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<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 Month="6" Day="16"
Year="2008"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">June 16,
2008</SPAN></st1:date><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><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>(Faith in
oneself)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Breaking unconscious
identification)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Changing fear into adventure)
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Seeking the kingdom: spiritual unity
vs. uniformity)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Hope and
faith)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Actual experience vs. invalid
generalizations)<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>(Not a soul
lost)<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>We thank you for your
continuing interest in contacting with us this particular way. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Although we’re not exactly sure how this
happens, we do know it would not happen without your desire, your intention that
it does.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We feel quite blessed to
be in this time of the Teaching Mission.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Though we may not know exactly how this process comes about, we trust our
own evaluation of what comes across. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We’ve tried your suggestions and find
they work. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We’ve applied your
insights to our understanding and find they have great
validity.<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>But it is mainly this feeling of your
presence here in our meetings, and then in our own meditation, our growing
awareness of yours and our Father’s input into our day to day lives, these
little reminders of yours that spirit is always about us and a part of us, that
we really treasure--these moments you’ve let us know you are nearby and always
with us. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So we thank you from the
bottom of our hearts. 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>Yes, it is good to be
together again. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It fills our hearts
in a very unique way--this energy field we all create together. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is that joy of fellowship, that
Spirit Adjutant of Consul, of gregariousness, of enjoying each other’s company
beyond any economic need.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That was
always good too, when people all through history banded together for food and
shelter, or mutual protection.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But
to get together like this is a result and a sign of individual freedom, to take
time out of your busy lives to pay your love and your respect and your caring to
the realm of spirit, to the origin of everything.<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>(Faith in
oneself)<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>This is a new beginning for mankind
when individuals can more and more trust their own inner perception of spirit,
their own inner evaluation of truth, and not need to rely on some second- or
third-hand recitation of dogma, or just some accepted traditions, for their
guidelines on how to live.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is
to open yourself to that aspect of reality that is always new, always being
continuously forthcoming from God himself, even if it is only a new day
dawning.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>To be open this way does
require faith, a great faith in yourself, in your own spontaneity, in your own
ability to come up--on the moment, at the moment--with the necessary, creative
solution. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is being fully
engaged in a way that feeds your soul like no mere recitation of dogma, no
reliance upon any kind of fixed notions of reality can
provide.<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>This is really--as you say--being out
there, being up front, being totally who you are, trusting in this full
commitment of yourself with a kind of self-forgetfulness, laying all of yourself
on the line without any reservation.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Even though you may not be able to do this purely in a total sense, just
to approach it gives you such a feedback on your own spiritual nature: there is
something in you that can rise to the occasion.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You come to trust in this spontaneous
spirit of yours to meet what cannot be fully anticipated. <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>This is to realize with all humility
that even your best insight cannot entirely predict what will come. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Your foresight can never be entirely
adequate, mainly because you have to deal with others who may be equally
spontaneous, equally creative, and equally coming from their own point of view
in what they see is their own best interest.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This confrontation has been enough to
make a few odd, rare individuals into hermits, fleeing all that other contact,
hiding off in some remote woods to have the assurance they know what’s coming
next; but then tragically missing the real adventure, the real joy of meeting
others and together creating something even more spontaneous. This is that
delightful dance that takes two--as you say--to tango, two or more; or to quote
another saying: the more the merrier. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is the joy, the delight in getting
together that human beings have known in each other from the very beginning.
