<!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 6.00.2900.2963" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><B>
<P>DATE:</B> March 18, 1997<BR><B>LOCATION:</B> Butler, PA, USA<BR><B>T/R's:
</B>Gerdean</P>
<P>Extended Stillness<BR><B>TEACHER SESSION<BR></B>Growing in Community<BR>Tomas
Pledges His Troth </P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Good evening, my friends. I trust I am not intruding too terribly
on your quiet time this evening. I am jumping in for there are many matters to
attend to and many in attendance. Indeed, we have the consideration of the
community, at hand. </P>
<P>It is such a joy to be a part of this joyous and munificent community of
God's children! The largess of my associates is as an embrace, and you will
discover, as you ascend and as you become more and more mindful of the merits of
spirit-family connection, that your lives, too, are enriched and ennobled beyond
compare by this understanding of being a part of this wondrous eternal heavenly
community.</P>
<P>And from this vastness it is necessary to curtail our ambition somewhat in
addressing "the group" and the values of community and group, to come all the
way down to the understanding and realization that a group comes into existence
when there are three. </P>
<P>And so we could say at the top end of the totem pole is the Eternal Trinity
and perhaps in good humor, at the bottom of the totem pole are you here this
evening. But none-the-less, three constitutes a group, and the same truths that
hold for the functioning and compatibility of the one is also true of and for
the other.</P>
<P>In our discussion of and understanding of group and community also, I would
like to give a broad stroke to what it is that we are discussing in these
upcoming lessons and experientials. I will liken the group, the smaller
configuration, to a community which has its certain sectarian situations, its
things in common, its interests, its values, its goals, its purposes, its
costumes, its rituals, to a tribal group and the tribal group as has developed
includes your political systems, your organized religions, your family clans and
so forth, all of which have value and all of which benefit and edify humanity as
humanity evolves into the greater global community concept en route to the
concept of cosmic citizenship.</P>
<P>In-as-much as you will be learning how to get along with other individuals
and function now and throughout millennia to come, it behooves us to review what
it means to be part of a configuration of others who have, as its congealing
purpose, similar values, similar goals, similar ideals, that this framework then
can be established, for in this framework you then have given yourself a place
to grow.</P>
<P>It has been an interesting period of time observing your community take
shape, observing your group come into being as a viable community of
fellow-believers, and become sufficiently united in your purpose as to actually
bring about some beneficial effects. This is only the beginning. Soon these
challenges you will take in stride and look back upon your early days of
understanding group service, group worship, group effort, much as you now look
back on your other early memories of cherished individual value lessons.</P>
<P>Much as the soul begins to grow a life of its own, so does community, and a
community must develop in order for it to have lasting value and reality. It is
possible to construct a community by the building of structures and garages and
thoroughfares and market places, but it is not possible to construct a community
spirit which must come from the heart of the individuals comprising the
community; like love, it must grow, for it is based on love and what love can do
in service.</P>
<P>Each of you who share the core reality of this Teacher Base Urantia group
have had a plethora of community concerns thrust upon you recently, and each of
you have, in a quality manner, taken your concerns to the Father, to Michael,
and to each other in sincere application of those values which we study in the
Urantia Book and which we practice in the fruits of the spirit.</P>
<P>As love prevails through your overt cooperation and co-creation, the
community of believers is a real and viable reality -- not just a conglomeration
of individualists, nor a manufactured structure in which to function, but a
living organism whose heart throbs / beats by way of the impulse of the First
Source and Center.</P>
<P>It is a step in ascension toward Paradise, and I want to thank you each and
commend you all for the conscientiousness that you have applied, the courageous
loyalty that you have given to your supreme values in this community growth of
late. Yet more experiences will be forthcoming, but you know that you can
survive them and you have become stronger as a community because of these growth
situations.</P>
