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<DIV><B>
<P>DATE:</B> November 7, 1996<BR><B>LOCATION:</B> Pittsburgh, PA,
USA<BR><B>T/R:</B> Gerdean </P><B>
<P>TEXUAL STUDY<BR>Urantia Paper 88: <BR>Fetishes, Charms & Magic</P>
<OL></B>
<LI>Belief in Fetishes</LI>
<LI>Evolution of the Fetish</LI>
<LI>Totemism</LI>
<LI>Magic</LI>
<LI>Magical Charms</LI>
<LI>The Practice of Magic</LI></OL><B>
<P>TEACHER SESSION<BR>Sincere Fairness</P></B><I>
<P>Dear Jesus. It is known that when two or more are gathered in Your name,
there You are in the midst, and so we trust that You are with us; that You have
breathed into us the Breath of Life; and that You would have us follow You and
live in trusting faith as You lived Your life and as, even now, You reign
supreme. Be with us this evening, righteous Father/Brother. Unerringly lead us
in the way You would have us go ~ for Your sake. Thy will be done.</P></I><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Good evening, tender flock. I am Tomas. </P><B>
<P>Group:</B> Good evening, Tomas. Welcome back.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> I am glad to be with you this evening. I have been away on a short
jaunt but I would not miss this opportunity to conjoin with you again in the
spirit, in our regularly established format of this teaching platform of the
Pittsburgh teacher base. Suffice my absence to say that there are many growths
resultant from the many spiritual seeds planted, the great spiritual stimuli,
and I commend you, my pumpkins, for many of your seeds have contributed to your
surge forward.</P>
<P>We are quite excited in the Teaching Mission. More will be revealed to you as
it is affirmed for us, but it is accelerated, and those of you who have prayed
for an accelerated pace of upliftment, your prayers have been answered, for we
were not prepared for the vigor with which you who follow him have jumped on the
bandwagon of supporting each other in your appreciation of your spirit
helpers.</P>
<P>In reflection, of course, it is no surprise, for long did we hear of the cry
for help from many souls who had suffered long in isolation. Isolation has ended
and the surge forward is truly triumphant, Be assured of steady growth, however,
for there are dangers inherent in over-rapid growth, and so do not become
impatient or demand signs, but trust that we are advancing.</P>
<P>In observing your conversations this evening, I will let it be known that it
is likely you regard me, Teacher Tomas, as a rather dull sort, for the
imaginations and creative aspirations of the spirit-minded mortal are (there is
no word!). It has been said that there are as many ways to the Father as there
are individuals who will walk the path, and so it is true. Even you, who sit
here at the table this evening, have tales to tell of your encounters with
life's wonders and mysteries which give your unique approach to your personal
relationship with deity its own fingerprint, its own readily acceptable and
undeniable truth for yourself.</P>
<P>In your intercourse with one another and with the world at large, in your
sharing your inner life with others, remember to be fair in your assessments of
the worth of another individual's experience. In keeping with my format of late
I will attempt to discuss with you this evening the fruit of the spirit
designated <B>sincere fairness</B>. How can one identify sincere fairness much
less practice it as an attribute of a God-knowing, spirit-born individual?</P>
<P>You know from your text that one of the ways that you attain growth is
through sincerity, sincerity, and more sincerity. That as a child who comes to
the Father without suspicion, in total trust of guidance, your sincerity
resonates from within. Even those beings you read about this evening who
sincerely believed that the soul of the departed was in the stone or in the
bone, were sincere, and so sincerity is a relative state. As I have said before
in other groups, in other lessons, a person can be sincerely evil, sincerely
deceitful, sincerely greedy, and so we must assume the sincerity of a faith-born
child.</P>
<P>We must assume that your sincerity is that which is born of the spirit and
not born of ignorance, and yet, since we <I>are</I> ignorant, since we
<I>aren't</I> finished growing yet, since we have <I>not</I> attained infinite
perfection, how do we know our sincerity is adequate to the task? Inasmuch as we
acknowledge that we do not know everything, that our wisdom has not attained the
wisdom of the Ancients of Days or One High in Authority, we must therefore be
fair. We must be fair in our assessments -- in our assessments of ourselves and
our own stature as an evolving being, in our stature as a fledgling soul, as a
potential immortal soul, and we must be fair with others who are like you in
that context.</P>
<P>No one has a total handle on ultimate truth here on Urantia. You have that
truth within you which resonates with the Spirit of Truth and yet even your
perception of that truth is relative to your capacity at the time, and this
reflects upon why it is that you are in no position to pass judgment, for no one
is superior over the other; no one is "chosen" above another; all offspring of