<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>Mother Spirit last time gave a lesson
on how to approach yourselves and each other in this very fresh, spiritually
grounded way; how, in a way, not to see each other in some kind of generalized
terms, some abstract notions, but to be open for this spontaneous, very direct,
immediate way of contact, way of perception. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s being very much aware on what level
of generality or specificity your beliefs and reasoning are affecting your
perceptions.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You’re using your
insightful understanding to be aware of the limitations of any particular
conclusions.<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>There are a lot of valid insights you
can have into another peoples’ culture in a general sense, but always keep in
mind, my children, the supremacy of the individual.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is especially important since this
is also the direction in which we of the spiritual community are trying to nudge
you--to come ever more fully from your individually unique experience. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>First find your own genuine expression,
and then in your reasoning, be aware of the limitations you have in knowing and
assessing another unique individual. <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 teased you before to reconsider that
old saying that a person cannot see the forest for the trees; they cannot see
the overall situation, they’re so blinded or overwhelmed by the particulars
right in front of them.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You have
since a long time past--as individuals in your modern cultures, surrounded by so
much media from the time of being very small children--you have long been in the
exactly opposite situation: you often can’t see the trees for the forest. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You often think and reason in such
generalities, such self-assured notions of what the situation is, who the people
are, you cannot see the individuals right in front of you. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You cannot credit their individuality,
but rather you cling to your self-assured notions, your abstract generalities of
what are really--as we say--a lot of little walking infinities.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That is your, and their, true
nature.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That is the fundamental
reality, the actuality, if you will, of any group of whatever
size.<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>(Breaking unconscious
identification)<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>Sadly, the major exception in turn to
this truth, and one way in which you can make valid generalizations about groups
of people, is when the persons themselves have either voluntarily or
unconsciously given up their own individuality, just to belong. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>These are folks who only feel comfortable
when they can submerge themselves in identifying with some group.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And as Mother Spirit said, the process
of breaking this identification, of seeing through their mistaken notions of the
infallibility of some person or group, seems like some terrible disillusionment.
<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But always, my children, always the
reality is better than the illusion. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You must always be ready to embrace the
reality in order to keep growing. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is that orientation, that courage
that is necessary for a person to become an individual, to break down their
group identification, to withdraw any support that is unconscious and
unthinking. <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>It is necessary for you to withdraw
your support from those leaders who would rather callously and cynically use you
for their own ends.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It is also sad
to say that all through history so many supposed religious teachers and leaders
were in reality politicians, more interested in their own self aggrandizement
and social power over others than portraying any kind of spiritual insight and
truth.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They derive their real power
from the unconscious identification of all their followers--that unquestioned
obedience, that psychological need of their followers for someone else to tell
them that which they themselves really need to decide. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>How many religious teachers have told
their followers that they themselves--their congregation--have the presence of
God within them whose guidance supersedes all ecclesiastical, all church
authority? <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>How many religious
teachers have encouraged their followers to question everything, even that which
these teachers themselves have presented as truth? <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>So this is one way to get a feeling and
realize what is at stake here, one way for open-minded democracy, both within
you and without, to grow. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Think of
each self-knowing individual man or woman being spiritually grounded, based in
their own unique experience, questioning everything, yet humble in the face of
the transcendent nature of human reality and aware of their own limitations; at
the same time being able to rest in my peace, being able to feel Mother Spirit’s
love, and being open to the fragment of the Father within them ever pointing the
way forward. <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 set this ideal before you and ask
merely that you entertain it. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Think
about it. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>See if you can’t perceive
yourself and your fellows ever more truly, even if ever more
strange--(laughter)--OK, not altogether; maybe a little bit so. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Your modern media is such a wonderful
tool to help you open yourself to the world. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You do have marvelous programs exploring
all the different cultures of the present day world, and then too, your human
history clear back into ancient times of all the civilizations come and gone,
all the races of men and women come and gone. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You have your Urantia book with its
singular perspective, it’s unique story to tell starting several hundred billion
years ago.<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 do have all this marvelous
information.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is what can feed
you.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is what can help you
realize by a kind of feedback loop, a kind of back-azimuth with your inner
compass, telling you who and what you are. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Just don’t be afraid to be still from
time to time to get in touch with all you have accumulated. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Use my Spirit of Truth to help sort
through it all. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Feel Mother
Spirit’s nudge towards wisdom, towards understanding, towards coming up with
your own comprehensive philosophy that makes sense of it all.
<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>This is your inner spiritual life, your
inner growth that adds so much to your soul.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Conversely this opens you to feel what
your soul has to give back.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is
the wonderful balance of all the aspects of yourself--the physical, the mental,
the spiritual--that helps you recognize all of this in each other. <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>But enough for tonight. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I think you get the picture. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s quite an adventure, this taking on
and this giving up; this standing unique, and individual, and free; this
fulfilling God’s intentions for you--which always has been, fundamentally, that
you be a free son or daughter of His.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>This is His primary intention for you, my children, as it is my own and
Mother Spirit’s. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This freedom is
not free; it does cost you: you must pay attention.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But the rewards are commensurate, even
extravagate. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But enough. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Now for your questions and comments.
