<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML xmlns:st1 = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" xmlns:o =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content=text/html;charset=iso-8859-1>
<STYLE></STYLE>
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.6000.16609" name=GENERATOR></HEAD>
<BODY id=MailContainerBody
style="PADDING-LEFT: 10px; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: #000000; BORDER-TOP-STYLE: none; PADDING-TOP: 15px; FONT-STYLE: normal; FONT-FAMILY: Verdana; BORDER-RIGHT-STYLE: none; BORDER-LEFT-STYLE: none; TEXT-DECORATION: none; BORDER-BOTTOM-STYLE: none"
leftMargin=0 topMargin=0 acc_role="text" CanvasTabStop="true"
name="Compose message area"><!--[gte IE 5]><?xml:namespace prefix="v" /><?xml:namespace prefix="o" /><![endif]-->
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><FONT size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">Michael--</SPAN><st1:date Year="2008" Day="10"
Month="3"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">March 10,
2008</SPAN></st1:date><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">Marin TM Group--Mill Valley,
</SPAN><st1:State><st1:place><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">California</SPAN></st1:place></st1:State><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">--</SPAN><st1:country-region><st1:place><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">U.S.A.</SPAN></st1:place></st1:country-region><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT
size=3>MICHAEL--T/R-JL<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Your personal
spirit)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Trust in your own spontaneous
creativity)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Keeping yourself good
company)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Meeting the challenge of
others)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Memory and soul)
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(The irreducible strangeness in
reality)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Dealing with unwanted
responses)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Dear Michael and Mother Spirit,<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Greetings and salutations.
<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Once again we find ourselves
tickled and excited to spending this time with you. We do enjoy your insights:
they work. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We find ourselves able
to feel something that’s not exactly our ego notions of who we are and who we’ve
been. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s more like a living
presence within us. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Strangely
enough it gives us a kind of confidence.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Perhaps because it is so formless, yet persistent, we’re able to forget
ourselves; we can trust in this presence that seems actually stronger than our
shifting self-awareness.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We can be
more playful, more joyful right in the material and psychological constraints we
find ourselves.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And this is fine
enough, especially as we see this spirit in others. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So thank you for your suggestions. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We’ll do our best to put them into
action. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Amen.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Good evening, my children, this is
Michael. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>My, what a wonderful group
tonight. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Mother Spirit and I
especially welcome the new faces among our stalwart and loyal sons. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We too look forward to these
meetings.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Perhaps we can appreciate
more than yourselves how you are constantly changing and growing.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We too are tickled that you can have
this sense of yourselves, the awareness of a spiritual presence that, even
though you cannot get hold of it and move it this way or that with your will,
you are discovering how you can trust it.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>It is indeed stronger than your momentary, ever changing consciousness of
yourselves.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Your spirit is truly
more tenacious; and you are feeling a true reflection of a continuity that is,
as you are discovering, other than your ego--your ideas and notions about who
you are and who you’ve been.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Your personal
spirit)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>You find it interesting this
feeling/awareness comes about by relinquishing a death grip on yourselves, by
relaxing.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s partly your humility
in realizing you are more than what you can be momentarily aware of. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This continuity of spirit is of such a
nature, it’s more a true discovery, my children, rather than a creative
invention. It’s a presence that, once you are able to feel it, you may have a
further realization that it has always been here; if you will, it’s more truly
who you are and who you’ve been. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is the spiritual wellspring of your
personality, a constantly refreshing emergence of power and strength that is
quite distinct from your body and your mind.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And, as Mother Spirit pointed out, it
does form an encompassing for your conscious self like--on a much smaller
scale--the encompassing of God himself. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>You are a little locus of energy, not
only physical and psychic energy, but spiritual energy, bursting into time and
space.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As you relax in stillness,
or even in contemplation in the middle of the busiest activity, you can truly
keep yourself company. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You can
share your life with your deeper self. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You can feel the spiritual events in your
life, especially the people you meet, the love and affection you share with
them; you can feel this adding to your soul. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You can know: this is the good stuff;
this is what lasts.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>We keep pointing at this essence of
yourself, my children, because it is by dint of this, and dependent upon this,
that you can begin to perceive it in others.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You have to have this trust, this faith,
this assurance, to allow these others--your dearest friends, your most beloved
compatriots--to come into you and register.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Perhaps you’ve experienced this already,
that as you forget yourself in this new-found confidence, long familiar faces
are suddenly more up to date.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You
can see them anew through a kind of mask or overlay of familiarity, to what is
present and alive. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s a wonderful
vision of your friends, is it not--here and now? <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>For as you see through a kind of
cloying sentimentality to their living individual presence, you can also
recognize within them all the sometimes dozens of previous people you’ve known
them to be.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s more than mere
nostalgia. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You can actually see in
them, for precious moments, the child, the teenager, the young adult, and know
deep in your heart: this is something you are sharing that moment.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>At that very moment this is also how
they are seeing you.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is one of
the powers of enduring friendship and love. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Time is not a simple dimension, my
children, but actually many dimensions you’re beginning to come to know. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>For it’s all present.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is one of our greatest
difficulties--how to put into your language and your experience so far how
everything is present, and truly there is no end to eternity in the infinity of
this present spontaneity; everything is alive. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In a sense, the creation is the living
body of God, infused with His spirit.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>This becomes for you, as a personal experience, something you can trust.
