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<DIV><B>
<P>DATE:</B> March 4, 1997<BR><B>LOCATION:</B> Butler, PA, USA<BR><B>T/R:</B>
Gerdean</P>
<P>Prayer, Study and Stillness <STRONG><BR></STRONG><B>TEACHER
SESSION<BR>Teachers Tomas and Merium<BR></B>The Handicap of
Literal-Mindedness<BR>Merium's Qualifications<BR>Companion-ability is a Teaching
Method <BR>Learning Through Experience<BR>Forgiving the Father</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Be of good cheer. Tomas is here. </P><B>
<P>Group:</B> Good evening, Tomas.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> You bring great joy to us this evening in your sharing, for it is
always gladsome when you include your text in your gathering. Even a small
review of a treasured lesson brings to your mind once again those truths which
Jesus brought and which we even now seek to embellish and bring to reality in
your daily life.</P>
<P>Your humble environment here this evening is astir with excitement. It is a
joyous and easy excitement that you do not understand. Your frame of reference
for excitement is largely electro-chemical, but our exuberation in your faith
paths has brought us great delight, which we interpret as excitement. The angels
sing and the midwayers are also joyous, for they have begun to see the fruits of
their labors here in this humble hamlet.</P>
<P>Which now leads me to greet my friend, your new friend, known to you as Anna.
How delightful it is to have you with us this evening, my dear. Fear not. We are
an amiable lot of celestial helpers and we delight to call you our friend. We
have watched your journey and have coaxed you into this community of sisters and
believers in that which will bring rejoicing to your soul. Welcome and be at
peace, for you are among friends.</P>
<P>I, too, am in the company of a new friend this evening. My co-teacher Merium
here has touched you and is interested in also furthering her relationship with
you. The format that we will undertake over a course of time relates very much
to the lesson that you read this evening having to do with spiritual unity. As
we have long studied those qualities of personal and individual growth, so as to
instill in you a sense of rightness and good orderly direction for your own soul
development, there comes that time when your concerns are extended outward in
the companionship and fraternity of others.</P>
<P>In this context then, Merium and I eagerly embark upon a new phase of
learning. It is not an accelerated course. We are not in any hurry. Indeed, as
you embrace your fellows in consciousness of spirit unity, it will take some
time for you to completely appreciate the differences between you, even those
differences which might irk or confuse you, and we look forward to the expanded
palette of color that will come about as you begin to perceive that you are
truly free to be your own radiant selves, for you will not be limited or judged
or ostracized by your peers in Christ.</P>
<P>It will require patience on your part with your fellows and with yourself,
but we know that you are up to the challenge. It is rather like, on a very
literal scale, those who join the military and can work in precision. What an
odd comparison! you say, for if we are all to be uniquely our self, how is it
then that we all work in such precision? Would not that connote that we all
acted and moved in the same way? And I say to you to recall the lesson on the
symphony, for as you have learned to play your instrument, and as you have
gotten yourself tuned up and tuned in to the Great Conductor, you will play your
notes at the correct time, and like a great orchestra, you will make great music
by your precision, by your appreciating the value of each other, while each of
you is uniquely your own self.</P>
<P>I would like to give Merium an opportunity to share with you, for your
enjoyment and hers, that you might get to know each other a little better as
time goes by. One moment.</P><B>
<P>MERIUM:</B> Hello.</P><B>
<P>Group:</B> Hello! Welcome.</P><B>
<P>MERIUM:</B> I am glad to be here, and as I told you last week, I am
inexperienced, but only in this transmitting process. I am quite experienced in
life and in matters of love and so you may be assured that my feelings for you
equal the devotion that Tomas has for you each individually and as a part of the
great family of God.</P>
<P>I had thought, in fact, to practice my transmitting techniques by offering a
lesson which, hopefully, will enable me and the receiver to learn to work well
together. My words have to do with how literal you are.</P>
<P>I will bring to mind the example of a young man and a young woman who have
had a first date. And look now at how it is that the aspect of literal-ness can
interfere with the free flow of divine love and the overcontrol of the
universe.</P>
<P>This young couple have had a pleasant encounter, an enjoyable evening. They
have much in common and they have appealed to each other in many ways. They have
similar values; they have stimulated each other's imaginations; and there seems
to be, even, somewhat of a physical flowing attraction between them. Therefore,
you would construe this as a charming evening and a beginning of a possible
marriage of souls.</P>
<P>At the end, now, of the evening, as the young man sees the young woman to the
door, he gently kisses her on the cheek and she senses his spirit and falls, on
the spot, for his divine nature, and eagerly looks forward to the destined union
that surely must come from such a good time. </P>
<P>And he says, "I will call you." Perhaps there is a special film he would like
to take her to. Perhaps he would like this next date to be meaningful in some
way. And so he does not call her right away, as he is waiting for this more