the Eternal Parent are beloved, and each offspring of the Eternal Parent is
growing. </P>
<P>In your assessments, then, of a situation or a circumstance involving
yourself or another individual, you must be fair and acknowledge that you do not
know all that has gone into comprising the situation or the circumstance, for
you are not all-seeing, all-knowing. Only the Parent, the Creator, knows his
children. And look at how sincerely fair he is on your behalf! He does not
require more of you than you can give; he does not bless you more abundantly
than you deserve; he sees your acts and makes the best of them and is happy for
your desire to please him, no matter how faulty your application.</P>
<P>Fairness in the material realms is not honored. Life is not fair. And many
things that happen to one do not happen to another. How many children have said,
"That's not fair!"? How many adults look at a situation and say, "That's not
fair." And it is true that there are gross injustices, but these are not the
realities of the Kingdom, for in the kingdom, the Paradise Trinity is unerringly
fair, and Jesus is sincerely fair with his children.</P>
<P>It may be necessary, as Jesus did, to become firm with a wayward child, to
bring him back in line, but He is fair and will allow sufficient space for the
erring individual to determine which way he would go. And so in your dealings
with others, be fair. Be <I>sincerely</I> fair. Not just socially fair,
academically fair, temporally fair, no, but sincerely fair -- as a faith-son --
understanding the relativity involved. </P>
<P>How are you this evening? You were quite attentive to my words. I wonder if
perhaps I did not merely provide a soft blanket for you to rest upon, following
the rigors of your lively conversations earlier?</P><B>
<P>Elizabeth:</B> Oh, no. No. I think we're just all really interested in our
study of the fruits and we know when you announce the weekly subject it 's going
to be an important part of our coming week and it's going to enrich our Inner
relationships with other people, because last week-- well, today! ... I went to
the doctors and there was a lady sitting there and I was thinking, "How could I
be of some comfort to her?" because I could tell that -- this doctor has a lot
of very ill patients, and so (I was not one of them, but) I was leaving and was
wondering how I could be a comfort, and as I sensed her difficulty and was
watching her, she began to fall and because I was looking at her, I was able to
run over to her and partly break her fall, and so it was a kind of a moment when
I thought, "Well, that, was a good thing to be able to do that!"</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> I am very happy that you have relayed your experience, for it is a
clear testimony to everyone that you are sincere in your own growth and in the
application of these fruits of the spirit which are born in your life, and now
you are conscious of these fruits and looking for places to be of service. I am
happy personally for your telling; it makes me feel that my lessons have truly
taken root. And, last but not least, is the lady that you helped, that child of
God that you were able to give ministry to, Elizabeth. It makes for a much
richer life, does it not, than merely going around thinking only of your own
little agendas that can make for a mean life.</P><B>
<P>Elizabeth</B>: Well, truly I've always loved words and I think I may have
been thinking along these lines, but having a word for this coming thinking is
helpful. I think, to me and I assume it would be so to others.</P><B>
<P>Leah</B>: Well, you were a comforting presence to her.</P><B>
<P>Elizabeth</B>: And I've been talking about it to my son because it's more
effective than just talking about the Book. And he needed to be a comforting
presence to somebody. One of his young friends is very desperate because his
mother is suddenly seriously diagnosed as extremely ill and will not live for a
very long time and these young people are in a complete quandary over this and I
was talking to him about it and he was listening and I was mentioning that he
could be a comforting presence to these young people, as you had said, to think
of her as she will be and not to think of her material self. You said that in
one of the papers, and I think I explained that as well as I could.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> You are being effective, and this is pleasing to your peers in the
spirit. You are a worker in the field. It is how we plant those seeds in His
garden. Are there questions this evening?</P><B>
<P>Elizabeth:</B> I have a question. I was watching this description of this new
kind of Mohammedism called Tomin where they are very rigid and very fierce and
hostile to their women having any tiny bit of freedom and I was trying to figure
out -- I don't want to be judgmental about it right off the bat. You had said
something about, scaffolding? Is this use and other hurtful . . . but maybe
perhaps a primitive philosophy ... a scaffolding of some sort?</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> I do not perceive of it as being scaffolding, no, but I will
attempt to essay it fairly and call to your mind the pendulum. In psychological