<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You discover this is what you have
been standing on all along. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is
a truer continuity of you.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Seen from this vision there are no
regrets, for as we have said before, everything that ever happened, right up to
an instant ago, had to. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There’s
nothing you’ve ever done, nothing you’ve known--even those temporary
illusions--that was not the result of living, constantly changing and
interacting existents.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And that’s
all constantly, if you will, tumbling headlong into now, like you are standing
at the base of a waterfall of all the past pouring into now.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And there’s that huge chasm of the
unknowable that you step off into out of the past.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Trust in your own spontaneous
creativity)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>With an increase of faith you can come
to trust in your own spontaneity, your own ability to respond adequately, even
playfully, to the next moment. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You
can get a heightened sense of both all the need for planning, anticipating,
foresight, provision--for you are an economic being, you need to provide; and
still, you don’t know exactly what is going to happen a few minutes from now,
for as you approach spirit, life gets evermore spontaneous. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So there is a kind of nerve required
here. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(nervous laughter?)<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There is indeed a great need for the
appreciation of Mother Spirit’s help through her Adjunct of Courage.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>A foregone, utterly predictable eternity
would be hell otherwise. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You’ll
always be facing the certain opacity of what you’ve not yet encountered simply
because the universe is a big place, full of trillions of unique persons. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Also, your very own being is in itself an
endless ground for discovery, another wellspring of marvelous adaptability in
response to what you meet. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Isn’t it
fun when you surprise yourself--positively? <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>All of this, my children, you can begin
to see in others.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>More than you
know anything else, you know when you are sharing this love, this affection,
this connection. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>True enough,
everything passes, everything changes--necessarily so. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There is something growing here.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There is something evolving here on a
cosmic scale. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But you can know
moments of fulfillment, of sharing, of love and delight. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It was for this you were made.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In this way you most truly are made in
God’s image. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In this you can share
His power of letting go, His power of bequeathing to all others so much of
Himself, for like Him, you find the more of yourself you give away, the more you
are; hence, for Him, the creation; for you, a fulfilling human life.
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>So with all these other unique
individual beings, don’t be afraid to let their reality overwhelm you from time
to time. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Feel free to splash around
in this waterfall of affection, this sharing your life with others. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This, my children, is your greatest gift
for you and them. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So seek and find
the courage to be playful. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Find the
nerve to give yourself away.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Let
all your cares drown from time to time in laughter.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We’ll be right there with you enjoying
the fun--a little cotton candy for your soul. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>If you have any questions or comments
this evening, go ahead.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I don’t have any questions or
comments--questions that is. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I just
thank you, and Mother, and all your children who are personally involved in my
life.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Thank you very much; I
appreciate it.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You are welcome, my son.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Since last time when Mother Spirit
teased you into reaching for yourself, and finding something there, have you
been successful? <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Is there a kind of
you there now? <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Keeping yourself good
company)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I…I, wow, what a question.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(group laughs) <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There has always been a me here, but I
have not always recognized it as me. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I’ve not always liked what I saw, but the
problem is in differentiating the me that I really am from what I think I
am--this evolutionary body and mind I live in. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That’s the difficult part.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But there definitely is a me here.