meaningful and significant encounter. </P>
<P>She now is athrill with the possibilities. "He will call me. But <I>when</I>
will he call me? Will he call me Thursday? Will he call me tomorrow? I should
have found out when he was going to call me!" And she begins to have anxiety
about the literal aspect of his calling her, such that she works herself into
such a lather about not getting a fixed response, she makes herself emotionally
ill over the situation.</P>
<P>The young man, now, who has said, "I will call you," had every intention of
following through, for he enjoyed the young woman's company, but her anxiety,
now, that wafts to him regarding his presence in her life, begins to annoy him,
for he feels controlled. She is too literal. If he were free to call her "soon"
he would call her in the time that was right. </P>
<P>As they have gone about their way, now, because of their interpretation --
she, feeling that he would have already called her if he meant it, begins to
decline in her affections for him; and he, in sensing her anxiety, begins to
perceive that no event would please her. And so the partnership is null and void
before it has truly begun.</P>
<P>Now my purpose for relating this tale has to do with your literal aspects.
The kingdom of heaven is real, but it may not be literal in the sense that you
are accustomed to. The love between you and your siblings in the spirit is also
real, but it may not be the literal manifestation of love that you are familiar
with or that would make you secure.</P>
<P>I would thus ask you to hold in your heart the truth that indeed the Father
will call you - soon! - and not be impatient as to when, and say, "Will He call
me Thursday? Will He call me tomorrow?" and then despair if He has not called
you in your timeframe, to meet your needs and your demands.</P>
<P>All things happen in God's time, and once you realize that, you can lighten
up on your peers if they do not respond to life in <I>your</I> time, as you see
it, according to your values and your tastes, and so do not allow the budding
romance of the love between you and your brothers and sisters to decline in its
potential because of your more literal minds.</P>
<P>My friends, my appetite has been whet. I have found my niche indeed. I am so
honored to have been selected to share this teaching platform with my colleague
Tomas. He felt that I might aid him in introducing the concept of community and
teamwork and relationship if I were to demonstrate, by way of my association
with him, some of the truths that we have learned over time in working
selflessly with other personalities among our Teaching Corps.</P>
<P>It is certainly my hope that I can contribute to your growth and your
enjoyment as well as to Tomas' noble efforts thus far in his career with you. My
comrade suggests that I now open the floor to you for questions or commentary
and I will field them which will give me an opportunity - and <I>you</I> an
opportunity - to exchange ideas and words together.</P>
<P>Before I open the floor, however, I would like to have the opportunity to
introduce myself to Anna and say to you, my dear, that I, too, am new to this
community and this process, and I look forward to our embrace as we become more
aligned in our Father's will for us together. How are you all this evening? </P>
<P><B>Group:</B> Fine! Fine, thank you.</P><B>
<P>Hunnah:</B> I have to tell you that while you were talking I had to think of
you as being a storyteller, and of Cinderella's slipper. And now we are all
allowed to be Cinderella and put on the shoe of understanding, and it thrills me
that you are able to bring in this fresh approach.</P><B>
<P>MERIUM:</B> I am reminded of the adage, in regard to Cinderella and her
slipper, that "as the shoe fits, wear it" and many times my lessons are going to
cramp your toes and sometimes they will be too large for your little feet and
you will find yourself prancing around as if you were a child playing dress-up,
but indeed I will bring you stories. I have a rather more imaginative mind than
Tomas. I do not mean to infer that he is dull by any means, for I have enjoyed
his rich character for some time, but perhaps being --I shall not say "feminine"
for there are also very creative male personalities--. I have no solution for
it. I am just glad I am who I am and I am glad you like me.</P><B>
<P>Iyana:</B> Merium, are you what we would call a Mansion World teacher?</P><B>
<P>MERIUM:</B> I have been on the Mansion World, yes. I am here on leave, you
might say, from my Mansion World experiences. Indeed, most of the teachers in
the Teaching Corps have sought this assignment as part of the Mansion World
training. As you know, your destiny is to teach and to serve as you learn. And
as we have learned, we seek also to give away our wisdom and our experience, and
this has been such an opportunity!</P>
<P>It is not often that such an opportunity arises in a local universe, and so
many, many personalities flocked to volunteer. I do not mean to say
"unfortunately" only a small portion of the universe was held in quarantine, for
that would seem to infer that we would have the illness be greater so that more
of us could serve, and that is not my point at all, but only so many can come to
aid Urantia in its upstepping and alignment, and those of us who have been
selected to teach and work here are indeed delighted at this opportunity.</P>
<P>There are, by the way, many who have come and who will continue to come, if
not as teachers then as student observers. For as you have been advised, your
section of the universe has been gathering a lot of attention lately from those
who are now aware of the reclamation of your world from its isolation and ...