<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>Father Michael, how do I change the fear
that holds me back, into the adventure that leads me
on?<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>(Changing fear into adventure)
<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, a very good question. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As paradoxical as the answer may seem,
it’s by not being afraid to feel the fear. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Behind or within every fear is its root
cause and these causes can be very complex, a whole conglomeration of very basic
animal and primitive-human fears that have been institutionalized, incorporated
and promulgated and perpetuated in traditions over the centuries and centuries
by other folks not being willing to feel their fears and get to the root causes,
but only pass them on.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So some of
these fears of yours, my son, do stem from this conditioning that you and every
other person have been raised with.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>They may even have been valid at some point in time, but no longer.
<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>Others come from your own personal
experience, the pain, the disappointment, the anxiety, the worry, the confusion,
the uncertainty that you have experienced yourself. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As Mother Spirit said last time, you have
to be willing to turn about from any running away from these and boldly, bravely
trace them back, relax into them, and get down to their root causes, the
original experiences. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You have to
understand them in order to have them.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Otherwise they continue to have you.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(Yes) <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 that’s the first step, my son.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Whether in your stillness or anytime
fear occurs, be willing to explore it, and automatically!--you’re in an
adventure. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(group laughs) <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Believe me, this is how you turn fear
into an adventure.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Because don’t
forget, my son, the very essence of adventure is not knowing what’s going to
happen next. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(more laughter) <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>When it gets down to seconds not knowing
what’s going to happen, then you’re really into an adventure indeed. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So see the adventure right in confronting
these fears, exploring the past and what it was that gave them origin. <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>This is how you get free in the
present, with your presently accumulated greater wisdom.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I’m not saying they’re not tenacious,
these little cling-ons, but you must slowly pare them away, kind-of laugh right
in their face, if you will, of these fears. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In time they become like old friends;
they no longer affect you; they are merely cautions and actually good company.
<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(more chuckling) <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They are those cautions you’ve learned in
all your accumulated life’s experience.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Does this help answer the question? <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, Father Michael, it does. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Fear--a lot of times for me anyway--shows
up like what I don’t want to do, rather than what I would consider a fear, and
I’ve learned a little bit to confront the “I don’t wannas.”<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Some of them persist; some of them
don’t; but I’ve learned to recognize what really is fear, and what’s a caution.
<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Looks like an adventure to me.
<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(laughter)
<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, sometimes too you have to realize
there’s a bit of inertia, or pure laziness, in the mix.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(Yes) <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Sometimes the task of confronting a very
severe fear is monumental. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But as
we’ve advised before, seek the moral courage and the strength to keep finding
and accepting what is right, what is the best thing to do next, even if you
cannot yet do it. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This takes
enormous self-honesty, but you’ve already exhibited so much just by recognizing
that the right thing is there, you just don’t want to do 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>That’s the first step.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Keep the bright idea of what is there to
do next and, as I’ve said before, lean in that direction. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Do what you can moment to moment, yet
truly rest in my peace; truly accept yourself moment to moment; stay with the
real you, always.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Don’t buy into
any kind of guilt.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Don’t let your
spiritual need to go forward, to grow, to evolve, drive you into guilt, for you
must stay with what is real--the moment-to-moment you that is already complete.
<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So many well-intentioned but
guilt-driven folks cannot escape from the sense of never being who they should
be, and so they miss or devalue the life they actually are.<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>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Thank you, Father, I will. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It looks like I’m going to do a lot of
leaning. (laughter) <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, that’s the adventure--to see what
gives, and what remains stubborn. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is the true way of growth.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is your real spiritual task as a
human being for, as your Urantia book puts it, in a more enlightened society
those who have conquered themselves deserve and receive greater praise than
those who conquer others. (Yes) <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So
keep fighting the good fight to become who you can be, and then take a break
from it from time to time. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Be still
and rest in who you are. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Seek and
find my peace. <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>Thank you, Father Michael.