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL (chuckling):<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Well, you were in a bit of doubt about
that the last time,<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(Yeah) so we’ll
call that progress. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Be in my
peace.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student: <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Thank you, Father.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes, Michael.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The idea of sharing myself with
others--I know I’ve always been doing that, but even more so lately I’ve been
aware of how sometimes I tend to avoid that, how I shy away, get caught up in
distractions, or get caught up in the past, or future expectations.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s so important that when we are
engaging with each person we come in contact with, that we are in the present
moment, that we are committed to beneficial intent, the innate wisdom that
exists within all of us.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So we are
able to be there for each person we come into contact with, and not come from
the self-imposed constraints of the past, or what we thought was right or wrong.
<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We come from the living wisdom that
is within us and the love that we already are.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Meeting the challenge of
others)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes, my son, I think you’ve got a pretty
good grip on it there. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s
welcoming this unpredictable uniqueness of each person, welcoming the challenge
of this that, as you say, brings you into the present moment. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s acknowledging an irreducible
strangeness, for that is how it appears at the time. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As you say, you don’t always feel ready
for it, or capable of it.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You’re
kind-of shy about meeting the challenge of this other human being approaching
you. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yet it’s wonderful how in
accepting this challenge, you realize that this very thing in turn enlivens you
and brings forth your own deeper responses. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yeah, what I’ve found too is that when I
do feel something of the past cloud my perception of what is now, I really feel
it, and I can’t run away from it. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I
don’t want to indulge in it, and I don’t want to kind-of deny it either.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So I just have to sit with it. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I just have to rest with it and then, if
I allow myself to do that, then the situation I am experiencing with another
human being gets resolved, and it works for them too. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I feel that at home; it’s a lot more
congenial and amiable, a lot more harmonious with all the diverse
personalities.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So I see the
benefits of that and the results of that.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You once said this open-mindedness is
nirvana enough, this seeing with what I call a presence within you that welcomes
those faces you’ve known for so many years now, that are changing, and growing.
<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is what we mean by the present
moment being so elastic spiritually, capable of so much more than you have yet
known.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>To go forward and welcome
this in spite of, or even because of the strangeness, does take nerve--to see
some old friend, or a wife or a husband you’ve known for thirty years now--to
see them ever fresh and new; to see as well the so-called ravages of time, and
yet welcome it all with faith and trust in your eternal potential, in the living
presence springing up in the two of you as you reach for each other.
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes, I’ve experienced that with my
ex-wife being around more and helping out with our grandchild; there’s a lot
more affection and geniality between us.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>We’re more civil with each other and we accept each other, and that plays
a part in her relationship with my daughter as well. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You mention how we all are unique beings,
but there is a sameness about us as well, an equality about us--which is
God.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We are unique creations of
God, but we are His--His intelligence, His wisdom, His love, His
joy.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Well, good, you’re starting to hold both
now in consciousness.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Thank you for that. (group
laughs)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You are very welcome, my son.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You can thank too your nerve to get out
there and try these things, to indulge our suggestions and give them credence,
give them value in your life.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student: There are times though where I
do get a little tired of that, where I’m the only one, it seems, doing that; but
I guess it has to start somewhere, at least in my own little
circle.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL: <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You can get spiritually exhausted at
times. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You can be overwhelmed with
shyness, which is often simply your larger self saying enough for a while, time
to rest, time to rest in just a pure awareness of yourself in stillness, where
you share this fundamental uniqueness of your being with God, with Mother Spirit
and myself.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Um, thank you for that.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s beautiful.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>When you said that my whole being…my
whole being just melted. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I just
want to walk off into a garden. (group laughs and laughs) <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yeah, that’s cool. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Thank you. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This confrontation is for some really
impoverished souls, such enormous terror--even approaching or going into realms
of insanity--their realization of human uniqueness is like humanity itself--the
Godly unity or sameness you spoke of--just disappears.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They find themselves surrounded by
beings who are not even human anymore, everyone is so unique. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yet to the more fulfilled soul there can
be such a reassurance in the enormous fact of this. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There is that which is so unique within
you, that is you, you cannot capture it. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s just this living presence that you
can, however, let be; and know this is where you are touching your Father, and
Mother Spirit, and me. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This
presence is also partly us.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s
where you enjoy my peace, my son.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>(Thanks) <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 12pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I’d like to express my gratitude to
Michael and Mother Spirit Nebadonia for your creativity, and for your courage in
crafting from this raw material of a planetary experience such jewels, such
glowing creatures.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And in that