<P>I am advised that I have gone on enough in a formal way regarding our venture
into group / community / teamwork and the like, but I would like to say one more
thing, and that is that although we are here as teachers and guides, friends and
companions, it is not "our" Master Plan. We are as enthralled and amazed as you
are to see His will unfold. It is as much of an adventure for us as it is for
you. And we also have our growth struggles, our speculations, and our
satisfactions when we see His will prevail.</P>
<P>Dear ones, how are you this evening? </P>
<P><B>Group:</B> Good. We've been busy listening. </P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> I am glad you are attentive. </P><B>
<P>Hunnah:</B> I registered what you said.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> I will tell you, for your information, that there are a host of
celestial helpers here this evening, perhaps more than usual. We have with us a
number of architects visiting, and an order of angelic beings who do not
normally linger in these sessions. I am acknowledging, too, the presence of
several midwayers who asked me to call to your attention their contribution
regarding community, and you will recall that their motto is ("their" being the
Secondary and Primary Midwayers) "Whatever the United Midwayers undertake, the
United Midwayers do," and I am certain you are impressed by the strength that
infers.</P>
<P>Whatever they undertake, they accomplish, and this involves two orders of
beings -- the primary and the secondary orders working in conjoint harmony. Of
course, they have been working together for centuries, and I trust they too have
had their growth conflicts, but it is wonderful to see the heights they have
attained and their unflagging faith that if they have assumed to accomplish a
purpose, it will be accomplished forthwith, unequivocally. How many of us can
speak with such conviction?</P>
<P>(Uncommonly quiet group; long pause) I have perhaps jutted into your musing,
your meditation, prematurely, before your cognizance was emergent.</P><B>
<P>Hunnah:</B> I will just say that you have my attention.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> I am glad that I have not caught you at half-mast. I can
understand why it is that you may not want to go into detail on several matters
that have exhausted you all lately, in terms of your group situations, but
surely there are other matters that we could bring up for fun. Anne, how are you
faring in the storm of this young community? Are you feeling a part
thereof?</P><B>
<P>Anne:</B> Oh, yeah. I feel right at home. I didn't realize it was a storm,
but .... I'm going with it. I did have a question though. Is there a particular
reason why all the extra entities are here?</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Always are you attended. Always are these sessions attended, for
you are of great and lasting interest and import to many. There are a number of
permanently assigned entities who show up as a matter of course, and there are
frequent visitors who also come by to observe you in your reaching. Some come to
observe the transmitting process, to anticipate that they too will experience
this at some point. There are many beings having to do with energy and so forth
who are often in the area to, shall we say, stabilize or adjust the circuits as
necessary, and you are ever observed by an assembly of the angelic hosts and
assisted by the able and eager midwayer cotillion.</P><B>
<P>Hunnah:</B> That's a fancy word. I have trouble putting your entourage
together in my mind. This is apparently without form, so I cannot appreciate it
as much as I would like to, or I cannot appreciate it as much as I would like
to.</P>
<P>You implied a greater agenda, while we sit here and haggle with these
frivolous problems. I feel far removed from the greatness of the purpose of your
being with us. I apologize because it seems to me you deserve better.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> My dear child, my precious sheep, you are gracious and humble and
you are a delight to my soul, but it is not necessary to apologize or feel
over-meek, for your growth is becoming more and more evident and more radiant.
It is why I am here, my dear, to enable you as individuals to reach your highest
potential. And then, as a community, to reach your highest community potential,
that the community then might become a beacon of Christ-consciousness and spirit
reality that will establish you and your Revelation as a viable gift of the
spirit to humanity.</P>
<P>Indeed, this community is not alone in our agenda. All of the communities, as
designated teacher bases, who have long-standing teachers, engage in this kind
of growth development. It is part of the curriculum. After the development of
the individual, what do we do now? We learn to be healthy individuals in a
bonded association of spirit in service to others and in company with ourselves.
