but it also contributes to my being able to be somewhat
effective in that this transmitter /receiver is rather focused on what concept
<I>I </I>want to convey and is not distracted by the visualizations and energy
patterns which are also available and highly alluring.</P>
<P>Be advised as well, my students, that it is necessary for you always to
interpret through your own Spirit of Truth those words which emanate out of the
mouths of transmitter/receivers, for many times those emanations are commingled
with uprisings from the imagination, the creative play, and, indeed, the fears
and subconscious realms as well.</P>
<P>Our hope and goal is to stimulate your mind arena wherein you make those
choices to become more Godlike.</P><B>
<P>Mrs. McD:</B> Are there certain teachers' transmitters who know about more
about that information than the teachers of this group?</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> The band of transmitter/receivers are very much like that
orchestra we mentioned earlier, and they make different noises, and in the
overall, they are creating a sound of praise and awakening for humanity. I am
not the one to limit your acceptances of truth, beauty and goodness. This is for
you to determine. Any more than <I>I </I>can look at you, my students, here and
say, "This individual here has more truth, therefore more worth than this one,
and so I shall love them better and attend more conscientiously to their soul
needs." That is not my place.</P>
<P>I am responsible to you in-as-much as I have been assigned to this lovely
Teacher Base. All the teachers which you have had in the past have contributed
to strumming your spiritual chord as I hope also to do, and in due course, other
teachers -- be they through this format or myriad other possibilities -- our
intent is to continue growing, expanding, accepting, perfecting and serving
throughout eternity.</P><B>
<P>Loreenia: </B>This also interests me and I would like to be able to focus a
little bit more on those teachers sometimes as well as ... <I>I </I>would like
to know where to look in order to find this kind of information.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> What type of information is it that you would like to find?</P><B>
<P>Loreenia:</B> Photon belt and things of that nature, because <I>I </I>have
read the book and I'd like to know what's happening in the present with that
kind of thing.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> There is an assignment for you to find that mortal T/R who has
within its brain framework an understanding and appreciation of this more
scientific facet of truth seeking that can respond to this inquiry, for surely
there are those who are, in your vernacular, more right brain than left
brain.</P><B>
<P>Loreenia:</B> I thought you'd have an inside track on the knowledge of who
has that information, of all the teachers.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> There is also a teacher in Arizona who might accommodate you but
what you discover through your own investigations are your own accomplishments.
I am not inclined to be an agent for the teachers. (Group laughter) </P><B>
<P>Mrs. Ml:</B> Good for you.</P><B>
<P>Mrs. M:</B> Tomas, I wanted to ask a question about the stillness because
Gerdean was kind enough to give me a few words of description as to how she
creates a very meaningful moment of stillness for herself and I was hoping that
you might make some suggestions to us because we're all now trying to be in the
Stillness, I think more perhaps than we had been previously. Would you comment
on that, please?</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Thank you for your question. Yes. Perhaps in response to this
question I could lead you all into Stillness as I discourse. If you are amenable
I will make that attempt and "walk you through" for this truly is key in your
development of your personal spiritual experience and it is something which will
ground you as you rise.</P>
<P>Let me begin by suggesting that you first find an environment and a time of
day which does not distract from your sense of security and privacy. It is not
optimum to have the phone ringing, to have sirens blaring outdoors, to have
children squabbling next door, but rather to find a time of day, often early in
the morning or in the evening after social time, in order to find that place in
your material, mental and spiritual realm where you will be undisturbed.</P>
<P>Once you have found this place -- and you may imagine it now if you like --
first make certain you are physically comfortable. That is to say, you are not
tugged upon or constrained by tight shoes, tight belts, and so forth, that you
are not made aware of your body any more than is normal and necessary. If,
therefore, you have a serious itch, it must be curtailed before you can
effectively enter Stillness.</P>
<P>The first element of Stillness is to quiet your body. Many people go through
an elaborate and enjoyable process of tightening and loosening muscles in a
systematic approach to making certain all the body is in a state of relaxation.