sense I wanted to question and comment simultaneously concerning the attributes
of memory, and how it is that as we increasingly discover our blended
nature--the central, the human, the divine, the terrestrial, the celestial--that
memory--seemingly anyway--becomes filled with love--even as it recalls the
momentary awareness of love’s absence, or the appearance of its absence.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>What I would ask is, in the process of
remembering every moment--which in potential includes all future, past, and
present--that is all present here as you so well said: is it not really true, as
Mother has suggested, that all that is, is so beautiful and true that there is
nothing, in fact, that is not love--in spite of what we know to be from our
temporal viewpoint--so much that we might hesitate to credit? <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Is it true that we can actually remember
all things? <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Thank
you.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 12pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Memory and soul)
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 12pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes, my son, to answer your question I
would like to draw a distinction between memory and soul.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There is a difficulty in language here
for every sentence I say would require a few paragraphs to fully define my
terms.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But for now let us say that
memory is a function of your physical brain--those billions of neurons that make
up your physical being, and is somewhat available to you with more or less
degree of error.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The spiritual
transcript of your life, co-authored by a pure fragment of God, in other
words--your soul, is not an inactive notebook but a profoundly active, living
part of your human reality.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So as
you experience what you call memory, it is a brain function, again to enormously
varying degrees, being amplified, being fulfilled by your soul.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is pretty much in direct proportion
to your spiritual awareness and growth--how much of this spiritual construct is
available right along with your physical memories.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 12pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Think of some past event, shall we say
some happy, sunny afternoon when you were quite young.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As you are sitting in meditation
wondering about this time, you notice that, in your present human condition, you
must give up almost all of your awareness of your present, surrounding situation
to relive this moment from your past.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>If you want to be captured by your own soul for just a few precious
moments, they cost you the awareness of now.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is why we say that your soul is so
enormous, it is such a pure spiritual construct of your whole life from God’s
point of view, that to approach your own soul is to approach your Father
Fragment, its co-author.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>To become
fully one with, and cognizant of the enormity of your soul, is the same as
fusing with your Father Fragment, for these are parallel developments, parallel
growths.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As you know, this usually
takes several phases of coming Morontia reality and growth to accomplish.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You’ve even been informed that the
joining and eternal fusing with your Father Fragment gives you the souls of all
the other humans it has experienced and has carried along as a kind of
sacrosanct gift for you two to share. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 12pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>So the truth of any particular memory,
any particular soul-contribution, is something you have to evaluate with your
own spirit.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>How true does it
ring?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>What does it mean to
you--now--as you re-experience that sunny afternoon which is costing you your
awareness of the present?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You see
what I mean, my son? As you let this previous afternoon swell into all of you,
to really relive even a few moments of some past time, you give up the awareness
of your present being.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You have a
ways to grow yet before you can do both simultaneously.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Does this at least begin to answer your
question?<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 12pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It stimulates more questions…(much
laughter)… but I will withhold them and just say thank you for your willingness
to share your own memories, the memory of your own soul-growth that is composed
of countless numbers of your children; which for us may appear as future, or
past--it really doesn’t matter, for it is all present.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Your willingness to share everything you
are inspires us to do the same.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We
are very grateful for your charm, grateful to embrace you and walk along with
your children--especially those here now.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 12pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Thank you, my son.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I do appreciate your love.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>If I would add one small caution: the
future does not exist.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(much
laughter)<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The future has not yet
happened.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Even God, our Father, has
not yet experienced what you will experience five minutes from now.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>His pre-knowledge is existential, and
only that insofar as nothing can happen that is not within Him, within His
eternal laws--keeping in mind He is absolute and infinite.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But He does not yet
know--personally--your experience.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 12pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes--I was speaking only of future and
past as conditioned by Him, which is, as you have well said, completely
flexible--the plasticity is so beautiful.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>I want to thank you for that. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 12pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You are most welcome, my son.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Be in my
peace.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 12pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Well, hello Michael, this is B.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I’m mulling over this plasticity and
there is something that is really salient in what you said tonight.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Actually it’s just a phrase that struck
me as an amazing notion, and that is when you referred to the power of the
moment; or was it that the encounter with another person contains an irreducible
strangeness?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Anyway, the words were
irreducible strangeness, and it reminded me of a school of poetry where that was
one of their phrases--that a poet is someone who is able to perceive the
strangeness of every moment and describe it lines of poetry.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>If you can capture the strangeness, then
you’ve got a creative moment in your own consciousness.
