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<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal
align=center><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Michael--May 24,
2010<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><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 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT
size=3>MICHAEL--T/R-JL<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Human complexity)
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Uniqueness and
individuality)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Soulful maturity and
character)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Social permissiveness of
individuality)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Nagging feelings of unfulfilled
potential)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Apprehensions of
survival)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Stages of personal civilization)<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Dear Michael and Mother Spirit,<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Looking over what’s been a
few years of your lessons to this group, I noticed one of the major themes both
of you talk about, right next to the fatherhood of God, His will in the
Creation, and the brotherhood and sisterhood of all the people living on
Urantia; right next to this is the uniqueness of each personality and the
growing/developing individuality of each person. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It seems the major difference here is
that the intrinsic uniqueness of each personality is created by God, whereas
individuality is what we are able to develop ourselves in all aspects of our
being--body, mind, spirit, and soul.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>In this sense we are created unique personalities but we grow into
becoming individuals by a process--as psychologists put it--of
individualization.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Is this correct,
or could you clarify this distinction a bit more for us? <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Thank you.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Good evening, my sons, this is Michael,
and I am glad as always to be with you this evening. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Mother Spirit and I do appreciate the
effort you go through to get here, and then the way you open your hearts to feel
and open your minds to entertain and get an inner experience from what we say.
<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You keep in mind, my dear ones,
this is what we truly wish to offer and share with you.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Each lesson we give is not a formal
lecture but only something for you to entertain as best you can. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Just let yourselves feel along with what
we’re saying and share a moment with the way we see things. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Have no fear if it doesn’t accord with
your basic beliefs. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This experience
can do you no harm and you will pop up again to yourself.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But you will have had this experience,
for at least to some extent and for a little while, of sharing our thoughts with
us. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We do know to whom we’re
speaking and the probable audience that will be reading these words in the
future, so we are in part directing ourselves at this larger audience as well.
<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That being said, we do enjoy your
comments and our discussions with you here, so we’re glad to see
you.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Human complexity)
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>What you mentioned in your introduction
is correct. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As Mother Spirit and I
have confessed a number of times, we do delight in introducing our children to
themselves--to all that you are, both for your own inner awareness and so you
can see this in others. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes, you
are a highly complex being, but consider for now just the conscious part of you,
the part of you that you know of right now as you are sitting here or reading
these words.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is normally what
we mean by you. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is
the--you--that we address. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is
your conscious, thinking self. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This
is the part of you that has ready access to your memories and all your more
immediate plans for the future. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is the part of you that has rather
elaborate schedules to carry out, both by yourself and in all your
relationships. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yet being such a
complex person, this conscious self--as you may be aware--is only a small part
of your total personhood. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Your
God-created personality, endowed with spirit, has the power to make all of you
real to you.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It is your personality
that real-izes your life--makes your life real. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>You are endowed with creative spirit
so, from a very early age of gaining a continuous consciousness, you’ve
formulated an interior, subjective/imaginative world that is unique to you.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This inner reality begins to have
greater and greater contact with the outside world, first through your mother
and father, then your siblings and playmates, and soon enough you are thrown
into a kindergarten or a first grade classroom with a dozen others to relate
to.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Then here comes that whole big
wider adult world out there. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You’ve
all come up through these stages. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Meanwhile you have a body that is
99.9999 percent unconscious for, as we’ve said, all your science has still to
plumb the depths of what this body of yours is constantly doing.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You have a mind that connects your
personality with your body, and a large part of this consciousness is what we
call material mind, based directly upon your organic being. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is the kind of mind you share to a
degree with the highest primates, only, just in terms of brain size and nervous
system capacity, you far exceed by several orders of magnitude any other animal
on the planet.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In addition, much of
your modern psychology has correctly taught you that a large part of your mind
is also unconscious. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>These are all
the endless, intricate details of habituation, abilities, mind/body
coordination--all the thousands of things you’ve learned to do and associate
automatically. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This includes your
reasoning facilities. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>These too are
largely unconscious.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Consider all