terms you understand that in cultural change, or psychological change, it is not
uncommon for the pendulum to swing very far in one direction and then again very
far in the opposite direction before it finds a stable center balance, and it
well may represent this fundamentalist Islamism as stringent in their need to
maintain the security of the sacredness of their roots -- as some of the
fundamentalist Christians or even fundamentalist Urantia Book readers -- to help
balance the other side of the pendulum which is becoming quite liberal or New
Age or unorthodox. This is part of the cultural growth of the evolutionary
aspects of spiritual growth.</P><B>
<P>Elizabeth: </B>Thank you. I think that's a good help for me to think about
that.</P><B>
<P>Kate: </B>Tomas?</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Yes, my dear.</P><B>
<P>Kate</B>: Earlier we were talking about reincarnation? </P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Yes.</P><B>
<P>Kate:</B> And I mentioned being multidimensional…</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Yes,</P><B>
<P>Kate:</B> … in relation to the concept of reincarnation? I was wondering if
you could talk about that?</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Yes, I can. I am not proscribed from discussing it. I have
discussed the concept of reincarnation a number of times. The multidimensional
aspects of it lends a bit of abstraction which I find more delightful than the
regimental approach which I have been presented with before, but you, even so,
are discussing something akin to quantum mechanics and these reflect a mental
state of understanding a concept of on-going and eternal life. </P>
<P>There are, to be fair, many facets of the cosmos that relate to energy and
pattern, including life, which is repetitive and mechanical and exciting. It is
not unlikely that in grasping for higher realities the evolving mind will grasp
those reflections of Paradise pattern and energy and so forth and incorporate
them into their own DNA aspects of reality, thereby eventuating a philosophy
which incorporates a vast -- and to all intents and purposes -- an
all-encompassing interpretation of infinity and reality.</P>
<P>For it is true that in some ways you are capable and some do live on several
different levels of reality at one time; it is also true that your genetic
compounds maintain memory all the way back to the first life implantation here
on your material world; and it is also true that the God fragment that is
resident within you is aware of its pre-personal existence. And so it is not any
wonder that these concepts not only hold great fascination and provide great
validity, but also (as many elements of a philosophy will do) allows the mind
great latitude and great joy in its own comprehension of a reality which is well
beyond the reality of a zip code.</P>
<P>In discussing the Eternal Mother, the Infinite Spirit, Paradise pattern
perfection, we also consider Infinite Mind, and as I said earlier, there are as
many ways to the Father as there are individuals who will take the path. The
mind is a gift from Paradise Deity and it works in harmony with Itself. The
Infinite Mother Spirit would not give you a mind that would deliberately work in
opposition to the indwelling God Fragment of the Eternal Father for they work
harmoniously in everything, and this greatly augments your creative appreciation
for such concepts since you are allowed to do so.</P>
<P>Your mind is there for your utilization, and what wondrous worlds we create!
We have built civilizations on our co-creative imaginings, all under the
sanction of an experiential life on a decimal planet, all looked over, all
looked after, all held in the palm of His hand. And so in sincere fairness of
the millions of minds, which are the offspring of the Mother, who works in
harmony with the Father, you have indeed, a relative truth! </P>
<P>How shall I discuss it? How can I help you in your comprehension of what you
presented to me?</P><B>
<P>Kate:</B> I think you did give me an awful lot of information already.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Indeed, I have given you a lot of information. I have not,
however, infused you with the spirit, … and this is not my prerogative, but it
<I>is </I>where I would take you. For you to then ask in your heart (that heart
which opens to divinity) to be shown the Way, for the Way is alive and living
(as you have experienced, as you have thrilled to) and the eternal career is a
thrilling eternal adventure -- onward and upward and forward! When the soul is
born it begins. You begin. </P>
<P>And isn't it amazing that all of this magnificent cosmos of divine pattern
and energy, mind and matter has been provided that you might, come to be, that
you might find yourself a living part of this organism of the universe, to take
personally as a child to its Father, to its Mother. It is the <I>personalization
</I>that removes it from the realm of science and philosophy into a living
reality. Has that been helpful?</P><B>
<P>Kate:</B> Yes, it has. Thank you very much.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> I have an answer to another question, having to do with faith.