<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>Good evening, Michael.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(Good evening)<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I was reading in the Urantia book about
your instructions to the Apostles about prayer, and one of the things to pray
for was the extension of the kingdom.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>I guess I’d like a better understanding of what that means, in that it’s
a spiritual kingdom.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>What would it
look like in another person?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In
doing the work of extending the kingdom, how much of it is a part of them
recognizing spirit, and how much of it is a part of recognizing the existence of
God the Father, and you, and the universe? <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>How much of that work is about being
really spiritually present, as you spoke of
tonight?<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>(Seeking the kingdom: spiritual unity
vs. uniformity)<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 daughter, you just--as you
say--hit the nail on the head: that was my whole lesson tonight. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The key that unlocks the answers to all
your questions is that the kingdom is within you.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That is what I addressed this
evening.<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>The kingdom is within you. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Not only are Mother Spirit, and myself,
and our mutual Father--in fact the whole spiritual community--around you, your
Father Fragment, and Mother Spirit’s Adjutants are right within you, part of
you.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And you yourself, my daughter,
are a spiritual being, a God-created personality--this changeless, unique
essence of who you are. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is the
kingdom within you.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Now: what sort
of kingdom do you want to be? <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I
think you would prefer the freedom of being a democracy within, open to all
possibility coming from your own higher consciousness and your Father Fragment’s
guidance, rather than being a closed-minded, petty dictatorship of an immature
and insecure ego. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>All spiritual
influences are nudging you towards the democratic end of that spectrum.<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>Being open-minded is none other than
being willing to entertain anything, anything whatsoever that occurs to you,
however distressing it might be momentarily.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You do live in a mass-media culture that
still finds so much entertainment in the obscene acts of violence--all the crime
melodrama, the spies and counter-spies, the endless glorifying of warfare that
fills your television and movies and video games.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You have this all around you, and
therefore within you.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So it takes a
kind of inner strength to let it all just pass through you without affecting
you.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You have all the subtle and
not-so-subtle manipulations of church and state trying to get your obedience,
all the media-sponsoring advertisements of your consumer society vying for your
attention and money.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But to trust
yourself, to trust your spirit; to trust in your own creativity and spontaneity
rather than clinging to some dogmatic, simplistic notions of who or what you
should be; to be this feeling/living being, my daughter, is the kind of inner
kingdom we would wish for 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>So imagine now a society composed of
such mature individuals.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Here you
are face to face with the distinction between such individuals being unified
spiritually in their very essence--their inner democracy, their inner
freedom--while manifesting this essence of their unique personalities uniquely,
outwardly differently.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is the
difference between spiritual unity as contra-distinct from some outward show of
uniformity so demanded by your social and political and religious
hierarchies.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>To timid, insecure
souls, this kingdom of free spirits I mention would appear to be chaos.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Who’s in charge?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Who’s telling everyone else what to
do?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Everyone’s just running around
doing their own thing--as you say: yet always with response-ability, the mature
ability to respond to each other.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>To one bereft of spirit, there can be no perception of the spiritual
unity than can exist between very disparate people.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In this too I cautioned my apostles and
disciples: don’t demand or rely upon outward shows of uniformity.<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>Does this give you some further notions
of the spiritual kingdom, my daughter, and what it might feel like in yourself
and look like in 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>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes, it helps me to see that as I build
the kingdom within me, in my inner life, and the spirit grows within me, then
I’m better able to recognize it in others, and spiritually expand out into the
world.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I could be a spiritual
presence for those who are less aware of it.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Is that what you
mean?<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>Exactly.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You yourself become that guiding
light.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You have that wonderful
expression that: deep calls to deep.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>I’ll extend it and say that deep recognizes deep.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The more you have this open, gregarious,
cheerful and supporting spirit yourself, the more you can recognize it in
others; the more you can kind-of induce it in others.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Then a really lively dance can
ensue.<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>Then that’s what kindles the light
within the other person.<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, just as you too are drawn to that
light you can recognize in someone else.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>We mention this soulful quality because truly spiritually adventuresome
folks do accumulate great souls.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>They’re not caught in some rut for years and years, they’re out on the
edge, living the adventure, knowing the variety our Father has in store for
everyone who welcomes it.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This you
can recognize as character; and as you’re drawn to theirs, so others are drawn
to yours.<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>So this is where you have faith in
