<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2802" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><B>
<P>DATE:</B> August 22, 1996<BR><B>LOCATION:</B> Pittsburgh, PA,
USA<BR><B>T/R:</B> Gerdean O'Dell</P><B>
<P>TEXTUAL STUDY:<BR></B>Urantia Paper 179: The Last Supper<BR>5. Establishing
the Remembrance Supper</P>
<P></P><B>
<P>TEACHER SESSION:<BR>The Relevance of "the Well"</P></B>
<P><B>TOMAS: </B>Good evening, friends. I am Tomas.</P><B>
<P>Group:</B> Good evening, Tomas.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> I am your faithful companion, again ready to spend a moment in
time with you in our configuration of fellow believers in earnest. (I will say
parenthetically and at the outset that this transmitter/receiver this evening is
not in the best condition. It will be difficult, frankly, for me to keep her at
bay. I trust, however, that some semblance of sanity and sagacity will
prevail.)</P>
<P>Indeed, we have been blessed by an abundance of celebratory attitudes and
gatherings, and the accolades continue throughout your realm. Michael's birthday
has instilled an air of festivity throughout Urantia, even reverberating through
the local Universe as your acknowledgement of our Creator Son is noticed and
appreciated, certainly observed, by the many who observe the development of this
planet. And as I suggested last week, your party for a Creator Son has not
disappointed us in its presentation, including balloons and Christmas cards, but
I will still pursue my assignment. However, given the shaky condition of Gerdean
this evening, I will not embark upon a lengthy lesson.</P>
<P>It was asked by Evangel recently -- regarding the well -- "What
representation does the well have?" and I indicated that in our context the well
would represent the fruits of the spirit and that we would look at these fruits,
these character traits, over a course of time in order that you might
personalize the fruits of the spirit and learn to put them into conscious
practice in your daily life.</P>
<P>But briefly and for perhaps the benefit of our beloved Birthday Boy, the
person of Jesus, the pride of Nebadon is indeed "the well" itself, for therein
is the living water, the refreshment of life.</P>
<P>When you read earlier of the washing of the feet, think too of the well, for
in bathing your own presence in the spirit well, you have washed away your dust
and debris of the busy lives of the kingdoms of men, the emotional confusions,
the strivings and the conditionings that you unconsciously carry with you. The
well, which holds the water of life, is that which will cleanse you and refresh
you.</P>
<P>It is a simple water, not a sophisticated drink, but pure and wholesome and
sustaining. When you drink water in the course of a day, remember the living
water, as you experienced in your communion this evening. It is always a
reminder of the Master when you think of him as you ingest your food -- be it
material food, mental food, social food or spiritual food. As you are fed,
nourished and sustained, it is because of the Creator Son, because of Jesus. And
as you sit with a friend and have a cup of coffee, or a coke, or a fruit drink,
have in mind also at that time the wine of the representation of his blood --the
living water.</P>
<P>There is no thing that transpires in the life of a kingdom believer that is
not an act of homage and praise to the Creator. Yet, how much of your lives are
lived automatically! How much of the wealth of life you take for granted! How
many times the richness of your existence is cast aside as unsatisfactory, when
indeed your very life is a manifestation of living love! From the well, I ask
you today to drink of the cup of human kindness. </P>
<P>Dear friends, I will not belabor the moment. Are you amenable to discourse
this evening?</P><B>
<P>Elizabeth:</B> Yes, indeed.</P><B>
<P>Hunnah:</B> I'll comment about the parable of the farm. When you said the
water of the well represented the fruits of the spirit ... and then … are the
eggs of the girl her worldly provision? When I heard it I was thinking of the
well as being living waters and her gathering the eggs more of the fruits of the
spirit. It doesn't really matter.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> It does not matter, for these allegories are well open to
interpretation. It depends upon the context of the analogy. I indicated at