(pause). That is all.</P><B>
<P>Loreenia:</B> Merium, would you give us a little background on yourself in
your physicality before you went over? What was your work or what did you do?
Did you have children? And so on and so forth.</P><B>
<P>MERIUM:</B> One moment. Tomas advises me that this is not uncommon, that you
should deluge me with curiosity questions regarding my dossier, for you then to
perceive that you understand me better. I am not at all convinced that it is
helpful, but I, too, was a mortal and I was not a parent when I was a mortal; I
was unmarried, even. I was late in learning the skills and joys of parenting,
which I learned on the Mansion Worlds after my transfer from mortal existence to
the morontia form. I stayed an exceptionally long time in the nurseries.</P>
<P>My work, when I was a mortal -- and you must understand, this was a LONG time
ago --my work was rather unfulfilled, in that I was a rich girl, somewhat
spoiled. It was not necessary for me to have a career and so I did not. You
might say I was a playgirl. I do not have the high moral background that Tomas
brings with his wife and four sons, but I was, even so, intrigued by my
spiritual nature.</P><B>
<P>Loreenia:</B> Did you have a large family? Brothers and sisters?</P><B>
<P>MERIUM:</B> It is interesting that you should ask, for in my society it was
individualized that the nuclear family as you understand it was not the norm. We
were a global community and when a child was born, it was the product of the
world, and so although I did not have children of my own, I had considerable
experience helping to guide the destiny of many.</P><B>
<P>Loreenia:</B> Wow! You REALLY had a lot of brothers and sisters.</P><B>
<P>MERIUM:</B> Indeed.</P><B>
<P>Loreenia:</B> Were you in Light and Life? A planet of Light and Life?</P><B>
<P>MERIUM:</B> It was very advanced. More advanced than Tomas' realm of origin,
world of origin. We had evolved quite high, but that was so long ago. No doubt
it is part of my character and part of my experiential wisdom, but I have had a
wonderful life, a wonderful career in my ascension, an interesting life indeed!
And it has become even more interesting as I have come up through the many
mansions. </P>
<P>I have been privileged to work with many of the fine orders of ministering
spirits. I have quite a broad spectrum of experience that I bring with me, but I
must tell you that I will not tell you stories from that frame of reference.</P>
<P><B>Loreenia:</B> We probably wouldn't be able to understand it anyway.
</P><B>
<P>MERIUM:</B> I am certain that something will rub off. I thank you, my child,
for your inquiry into my life and my interests, my background and experience,
for this is indeed more than a social skill. It is a method of teaching. It is a
way of opening the door to companion-ability. It is a way to get to know each
other in the deeper sense of the word than is your custom on Urantia. </P>
<P>Indeed, as you meet new people, it is always good to help them feel at ease
by drawing them out to talk about themselves, for if you listen with ears to
hear, it is certain that you will find those notes that tingle in your mind and
trigger your God-consciousness to respond to that person's need. Often it is
just that they would like to feel free to be, to express themselves. It is
certainly nice to have the opportunity to express the personality freely to a
smiling, non-judgmental face. How are you?</P><B>
<P>Loreenia:</B> Contented and happy at the moment. Glad to be amongst
friends.</P><B>
<P>MERIUM:</B> It does enrich the human experience to feel at ease among trusted
associates, yes.</P><B>
<P>Loreenia:</B> Now have you come to help us learn more about ourselves, our
true natures, our beingness and showing us how to go about, in effect, guiding
us in the pathway?</P><B>
<P>MERIUM:</B> Truly, I have come to keep you company, for it is you who do your
own growing. Even as Tomas has taught you over these many months, it is your
willingness to ponder thoughts that he has offered that has enlarged your
capacity for spirit receptivity. This is a social grace as well as a method of
sharing the inner life; therefore, a religious experience. It is one that you
can promote in your own environment and in your own society by acting graciously
and asking selflessly about each other, for in due course your turn will come
when you, too, have the floor and your personality will have the opportunity to
shine.</P><B>
<P>Iyana:</B> May I have the floor? </P>
<P><B>MERIUM:</B> By all means.</P><B>
<P>Iyana:</B> We have learned that we're supposed to more or less forget
yesterday and go on with today, but I was wondering ... I find sometimes that I
am contemplating thinking about my past life and the way that I have acted and
the way people I have lived with have reacted or acted, and I've come to the
conclusion that a lot of these things that have happened, that I have learned
lessons from them and that, looking back at them, I can see how it was a form of
growth because it made my character different, to grow for the better, to