another person’s spirit--spirit capacity.<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.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Faith is that extending yourself out
beyond your perceptions, your certainty, just trusting there is more to someone
than you can yet perceive; whereas character is an actual perception.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Faith is going beyond, trusting, acting
as if you could see what you really can’t quite--yet.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s why faith is another kind of
courage, another kind of trust, often defined as acting on the evidence of
things unseen.<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>Sometimes we refer to the quality of
spiritual generosity, when you just credit folks with good intentions they may
not yet show.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You give them the
benefit of the doubt, as you say.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>How wonderful when they respond.<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>Isn’t that what God does with us?--gives
us the opportunity to grow into this beyond?--with faith?--like a parent does
with a child?<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>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes, right as part of His creation.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There is always a “beyond”--the next
step, there to head toward.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You
will never exhaust it.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>A wise
parent literally creates the room into which their children can grow.<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, I can really feel the safety of
that room that God provides so we needn’t fear.<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>To be perfectly frank, some of that room
comes in the form of what you call a challenge.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(laughter)<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And so the adventure, at times, becomes
quite severe, depending in part--as you say--on where you’re coming from.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But yes, you can trust that the way is
there if you are open to it.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The
Father does maintain His presence right within you, ever pointing the way.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You have an absolutely true guide, and
you are surrounded by a whole spiritual community, a whole hierarchy of angels,
if you will, holding out their hands to give you a hand up.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The way can be fraught with fear, but as
I just mentioned with C, that fear may be a righteous caution to pay attention,
to respect yourself and what is being demanded of you that moment.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is not something little, but
neither are you.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So keep the faith,
my daughter, and be in my peace.<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>Good evening, Michael.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s so nice to be here.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Your humor is just so, so delightful;
and of course your wisdom.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That
about fear is right up my alley because it’s been my mission now for many years
to understand courage.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I think I’m
finally learning that only I can deprive myself of anything, and if I’m fearing
not having, not enough, that fear of lack, of scarcity--that principle, fear of
death: it becomes so clear to me that only I deprive myself of something.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So how I feel full--I just keep leaning
toward understanding. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I have to
focus my attention--and pay attention--to what I have, and not what I don’t
have.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And it’s bringing me a lot of
peace.<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>It’s the idea of detachment, and not
clinging, and staying in a free way of thinking, and feeling the rewards of my
struggle for courage.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s almost
like it’s a natural occurrence when I don’t cling.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s finally...it’s wonderful!<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s finally working!<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I fill up with joy, and excitement, and
talk about adventure, and turn fear into fascination.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I mean that’s the key right there--being
fascinated and staying in the mystery.<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>I get so much strength when I come
here; and focusing on courage is a big thing for me.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Also I wanted to know if you would speak
on faith versus hope, because I feel hope is good for humanity, for
everyone.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I think you nailed it
when you said something about trust.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Faith has more to do with trust, while hope has something to do with
longing for truth, beauty, goodness--extending the kingdom from my inner joy to
others.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So if you could speak on
those.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And thank you again,
especially for your humor.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I’m
paying attention.<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>(Hope and
faith)<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, laughing:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes, my daughter.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I don’t know if I can add much…(much
laughter, bubbling over)..you’ve got a pretty good handle on it there.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You are most correct when you intuit
that hope is a great yearning--having the courage to allow yourself to yearn
this way; to yearn for that which is not yet, but, hopefully, possible.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is a very positive self-motivation,
as contrasted with guilt which is more like driving yourself along with a
bullwhip of aversion to what you don’t want to happen.<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>Hope is positive, but it does take
courage to embrace.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Sometimes in a
hopeless-seeming situation you may try to avoid it because of the pain of
reality it brings with it--the intense realization you are in such a dire
straight.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There is then a kind of
giving up, a resignation that is possible--psychologically.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There is even a kind of back-handed
courage in trying to accept the situation is hopeless, but not when it leads to
a deliberate numbing-out to life itself.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>This may seem easy for me to say, but I do hereby acknowledge the
enormous pain you may feel when you awake from this numbness and begin to
embrace hope.<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>The next step is to act on that
hope.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And this is faith.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Faith is essentially an action, a doing,