Evangel's first request, that the well … in the context of our course of study
of character … the well would represent the fruits of the spirit which are, of
course, products of the living water.</P>
<P>It is also true that the eggs that are gathered in the context of the
original scenario are inclined toward the gathering of materialism and worldly
goods that one is sent out by mismanagement to perform as a duty. However, in
regarding the well as the living water, the eggs could well represent potential,
in that the eggs have not yet been hatched, and that as you stop by the well for
spiritual nourishment, you then may go on to reach your potential.</P>
<P>And so these allegories are a way of entertaining your mind, for you are
clever human beings, and rather than denounce your cleverness as lack of
character, why not apply your cleverness to entertaining ways of thinking about
truth, which then makes it palatable for you? As your mind is exercised by your
own application, you begin to find delight in the process. Your mind begins to
hunger for riddles that the universe then can offer you cosmic problems for your
solving, and you have, in the process, gathered great eggs.</P><B>
<P>Iyana:</B> I have a question, Tomas.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Yes.</P><B>
<P>Iyana:</B> When one reads all that they can about the Teaching Mission and
the Urantia Papers, sometimes when we want to speak of it, we cannot speak all
of it. My question is, when you read all these things, is it stored away? Or
does it just fade out if you don't keep it exercised, or what? Know what I
mean?</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Yes. I will give you another analogy, one which I am sure your
mind can assimilate readily, that being if you have a checkbook with a checkbook
register, and you write a book of checks and log them with a pencil, you will
have that record on hand for some months, perhaps some years. But in time the
pencil markings fade and you will not know, many years down the road, to whom
you have written checks or what for. And in many cases, what does that matter?
But if you were to need the information for future generations, it would do you
well to make certain that the markings were in permanent ink, or that the
records were so secured as to not allow for fading.</P>
<P>Indeed, that which you absorb into your mind consciously is registered in the
gray matter, but whether or not it is usable and applicable in your life depends
upon how much you have personalized the information. It is not easy or
interesting to convey static, factual information. That is not even true
communication, and it does not entertain human kindness to barrage your fellows
with a static overload of data.</P>
<P>But when these truths are made real for you in your own personal life, and
when you have seen these truths become values, which you have applied in your
life and in your dealings with your fellows, your reality grows concurrently and
you are then in a position to easily withdraw your fortune of information for
the spending on your friend.</P><B>
<P>Iyana:</B> In other words, the more you read and re-read all the truths, and
read about other people's experiences, the ones who write these truths and so
forth -- the more you read these truths, the more it becomes impressed in the
mind?</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> It certainly activates the mind, and any truth bears repetition
until it is well learned. It is very easy for the sluggish animal mind to resist
learning and to slough off valuable truths unless and until they are part and
parcel of their modus operandi of life. And so, simply reading is not
necessarily making you a better ambassador of truth, but it is making you well
read, you see. You may then be able to relate to individuals when you hear the
subject come up about that which you have read, but how do you share your
understanding of this information with others?</P><B>
<P>Iyana:</B> "Practice what you preach". Is that the expression?</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> There are other expressions, also. One that comes to my mind is
"walk the talk."</P><B>
<P>Student:</B> Talk the talk?</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> "Walk the talk, as in that phrase about walking in someone's
moccasins. If you are going to espouse a truth, how well do you know that truth?