understand the things that I did not understand long ago. And I just wonder if
that is part of the learning or should we just forget about it?</P><B>
<P>MERIUM:</B> You will not forget that which has lasting value. You may in time
forget the circumstances surrounding how it is that you came to acquire that
value lesson, but that which has value has become yours for eternity; it is also
in the care of the Evolving Supreme. And so it is not necessary to let it go,
for it is part of you.</P><B>
<P>Iyana:</B> It was sort of interesting, I mean, it was interesting to me to
look at everything in a sort of impersonal way, to feel the growth that I've had
by going back over that and reviewing. I'm probably saying the same thing that I
said before, but I can realize what you said, too, that the things that are of
real value will go along with me, and the rest will just fall away.</P><B>
<P>MERIUM:</B> It is also of value to reflect upon your past experience for the
purpose of gleaning further wisdom, for many times you cannot see your growth
except in perspective. That is why your memory holds value for you, and why you
retain your memory of those valuable experiences, even throughout the rest of
your career. If my life as a young woman on my native planet had not had value,
I would not remember it, but it did have value, and I did remember, and so it is
a treasure that I can keep, that is part of me. I remember friends, I remember
experiences, but I remember no pain. I remember none of the difficulties. I
remember none of the struggle or the confusion of my growth. I knew it then, and
I know now that it was there, but it does not come to my mind. Only the wealth
of experience and friendship - the bounty, the harvest - is what remains.</P><B>
<P>Iyana:</B> Thank you.</P><B>
<P>Loreenia:</B> That's good to know. (Giggle) We have something really
wonderful to look forward to.</P><B>
<P>MERIUM:</B> Even today, however, my dear, as you trudge your path, you will
be releasing memories of difficult situations as they are forgiven and forgotten
in the light of the truth which you carry forward. The pains of your experience
here on Urantia also are fading as you grow in growth spirit-ward. And even as
we speak, your lives have reached a level now that you benefit from your
association with each other. And so, many of the experiences that you have had,
which have been painful and you have had to bear alone, will not bother you now
because you have each other to share your growing experience. And as you can
share your growing experience intimately, in association with your brothers and
sisters, it will also augment your life, for recall that the negative
experiences of life are borne with more willingness when they are shared with a
friend.</P><B>
<P>Loreenia:</B> True. That has happened in my life.</P><B>
<P>MERIUM:</B> I am going to call this session to a close. I would like to allow
you all an opportunity to share among yourselves. Tomas and I will be around and
observing and rejoicing with you in your camaraderie. Again, I am so happy to
have this opportunity to get to know you and to also get to love you more
fully.</P><B>
<P align=center>[Intermission]</P>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Thank you for remembering your loyal teacher. I am Tomas, and I am
here. I understand you have a question, Iyana.</P><B>
<P>Iyana:</B> Yes. Yes. I was reading one of the recent papers that Gerdean
typed up, and it said for us to forgive the Father. Now, that took a little bit
of thinking on my part, because I could not think of anything that I would have
to forgive Him for, and I was wondering if perhaps some of the things that
happen by accident of time that affected different people, where they have been
hurt or they have made the wrong choices and their body aches or something is
going on, are they supposed to blame the Father for that? I don't feel they
should! So I don't understand exactly what you mean by asking me to forgive the
Father. For what?</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> You have brought up a very big subject, my dear. I will not go
into the full dissertation, but I do appreciate that you have brought this
question to the foreground. I will say a few things but will not go on ad
infinitum, although I could.</P><B>
<P>Iyana:</B> Okay. Thank you.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> I was speaking primarily to those individuals who have less
experiential wisdom than yourself, for even in your own experience you may have
had an occasion when you felt grievously wronged by life's experiences. It may
have been not necessarily for you but for someone, a birth of a deformed child,
the death of a healthy child; it may have been the break-up of a romance; it may
have been having been fired from a job without cause, causing hardship to your
family; any number of grievous events that can happen in the life. And although,
of course, it is generally the case that the blame in that situation is shifted
to a party particularly, it is not uncommon for God to get the brunt of the
mortal's anger and frustration.</P>