even if only the mental doing of entertaining possibilities that bring into
painful relief your present situation.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>To allow yourself to feel hope; to allow yourself to be motivated by
truth, by goodness, by beauty; and then to begin to act on what is not yet
perceptible, but only possible; to extend your spiritual generosity, your
helping hand to another--even when you know it may not be appreciated, but to
have faith in basic humanity: this is trust: trusting spirit is there--in you,
in them: spirit surrounds every situation: no painful or evil situation can last
forever.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Is this definition enough
for 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>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes, it’s very interesting how a lot of
our pain, because it’s so self-induced, can be eliminated with just a change in
perception.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So I’ve noticed I’ve
gone through a lot of emotional roller-coasters lately to learn the difference
between romantic love and that love I make for the benefit of others.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>When the romantic love is only for me
there’s so much pain when it doesn’t go the way I want it to go.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I’m trying to understand that the love
that goes out from me to others, there’s no pain, no feeling of loss.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So I’m trying to pay attention to areas
when I feel, Oh!--I’m not worthy!<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>My ego wants to over-analyze everything.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I just need to accept everything.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Thank you for all your input; thank you
so much.<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>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Well, if a Creator Son can give you some
insight into romantic love--(much laughter)--not speaking from my own human
experience here--but I did notice--there is often a difference between falling
in love, and loving.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The romantic
state when two people fall in love can be an abnegation of responsibility,
entering into a state that, ironically and often tragically, ends up meaning
that falling in love was not a very loving thing to do to each other.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s a kind of addiction you call
co-dependency.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Two people become
addicted to a state of mind that glosses over a lot of irresponsibility--not
responding to the whole situation in a truly wise and selflessly loving
way.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There’s too much--even if
mutual--clinging, whereas truly loving is freeing, liberating, letting each
other be.<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 there is that distinction I feel
you’re reaching toward: how to extend your love irrespective of what you get
back.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You’re not entering into some
kind of contract, some co-dependant contract.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I appreciate your distinctions, my
daughter.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Keep going in this
discrimination, this understanding.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>It is liberating, is it not?<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.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And I love how you said to C, freedom’s
gonna cost ya!<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That was beautiful;
truth is beautiful.<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>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes, Michael, I’m just sifting through
all that was talked about tonight.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>I remember I once asked you or Mother Spirit why I’ve had such a hard
time getting involved in groups; and how I wanted to be this teacher in a
group--teach and travel around the world, that kind of stuff.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But there’s always been this hesitancy
about doing it.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In this group I’ve
been in lately, I said I was committed to awareness, not necessarily to the
group itself: committed to the kingdom as you just said.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I too desire to come from my own
experience; it’s all I really have.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>It’s all we all have.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But
what I’ve come to understand is to pinpoint the kingdom is folly; it’s
indescribable.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s who we are that
cannot be talked about because it’s the pure view of who we are.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s only our points of view within this
pure view that is who we are in the world, what we identify with.
<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 I just open up.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I have no idea what my future will look
like.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I could pass away before the
end of the year: who knows?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But
that’s fine too.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I do have the
faith--not just the hope, but the faith--which is certainty--that my life is
beneficial, and will continue to be so, alive and intense as I allow myself to
become familiar with the kingdom that already exists.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And that is my
commitment.<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>I know that at times I get caught up in
the folly of points of view, of what I identify with--i.e. romantic love,
materialism, whatever.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But I know
deep down in my heart the reality of who I am and who we all are.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So I’m hesitantly opening that Pandora’s
Box of experience, of knowing that I am on a ledge, but you are there with
me.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I have no idea what the kingdom
looks like because it’s a felt experience, it’s a vision I’ve only had glimpses
of.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But…I could go on and on…<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So.<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 second that certainty you
have experienced--primarily in your stillness, in your meditations, when you
allow that seeming paradox, or Pandora’s Box as you called it, of your own
ungraspable soul to open up and give you fresh insights from your own genuine
experience.<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>(Actual experience vs. invalid
generalizations)<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>Reflecting back on the last few lessons
of Mother Spirit and myself, I would caution you mainly about that which is in
you which is not your experience, that which you erroneously extrapolate into
invalid, often fearsome generalizations.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>The one that stands out: you mentioned once that God’s intention could
not be that someone would be a steelworker in a factory all their life, only to
retire and die--something to that effect.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>(Yes) <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I think you can see