Is it something you have read somewhere and therefore it is the truth of
another? Or is it a truth that you have assimilated into your own personal
religious experience and you now have authority to purvey that information? It
is the difference, you see, between an academic application of information and
an experiential manifestation of information.</P>
<P> </P><B>
<P>Iyana</B>: Thank you. </P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Yes.</P><B>
<P>Elizabeth:</B> Well, Gerdean and I both chose the character trait of
compassion of Christ Michael and we both were interested in thinking about it
and wish you would say a couple of words on that subject for us please.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> My daughter I would be second-guessing if I were to expound at any
length on why it would be that two of you in your group opted to prefer a
certain character trait of the Masters, for among the others of you, it well may
be said that two more prefer his generosity, while two others prefer his
friendliness, and so without a thorough survey of the results of your discourse,
it would be meaningless.</P><B>
<P>Elizabeth:</B> Well, I was really interested in your comments about the
compassion of Christ Michael, what you yourself felt about it when you first
encountered the story of his compassion. How it affected you and what you were
struck by yourself -- Tomas, our teacher.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Dear one, I almost feel as if I need to get approval from my peers
to make the remark that I would instinctively respond.</P><B>
<P>Elizabeth:</B> That's fine. That's fine.</P><B>
<P>Hunnah: </B>Perhaps that could be expressed at another time.</P><B>
<P>Elizabeth:</B> We could certainly bring up the subject to our friends in the
group and we probably enjoy hearing from them if they want to talk about their
reactions to the compassion of Christ Michael.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> I want to say I am not intending to be esoteric here. Part of my
stance is in deference to the emotional condition of my transmitter/receiver,
and I do not want to tell tales on her either, so I will again beg off for this
evening, although, as you understand, compassion is one of the noblest of fruits
and I do hope to address this with you in depth at some time in the future.</P>
<P> </P><B>
<P>Elizabeth:</B> Thank you. </P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Thank you.</P><B>
<P>Elizabeth:</B> In our world we find that it is very difficult for us to
contemplate those of us less fortunate, so we tend to -- at least I tend to
separate myself from those unpleasant things as much as possible, but that is
hardly the way of being compassionate, so I feel a certain ambivalence about
that.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> I have asked you to drink this week of the cup of human kindness.
It is not to say that your compassion needs to expand abundantly overnight, but
kindness is something that can be administered (in your language) even to dumb
animals, and if you were to regard one another, in part, as dumb animals and be
kind to these lop-eared, big-pawed critters of your brothers and sisters in the
flesh, you would see it differently.</P><B>
<P>Student:</B> The conference that we were just at ... That was a major
thing--</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Yes.</P><B>
<P>Student:</B> ... the compassion of Michael (indistinguishable).</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Yes. As he hung on the cross, as you understand, his compassion
was made evident in his plea to the Father that his persecutors be forgiven for
they acted in ignorance. How compassionate of him to love those who had
destroyed him! That, of course, is a dramatic but pertinent example of the
Master's compassion.</P>
<P>It is perhaps even more poignant when you consider the noble offspring of the
Paradise Trinity in his communication with his apostles in intimate converse. As
you here sit with one another imagine if Jesus were to be here among you, with
you at your table, quietly observing as you vie for position in the Kingdom, as
you neglect to wash each other's feet. How he must then see you and your
crassness, as well as your dismay in not being ministered to, with overwhelming
compassion for the full brunt of the human condition.</P>
<P>It is difficult, my loyal students, to have eyes to see and ears to hear, for
the pain of insight can be staggering, but for the well.</P>
<P>What else?</P>
<P>We all would appreciate a good night's rest. The festivities of late have
been tumultuous. It is some of that turbulence that I referenced weeks ago that
we are now experiencing -- the bumpy flight over those air pockets, and although
it is entirely safe, it is somewhat disconcerting. Such is the way of
growth.</P>
<P>My precious friends, your honoring of Michael has been registered On High.
Would, with you, that the Master would pass by and speak with us, but I regret
that I am not operating in a strong vessel this evening. Believe me, however,
when I testify that the Spirit of Truth in each of you will recognize that
Michael, indeed, Jesus, has been with us today, and this evening, and indeed
now.</P><B>
<P>Student:</B> Thank you.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> As I make my departure from your realm and send you off to your
diversions and your rest (with your assignment to ponder the cup of human
kindness), I would ask for you, on behalf of Lord Michael, to wait and hold
yourselves Still, in abeyance of His touch. He would visit with you one and all
in a personal way. Allow yourselves, dear ones, a few moments and I will not
disturb you in your communications. I will see you next week. Farewell.</P>
<P>(Stillness with the Master)</P></DIV></BODY></HTML>