It is a natural evolutionary step that once you know who you are, that you want
to get along with others, and so this is a part of our teaching format. Has that
clarified?</P><B>
<P>Hunnah:</B> I guess it has. I think of the people here and we are really not
in a position to influence the community unless it were by the light that we be
allowed to develop in our own beings.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Absolutely. And then, as you have the association of fellow
believers, you have the strength of that spirit community, your own brothers and
sisters in truth, that will reinforce your reality, strengthening not only you
and them, but your community, that you might then radiate this community into
the greater community as a beacon of community. And so you are not alone, but
you have the support and the socialization of other kingdom-builders.</P>
<P>Now, as you develop your arts and techniques of spirit community, you can
impart your learning into your other community configurations, such as in your
organized churches or your school boards or your political arenas and town
meetings and quilting bees and so forth, for once you have grasped a true
reality and it has been reinforced, once it has become your modus operand!, your
reality, then you affect others by the use of it, by the mere being of it, you
see. I have heard you say as much.</P><B>
<P>Hunnah:</B> May I ask permission to take a break?</P>
<P><B>TOMAS:</B> Permission granted.</P>
<P align=center><B>[Intermission]</P>
<P>TOMAS:</B> I have enjoyed intermission. I am Tomas, I am back, and I will not
keep you late. I know that my words were not light and inspirational, but
ponderous and pedantic, but necessary, none-the-less, and timely. I am sure you
will agree. </P>
<P>But before I go I want to reference a remark I made last week and follow it
up somewhat for it too reflects on community values and concerns and it has to
do with my remark regarding my associate Merium and how well she was operating
in and through the auspices of Hunnah, and I said that I would not relinquish
her entirely, that I indeed was feeling, and admitted to, some sense of
possessiveness or jealousy in the context of wanting to hold her to myself for
safekeeping.</P>
<P>And now I would like to address that, in that, it would be unseemly of a
teacher to admit to having a quality which would be regarded in most cases as a
negative and inferior light, but I would like to hold to my statement but point
out that a lower and lesser understanding of jealousy has to do with suspicion
and resentment and a sense of grasping and it was not in that context that I
indicated my jealous regard for Merium, but rather in the sense of protecting a
treasure.</P>
<P>I jealously guard my relationship with Merium and indeed I jealously guard my
relationship with each of you. I will go so far as to say that as a teacher
assigned to this community, I am going to jealously guard the values of our
purpose in sublime esteemed light. If I feel, then, that the integrity of the
Mission or of the Revelation itself is being compromised, on behalf of you and
the Teaching Corps and the Revelators and Machiventa and Michael, I will speak
in jealous regard for its sanctity.</P>
<P>I cannot allow the treasure of this Revelation, this gift to this emerald
planet of Michael's bestowal, this place of my assignment, and this arena of
your lives, cannot allow it to go by chance into default or disrepair. I will
jealously guard it, then, and so I have made my statement. </P><B>
<P>Hunnah:</B> May I speak? </P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Yes.</P><B>
<P>Hunnah:</B> Thank you for that beautiful statement. It's very comforting and
reassuring to know that you hold your mission in such high esteem, because I
feel that in our heart we feel the same way, and it is very frustrating for us
to be tripping over human disfigured patterns of living and misunderstandings.
It's so disgusting to have to deal with some of the things, the trivialities
that hold us down.</P>
<P>Well, I interpret your statement as the song of joy, because you are aware of
your mission and the integrity that you hold for it. It is an honor to be
associated with somebody who has such pristine values and it gives me hope that
the things that have shaken our little forms here, and given us a moment of
doubt, I feel that you have dissolved that.</P><B>
<P>TOMAS:</B> Fear not for my loyalty, and also rest assured that those values
that we hold dear are the root of our community purpose. It is in that context
that we are in this configuration. Now, as individuals, as we discuss individual
paths to the Father, there are, of course, many variations on the theme --
scaffolding, if you will, much background material en route, but effective
immediately, it may be understood that in terms of our community/ group efforts,
the teamwork that will commence has to do with our work in promulgating our
understanding of Michael of Nebadon and his goals for us.</P>
<P>I would like to also state for your comfort, Daughter, that although you
offer a descriptive adjective of "disgusting" to the human condition, it is not
necessary to efface your humanness (yours individually or collectively), for it
is understood how frail you are and from what soil you have emerged. As you grow
in the spirit and as you understand the tremendous community of assistants you
have in the spirit and in the flesh, you will be able to grow beyond your more
debilitating handicaps of time and space.</P>
<P>It is a very hopeful threshold that we embark upon/over. In time, indeed very
soon, your humble attitude will become a triumphant bugle call of glory and
honor in truth for those of us who stand as your aide in your efforts to exalt
our Creator Father/Brother and His/our Eternal Parent on High. It is a noble
work. It is not for weaklings. It is not for dreamers. It is for stalwart
workers in the field, and you do me honor by your testimony.</P>
<P>And so now, my comrades, let us wind down for the evening for there is still
time for you to savor one another's being and indeed indulge in a little private
time with the Father before you go to your rest. Merium joins me in admitting
our love for you, our embrace of you, and our best wishes to you in the few next
upcoming days. Go in peace. Farewell.</P>
<P> </P>
<P> </P>
<P> </P></DIV></BODY></HTML>