now how that was a genuine sentiment at that moment--you were definitely sincere
in trying to understand God’s intentions, but I see how you are tormented by
such abstractions. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I can only ask
you to take to heart what was Mother Spirit’s next lesson addressing
abstractions like 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>The way out is by realizing that you’ve
just created a cartoon with which to frighten yourself.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>For which steelworker were you referring
to?--this older man who is about to retire with a whole career working up to
handling that thirty-ton ladle of molten steel; is it the fellow working in the
metallurgy lab who hates his job, or the young man who is looking forward to
going into all that enormous noise and activity, following a three-generation
family tradition?--all those thousands of unique individuals.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>God’s intention for them is to be
free-willed, to be creatures of free-will dignity, and each one lives somewhat
differently and ever-changing along that whole spectrum of being conditioned or
being free.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The idea of someone
just retiring and then dying, as you’ve mentioned a few times; there’s very
possibly twenty or thirty or more years there--children and grandchildren and
great-grandchildren; moving here and there; hobbies and interests, lifelong
friends; decades of soul-growth, of wisdom.<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>So this--to me--can be a major torment
you put yourself through giving credence to these baseless abstractions that do
pop up in your mind.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The way out is
to realize they are such.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Ask
yourself: how many actual steelworkers--or whoever, or whatever you’re
generalizing--have you known?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This
is sticking to your personal experience in order to avoid what you also
said--feeling like a mere shadow, subordinating your real, living/breathing self
to these conclusions. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(Yes) Human
belief is so powerful you can literally put yourself into an abeyance of
yourself.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Your asking what reality
is can actually put it--you--into question.<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>I guess…and I do appreciate what you
just said.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I think it’s sometimes
just a projection of what I’m feeling.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>It is my own feeling, and I’m just seeing it in society, and thinking
about the people I work for.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I
think I’m saying that sometimes people don’t think they have a choice.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But the point is too: I know I have a
choice, and I know I have free will, but still at times let fear kind-of put a
cloud over that free will--and that’s my discernment.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>What you and so many other teachers have
said is to be still, and to rest, and not get caught up in all these
abstractions--peoples’ stories.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Because that’s where the kingdom lies--in that stillness, that rest, that
peace beyond points of view.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s
that pure view that’s indescribable.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>So I do thank you for that wake-up.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>I sincerely do not want to be tormented.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I am tired of that in my gut.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(much
laughter)<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>It helps being cautious whenever the
thought occurs to you as to what God’s intentions are.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is the basic humility/recognition
of how enormous, subtle, even absolute and infinite His intentions are,
especially when it gets right down to any particular personal
being.<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 understand.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So 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>(Not a soul
lost)<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>Even on tired old Urantia here, this
planet of my incarnation, this planet which has gone so terribly astray from
once possible divine paths; even on this old world there’s not been a soul lost
who wished to carry on.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Every man,
woman, or child who ever lived here, from the most primitive caveman on, had
that human potential, that transcendent potential you are all wrapped in, that
is even now providing them life, wherever they are in their ascending
career.<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>I know this is hard to imagine or
visualize, but entertain the fact, my children, that they’re all still
alive.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They’re all still out here,
moving on.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is also God’s
intention of their free will, of their choice to keep going on, a choice always
made after the physical death you will all go through.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It will be a clear, unequivocal, fully
understood choice that is only possible after you have achieved a little more
spiritual/soulful maturity and perception on the Morontia level of
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>This is that present actuality that is
the basis of the potentiality…but now I’m getting rather abstract.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(much laughter, Michael included)<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I congratulate you, my son, on that
persisting desire of yours to see through it all, to get at that pureness of
vision, of spirit, that is the enlivening, the life throughout it all.<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>It’s been another wonderful
evening.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I really had fun
tonight.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is such a delight to
be a father and have fun with my children.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>As I’ve said before, this is the one essence of my relationship--as
Jesus--with my fellow human friends that’s been missing through the history of
Christianity; understanding so, because all the centuries of evolving
civilizations the church has come up through have been rather scary ones at
times, indeed.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Back in my day we
did not know so much laughter, so much outward fun--if you will.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Folks had to be pretty serious.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But there was this deep, abiding joy
that we shared, that truly enabled my disciples and apostles to carry on after I
left.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They were the times that
filled our souls with such wonder.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>And so I thank you, my children.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Be in my peace.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Good
evening.<SPAN
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