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 12pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Anyway, I was wondering if you could
unpack this idea of irreducible strangeness for me, and for us tonight.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It would be wonderful to hear
more.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 12pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(The irreducible strangeness in
reality)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 12pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes, my son, we’ve referred to it often
in the past as the continuous creativity on the part of God in terms of all of
creation--Paradise, Havona, and the universe of time and space; that all this is
not just some clock that was wound up and given a little nudge to start it going
ever since.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>True, there is
that.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There is a continuity of
God’s habitual way of doing things that is a fantastic extension--beyond what
you have already discovered--of what you call natural law.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yet there is not only this continuity
but, in perfect equipoise with it, a continuing creation.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Every moment in time is unique.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There is something happening in the
present which never happened before.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>The universe, in this sense, is not repeating itself.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is a cosmic fact you can
perceive--if you have a poet’s eye.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>(A-ha!)<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 12pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>And yet, as you know, there are folks
perishing from boredom, living terribly stunted, painful lives of sameness.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We suggest this is part of that shyness
I spoke of before, the fear of seeing something new, something startling,
something that challenges their very being; and this leads at times, in a worst
case scenario, to a withdrawing from life, from this unpredictable, spontaneous
creativity--even unto death.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We’ve
referred to this cosmic creativity as a chasm of the unknowable that exists
right in front of you, and which requires courage to step off into.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It takes some nerve to be open to, even
welcome, that strangeness you cannot predict, for at the same time this does not
relieve you one iota of the necessity for insight, leading to foresight, for
that provision I mentioned.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You
even use predictability as a validation of your scientific method, to not only
explain some phenomena, but how well is your theory able to predict, infallibly,
what will happen--a further extension, if you will, of natural law.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(Right)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 12pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>So this is another way of expressing
that irreducible strangeness, that fundamental uniqueness of every personal
being, of all orders from the highest to the lowest.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 12pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Does that translate into the irreducible
uniqueness of every moment--directly?--also?<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 12pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes: this is a cosmic fact, though
variously perceptible.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There are
folks dying for lack of seeing it.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>But it is there: it is a fact.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>God--if you will--does not have to repeat Himself.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>He is a
fountain.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 12pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And each individual is a
fountain.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 12pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is especially true from the point
of view of their personality, their personal spirit--which again, not all are
able to achieve consciousness of.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>This is why we draw a distinction between your personality and your
conscious self--or self-consciousness.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Tonight I tried to draw a distinction between your notions of yourself
you have in terms of psychology--how you remember yourself as a physical being,
from the rather ineffable living presence of your spirit.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 12pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Which may be missing in the contemporary
discussion of the power of now--which is so…a bit faddish in our culture.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There is a book, The Power Of Now,
seemingly without reference to personality as we understand it.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And so I can only thank you for drawing
all these fine distinctions, and giving me this life to try to live into that,
and be that, and be conscious of your creation, with gratitude from my heart.