This is an approach effective for many but it is not permanently necessary. Like
any good habit, you can become adept at attaining Stillness quicker and
therefore gain most benefit in a short period of time by encapsulating the
experience through practice.</P>
<P>Now that you have gotten your body comfortable -- and I also suggest that it
is possible to do Stillness while lying down, but the tendency is to become
relaxed and fall asleep. Therefore, I would suggest that you sit upright in a
comfortable position, for it requires alertness in a subtle place in your mind,
that you be comfortable and relaxed on one hand yet alert and anticipatory on
the other -- now that the body is at ease, you come into the realm of the mind
which next must be stilled.</P>
<P>This is the difficult part for many, for the mind is incessantly active and,
to remind you again, the animal mind rebels against being weaned from its
natural propensity to run rampant and control the mortal being; therefore, in
order to put your mind at rest, it is a true discipline which does take time but
is eminently possible. Many techniques have been used. One is to venture through
the chakras to the third eye and focus on the third eye. Some have used the
technique of a burning candle to focus all the energy on this one object of
illumination. Some have asked the mind of Christ to come in and quiet all the
other aspects of mind which clamor for attention.</P>
<P>Whatever device you choose, you will soon find that as your mind becomes
still, you will find yourself in a place that could be considered a void, a dark
place, perhaps frightening at first for it is at once confining and also
immense. This realm, this lotus blossom area, is above the mind. It is now
venturing into the morontia spheres. From this place, if you entered your
meditations with a prayer, you may then sit in anticipation of response to your
prayer. This T/R uses this time and space to feel the presence of the Father --
the physical, spiritual, psychic, cosmic connection with divinity --and it may
or may not be personalized.</P>
<P>As you begin to feel this energy and spirit identification, you begin to feel
bathed and warmed by its very real presence. You forget that you have shopping
to do, you forget that the socks need darned and you forget that your foot
itches, for all things have fallen away in the comfort and indeed sublime bliss
of being in this love presence. It is now no longer a struggle to attain this
place of Stillness for you have found, in here, complete and total acceptance.
Peace. Potential. And love.</P>
<P>In this space, if you stay in this Stillness space for a while, you will
discover that your mind is still operating, but it is a different mind. It is no
longer the mind of the mortal. It is the mind of the Third Source and Center, if
you will, that is conspiring to merge your higher thought processes with spirit
reality and you are now beginning to function in the morontia realms of
existence, for although your material body is still present in your chair, in
your room, on your deck or wherever, you have been released from the constant
clamoring of the body and the emotions and the ego mind to soar among the
truths, beauties and goodnesses of infinity, from whence you came and from
whence you will return.</P>
<P>From this place you have then the peace and courage to return to your life's
work here in the flesh with renewed resolve and renewed vigor to approach your
life as it is and from the perspective of relative divinity.</P>
<P>The importance of Stillness could be conveyed thus: why should I spend time
in this abstract state when I could walk in nature and experience the marvelous
cathedral of God's handiwork surrounding me, where I would feel most inclined
toward praise, thanksgiving and even metaphysical reflections toward worship?
And I would suggest that if you were in love and betrothed, would you prefer to
talk to your beloved on the telephone, or would you prefer to be in their
presence? And it is that subtle yet vital difference that stillness
provides.</P>
<P>(Group murmuring) Let me take you one step further. </P>
<P>From Stillness, from this place of relative purity and tranquillity, if you
indeed have left your ego behind and are basking in the light of love and
seeking to be of service, it is possible from here to tap into your teachers.