What does it mean to take a "leap of faith"? To make a leap of faith is to leave
behind the solid ground that you have known; it is to dive into the unknown,
knowing that you will be caught or carried. It is not stepping off a cliff and
falling down (although even there you would be comforted); but it is taking a
leap across a chasm, from one known reality to another and hopefully higher
reality.</P>
<P>To take a leap of faith is to promote your own growth, to contribute to your
own reality, and in some ways perhaps to lead the way for others to follow. If
you have been asked by the Master, "follow me," then take that leap of faith,
knowing that He is holding your hand and you will not fall; that if you stumble,
He will help you up; if you act in faith that it is His will, it will be
revealed. But if you stay put, if you deprive yourself of that experience of
that leap of faith, you will never know; you will never know within yourself the
exhilaration of contributing to that extent to the Evolving Supreme.</P>
<P>Thank you for bearing with me as I answered a question from one outside our
group. Are there other inquiries of me this evening?</P><B>
<P>Elizabeth: </B>Thank you, because that gives a whole new meaning to "a leap
of faith" for me, and I appreciate it. </P><B>
<P>Leah:</B> I'd like to thank you for the wonderful answer you gave to the
group in Canada. I believe they look forward to meeting you soon and having
maybe a Teacher of their own.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS</B>: Indeed, we are quite excited. Perhaps I should not say "excited"
for excited connotes an emotional condition and emotions can be exhausting;
therefore, I will not say, "excited." I will say we are "gratified."</P>
<P>It has been spoken of in your text that it is possible (when the Urantia Book
was written) that the world may need to await those men and women who would
valiantly serve and devote their life to Jesus, and those men and women are now
standing up. They have been so infused, they are so consecrated, they are so
devoted, they have stood up to be counted among those who will follow Him, who
are willing to count the cost, who are the vanguard of the Age of Light and
Life. They are those who have opted to step out of the religions of tradition
into the living Love of Christ Michael and his plan of ascension to the
Father.</P>
<P>Think not that the Father loves those who do not stand up any less, but he
appreciates, as we appreciate, those who do. And thus I correct myself and say,
we are not excited but we are appreciative, yes.</P>
<P>I have been in contact with our sister cities. As I indicated earlier in the
evening there was much activity afoot. You might also be interested in knowing
that Columbus [Ohio] is getting a teacher, and so the cities of Indianapolis
[IN], Cincinnati and Columbus will comprise a new triad of communities. </P>
<P>It is our hope, of course, that a triad of cities could develop with Hamilton
[Canada], Buffalo [NY] and Pittsburgh, but these goals, these aspirations are
entirely dependent upon the free will, choices of the mortals, and I will remind
you -- at one point when Jesus admonished the throngs that if they were not
willing to be his apostles, then they should turn back in peace, and those who
turned back in peace were not banished from his sight, but I make the analogy to
show that it is free will and we cannot interfere with free will.</P><B>
<P>Leah:</B> Thank you. Those words will be very comforting.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> I hope they don't construe that as some kind of cosmic political
pressure!</P><B>
<P>Group</B>: (Laughter)</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> I will state that it also says in the text that there is indeed "a
conspiracy" and I myself have been known to be a bit of an opportunist. In fact,
I have often referred to myself as Tomas the Opportunist, for I am shameless in
my aspirations to evolve your world into a loving orb, worthy of its Creator. It
is an ambitious undertaking but that is why I am here; otherwise I could be
somewhere else doing something interesting. How about you?</P><B>
<P>Leah:</B> This is where I want to be.</P><B>
<P>Loreenia:</B> By the way, Tomas, rules were made to be broken. God's laws
aren't broken. Rules are made to be broken.</P>
<P><B>TOMAS:</B> Whose rules?<BR><BR><B>Loreenia:</B> Man's rules.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> They are easily broken. They are indeed almost made to be broken
for the mortal is a defiant little rascal and will test his boundaries.</P><B>
<P>Loreenia: </B>All children do that when they're little.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Here, here.</P><B>
<P>Loreenia</B>: Can you tell me who came into me, Tomas?</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> No. I will point out that phrase about "invasion of privacy." Be
assured, however, that there are (as always) many beings in attendance. Some
come only to look in and sniff, the atmosphere, if you will, and go on; some
stay for the duration; some wouldn't miss it on a weekly basis.</P><B>
<P>Hunnah:</B> Cosmic TV.</P><B>
<P>Celeste:</B> Tomas? </P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Yes.</P><B>
<P>Celeste:</B> [Indistinguishable] … but I was at a church healing service this
morning that was just absolutely beautiful. There were just nine people there.
We were sitting in the area where the choir normally sits. It was so simple, so
beautiful. Everybody that was there was there to pray for somebody else. It was
absolutely . . . and I've been floating ever since. I was so happy to be in a
church and to find such simplicity and such love.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> I am happy, too, that you had that experience and that you shared
it with the group, for it is easy to get the impression sometimes that the
churches are not an advanced place of spirit, and obviously your testimony
proves that is not the case. It is important to remember that the sincere
believer attends all types of worship services, even many which do not lie
within Christianity, and their faith is simple and pure. The sincere believer
occupies all strata of life and attends to all religious orders. </P>
<P>It is they who are the children of God; they are not the problem. They are
your brothers and sisters with whom you can share your understanding of the
fruits of the spirit -- perhaps one day, and even one day soon, to help build an
Interfaith family, a oneness of spirit which would transcend the differences in
dogma and ritual . . . but I wax rhetorical, for that is an understood goal
coming from Michael.</P>
<P>I am glad for your experience, my child. I am glad as always when yon know
and see the spirit of God reflected in and through others back to yourself to
reinforce your own reality, that you might then give it back out and keep the
mighty flame of faith alive.</P>
<P>Dear ones, I sense that you have been filled for now, and I will take my
leave with some reluctance for as you know it is satisfying to me that I spend
this quality time with you in your embrace, in your comforting presence. </P>
<P>Be sincerely fair, now, in your dealings with one another in this upcoming
week, and I leave my love with you as you go. Farewell.</P><B>
<P>Group:</B> Thank you, Tomas. Our love is also with you!</P>
<P> </P>
<P> </P>
<P> </P>
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