<P>As one evolves, one can ascertain that life's experiences may have been
brought about by their own decision-making process, by the decisions of those in
whom they put their trust, or circumstances that brought about distress for
which only God could be held accountable. In very brief regards, my recommending
the exercise of forgiving the Father was to allow you to appreciate the breadth
and depth of your association with Him in and through a comforting and tender
compassion, for as you forgive you are forgiven, and if you can forgive that
nebulous concept at which you have thrust your anger --</P><B>
<P>Iyana:</B> Yes, but that's just the opposite of what you were saying, because
I would have to ask God's forgiveness because I thought that way -- that He did
it.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> That is the most obvious approach, yes, but the mind is not always
obvious, Iyana. It is, of course, presumptuous that a mortal would have a right
or a capacity to forgive the creator of his very existence, but it is also true
that the identity of the individual, as s/he becomes self-conscious and aspires
to a level of dignity, develops a better understanding of himself and therefore
God, and therefore can maintain a more compassionate attitude toward all
circumstances <B><I>if the forgiveness is all-inclusive</B></I>.</P>
<P>And so, for you, do not worry about the concept. As I indicated when I gave
the assignment, if you found it too preposterous, don't worry about it. But if
you were willing to take a look at it, it might benefit you to see that in
forgiving the Father for the many distresses that you have experienced in living
this life, you would begin to feel a closeness to the Father in that process, in
that soulful communication, one on the other, that would bring about a better
understanding of the quality of tenderness, of mercy.</P><B>
<P>Iyana:</B> Well, I just feel that if I have these problems, I just say to
myself, I am learning from these problems because they are beneficial to me. And
I still don't see ... Well, I'll work on it.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> I hear your righteous indignation, but I also have acknowledged
that you have attained a level of understanding that all have not. For many, it
is a viable exercise.</P><B>
<P>Iyana:</B> Thank you.</P><B>
<P>Hunnah:</B> We forget sometimes when we're reading the transcripts that there
are many, many reading the transcripts. Everybody is getting something
different. And back to Cinderella, if the shoe feels snug, okay, and if it feels
loose, okay.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Indeed. We try to develop our lessons and deliver them in such a
way as to meet the needs of all truth-seekers. Many times even your personal
questions are cloaked in terms that can meet the learning needs of others in
similar circumstances. It is why, too, we encourage you to develop a
relationship with your own personal teacher(s) for those situations which are
indeed personal to you but that are not deserving of public broadcast. </P>
<P>However, those issues that comprise potential learning for the many are
utilized. And we are always appreciative of your willingness to understand that
as a method of teaching and preaching, in availing yourselves, even your
personal lives, to this format. Obviously it is not to expose you and bring you
up short, but to allow others to see also how, in willingness to grow, we are
strengthened and made more whole and more real by the growth that results from
our willingness.</P><B>
<P>Iyana:</B> Thank you, Tomas, for staying around so that you could talk to me
about that. It's not that I had the problem for myself, I mean, about
forgiveness. I just wanted to be a little more...</P><B>
<P>Hunnah:</B> Well, there is the immediate example of my friend's husband
passed away last week and their child is angry with God, and if that isn't dealt
with at the time, it can be something that's tucked away and they forget about
it, and is that...?</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Indeed, such an experience can block the personal relationship
with an individual and his creator for an entire lifetime. It is to those who
need to review their understanding of tenderness that would benefit from the
exercise of forgiving the Father. They, in their own souls, are bruised and
tender, and only in the embrace of the Parent, the loving Parent in Paradise,
can we be made whole, healed, cured, brought around to wholeness and wellness
and service.</P>
<P>We have had a delightful evening in your company. We have had a full repast,
and so for now we will call it a day. It is wise to not over-do, and with Anna
and Merium having recently come on board, let us not wear out our welcome on
their behalf, but rather now circulate and celebrate the joy of
sonship/daughtership with the living God. Embrace one another in the spirit and
be of good cheer. Until we speak again, I am your devoted friend and brother,
Tomas. Farewell.</P>
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