This, too, is not necessary, for the relationship between you and your God, your
Indwelling Spirit and the Eternal Father, is primary, but to assist you,
entertain you, accompany you, help you, etc, it is possible to contact the
teachers who avail themselves from this sphere. </P><B></B>
<P>They operate, by and large, from your language center and I suggest if this
is something you would desire, then avail yourself in your deep mind and
anticipate that they will contact you. You must not contrive to make this up,
but rather allow it to happen. </P>
<P>You may see the impression of a word. If you see this word, speak it aloud
and, sure enough, another word will follow close on its heels. Speak that word
also, and on, until you discover that your teacher has in fact accessed your
circuit. You have accessed the circuit which enables teacher contact. In time
and with practice you all can be chatting away with various teachers and it is,
in fact, encouraged that you access your personal teachers for companionship and
guidance in your more personal realms of growth.</P>
<P>It has been discovered that working with the personal teachers will help you
work through some of your own correction, some of the more glaring twists of
fate. The maladjustments from this mortal life, which leave scars and fear of a
deep nature, are lovingly addressed and made whole through the ministrations of
an intimate teacher who will be with you as you lance those wounds in order to
heal those slings and arrows of your mortal existence.</P>
<P>Many, many wonders are available to you in your mind, in conjunction with
Infinite Spirit. It is only dangerous — and I use that in a relative sense --
when it is your mind alone which is entertaining you and not the mind which is
abridged and embraced by spirit, and this sublime experience can be had through
prayer and meditation in Stillness.</P>
<P>In entering Stillness, you are entering into communication with God, your
Father, your Creator, your piece of divinity, which has set you in motion. It is
only short-changing yourself, then, to neglect this time alone with God. It is
not required, yet it is infinitely desirable.</P>
<P>(Long period of group Stillness) I feel as if I were a hypnotist and I should
snap my finger now and say, "Hello, everyone. Welcome back to your mortal state
of being!" </P>
<P>And so now that we are all back in the framework of time and space as it is
known on Urantia, let us approach the week through accepting where it is that we
are: in time, in space, in relative perfection, in varying degrees of warming
up, and in acceptance of our self and consequently one another.</P>
<P>In eager anticipation of our next gathering, I reluctantly leave you. I
"reluctantly" leave you because this focused place of communion in the more
spiritual realms of your life is happiness indeed to me and indeed to you, and
this glowing, swelling blossom of happiness is a reluctancy to depart from.
None-the-less I have faith in you, that you will carry yourself through to our
next encounter.</P>
<P> </P><B>
<P>Mrs. M:</B> Thank you, Tomas.</P><B>
<P>Mrs. Ml:</B> It's so wonderful that you want to be with us. Is it all right
to say we love you? </P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Indeed, and I also love you, and as I indicated, I am in complete
acceptance of you, and this is perhaps the key word here for I see you all in
the making and even with all that you present and misrepresent, <I>I </I>accept
you lovingly as aspiring immortal souls. You are most welcome, my daughter, and
I also thank you and love you infinitely.</P><B>
<P>Mrs. L:</B> Tomas, before you leave I have a question on a personal note.
What is your relationship with the Teacher Nero who speaks through my daughter
Alison?</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> I had some training with Nero prior to being transported here and
I have enjoyed him as an associate for his humor and lightness of heart, indeed,
his incredible lightness of being, and yet we have not had the privilege and
experience yet of working in tandem or in immediate association. I am looking
forward to working with other teachers in this area, but I will not presume to
speak for them, for their ministering mortals are also eager to experience
further transmission of teachers.</P>
<P>It is an abundant field of wild flowers, indeed, in the material and in the
spiritual realms, and as we work together for the next millennia or so, we will
create more and more orchestrations of the physical and spiritual kind which
will cause the Master Conductor to be pleased with our outpouring.</P><B>
<P>Mrs. L:</B> He sends his regards to you. </P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> And I to he. I have been watching.</P>
<P>Blessed group, take now the food from this table of plenty and nurture it in
your souls, in your hearts and in your guts for your sustenance throughout the
many days ahead. Good afternoon.</P><B>
<P>Group:</B> Good afternoon, Tomas.</P></DIV></BODY></HTML>