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 12pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Thank you, my son.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I might add the centuries-old saying
that now is the fulcrum point of all that is to come, that the future is
determined moment to moment.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There
has been a general consciousness of this for some time, existing right alongside
the equally widespread notions of fatalism--that the future is fixed.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We extend your growing abilities past
death into the Morontia phases of your life, and it is in this sense that your
present moment, including your sense of presence--is infinitely expandable.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You can become more and more fully
conscious of your soul, of all the people you’ve already been, of all those
hundreds of thousands of hours of your life, and all those, perhaps hundreds of
persons you’ve known.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This you may
enjoy for only a few precious moments of touching now, for there is also a
wisdom that keeps you oriented toward the present moment coming down in your
normative consciousness.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You have
to deliberately relax this regular consciousness to know different states of
mind, including your soul.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 12pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>So: keep stretching!<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(much laughter)<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Keep embracing the need for it that will
come your way.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I’m happy you are
gaining a sense of humor about all these necessities.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 12pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Thank you for the gift of
laughter.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 12pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL: Be in my peace.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 12pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Michael, this is C, and what you talked
about tonight really helps me.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But
I find there are times when I really struggle to get beyond a certain reaction I
have when I open up to other people, and find myself being spontaneous and in
the moment.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Afterwards I don’t feel
I was very well received.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It brings
up feelings from the past of being rejected and humiliated.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So when I’m alone I have a hard time
stepping out of that thing of feeling rejected and humiliated.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Even though I know the presence of God
is within me, I can’t seem to find the way to step over to it, or to release
where I am.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I try to be with Him,
but I can spend a number of hours of the day still struggling with it, and I was
wondering if there is any guidance you could give me on where to address my
attention?<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 12pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Dealing with unwanted
responses)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 12pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes, my daughter, you put your finger
right on the reason we call this that you seek an ability, something you have to
learn--you have to earn--often enough through trial and error, as you open
yourself.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>A necessary component of
that is a kind of equanimity, a kind of contentment in expressing yourself
honestly, along with an acceptance of how you are received--whatever response
you get.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It calls for, at one and
the same time, being independent of their response--an inner strength, if you
will, of not needing any particular response too much, yet also a real spiritual
generosity in just feeling good you are doing the best you can to be you--be
authentic, in their presence.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This
takes spiritual energy.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It takes
courage.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It takes all of Mother
Spirit’s support you can get of her Spirit of Council, of human
companionship.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It takes all this to
come up to the moment, and then even more to stay in the moment.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>For as you say, if you suddenly
encounter an unexpected or unwelcome response, you may experience a falling back
from the present moment and being recaptured by past associations of other
painful moments.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 12pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>So you see, my daughter, this is where
you can help yourself by, first of all, giving yourself credit for your generous
spirit that is reaching out; credit for your self-honesty in trying your best to
be you, irrespective of how you can tell this other person wants you to be.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>For you can feel all the different ways
they might be manipulating, or enticing, or seducing, or trying to control you,
to have you be the person they want you to be.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The more you can feel this too, this
subtle, or not so subtle, pigeonhole they’re trying to put you in, the more you
can realize there is no way of fulfilling that.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In fact you do them too a spiritual
disservice by being other than you.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 12pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>So this honesty is not some egotistic
thing.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It is the living
presence of your self that you do share with Mother Spirit and me, and with
God.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You are staying true to
this.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You are being open.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You are forgetting yourself in order to
be true to this, to let your spontaneous spirit out.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 12pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>This ability does not come all at once;
it’s a growth.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In those moments
later when you are caught up in a kind of regression, in painful memories of
other times, this is part of the price you are paying, my daughter, for this
ability.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is, if you will, you
rubbing your own nose in your as yet inability to stay present.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But you do know it, and not only
intellectually; I think you know it in a very heartfelt way, what an ideal this
is--to not let these little incidents destroy you, but have faith there is this
God-connection there to be rediscovered anew each time.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Some times you must simply wait out all
this inner pain, this inner disappointment, and just keep the faith that it too
will pass.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You are growing
this ability, and you will open up again; you will step off again.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Your spirit will achieve this
generosity, this gift of yourself to another--however received.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(Thank you)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 12pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>You are very welcome, my daughter.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Keep up your courage.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Keep up your nerve to be yourself.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And be in my peace.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 12pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Well, my children, I thank you again
for a truly heartfelt evening.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You
are my soul, and I am delighted to be a part of yours.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Carry on.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Keep stepping off into the unknown.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>These are genuine abilities you are
earning through experience.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So
don’t forget to forgive us too--Mother Spirit and myself, and God--for the very
reality of pain, for the suffering: they too are real.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Everything you experience becomes part
of your soul.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is what makes it
yours.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 12pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Yes indeed, in time, and because of
time, you will come to embrace all you have ever been.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But for now it does require faith; it
does require trust to feel this living presence, and be true to it.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We trust in our Father, for this is His
plan.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This was, and continues to
be, His creation.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We rest in His
everlasting arms, while I invite you to rest in my peace.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Good evening. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P></DIV></BODY></HTML>