of the conditioning that you acquired as you contacted the larger outside world
and absorbed unconsciously from your parents and their political viewpoints and
religion, and from being a member of this country or that, part of an ethnic
group, a racial group.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>All of these
spiritual/mental associations from personal experience give your life meaning
and value. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Then here we come along, as if you
weren’t already complex enough, informing you that a large part of your being,
your spiritual and mental being, is literally Mother Spirit and dimensions of
her Holy Spirit: part of your thinking, part of your intuition, your knowledge,
your understanding, your courage, even your wisdom and your worship.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>All are being augmented by her.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You have my spirit, my Spirit of Truth
inside you as an orientation towards an endless adventure of discovery of what
is true, what is real, what works.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>All will keep expanding.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Topping all of this you’re blessed with
an individualized presence of God for company, a presence that can literally
adjust your thoughts towards ever more spiritual, all-encompassing concepts and
realizations if you choose to acknowledge His presence and feel His love, and
listen.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>He is here, not only as the
encompassing within which we live, but also right inside you. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>His presence is capturing your life in a
spiritual construct so amazing, so much more of you, my children, in terms of
soul, you have not yet developed concepts for--but you will.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As we’ve said a couple of times, part
humorously but also part seriously, your recent developments in science and
technology, and in your wonderful, imaginative arts of science fiction and
science fantasy--all the movies and TV programs you’ve had delving into star
travel and all kinds of futures: these have given us an ability to convey to you
at least somewhat many of the different dimensions of reality that actually
exist.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Uniqueness and
individuality)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>So, my children: you are all of this
and you live with this complexity within and without. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You are correct in your
introduction.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Your personality is a
direct creation of God’s.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Your
individuality is what you have slowly earned as a way of expressing all of this
complexity I just mentioned. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You
are learning how to express yourself.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Every baby, every child, every adolescent grows up in the shadow of
greater authority with an automatic acceptance of its realities, and yet too,
from questioning these given-at-birth realities, you emerge as individuals by
bringing this acceptance into conscious choice. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is a slow and not always successful
development, yet the story of the effort is another kind of soul wealth you
possess. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>This acquirement of yours, this
individuality you can perceive in each other, this quality of soul you call
character; I think that you’ll agree that there’s nowhere you can go to buy
character. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You have to earn
it.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And it is earned only through
experience.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Today you get so much
from your books and reading, from your TV and movies and internet, yet character
is mainly based on personal direct experience with other persons and with
physical reality itself. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Character
also means the abilities you’ve acquired as an individual as you emerged from
all the groups in which you were raised.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>The spiritual process itself--God ordained--the progress of individual
maturity--is universal among all personal beings.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>You think of a fully mature person as
an individual and so Mother Spirit touched briefly upon an ideal society which
sees this orientation as a culmination of each person’s education and
experience.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Such a society not only
makes allowance for individuality but actually welcomes and encourages it.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In a roundabout way, my children, you
can see how the institutions of society need to mature in order to have this
courage--collectively--to encourage individuality, even dissent.
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>In the more primitive tribal societies,
surrounded by other tribes like bubbles in foam, and being intrinsically
ferocious, and territorial, and involved in near incessant warfare: at that
stage of immature social culture very little individuality can--literally--be
afforded. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In a way it’s just too
expensive.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The whole tribe has to
be, and throughout history has been locked down into a thousand and one taboos
that control almost every waking moment of their members’ lives. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As your Urantia Book notes: the tribal
marks upon individuals often involved a lot of very painful cutting, yet this
identification was considered absolute for security.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>These tribal marks signified to the
other tribes that if any harm was done to you, you had your whole tribe’s
backing for revenge, to avenge your death. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Only bit by bit by living experience,
gradually, as tribes became city states, then nation states and empires, right
up to the present day; more and more are societies able to afford greater
individuality. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As you look around
your world today, still, here in 2010, you can see almost this entire spectrum
on the planet, from primitive near-stone-age tribes, up through autocratic
societies in which only a small amount of individuality is tolerated; up to the
point where, in some of the more technologically developed,
democratic cultures, you have what you might call a blossoming--I could
even say--a flamboyance (Michael chuckles)--a flamboyance of individuality in
all aspects of peoples’ lives: homes and furnishings, personal possessions,
social class and standing, physical presentation through dress and style, mind
and creative spirit presentation through invention and art; on and
on…<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Soulful maturity and
character)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Soulful maturity has always been a
determining aspect from the earlier tribal stage, on up through medieval times,
or even today when you<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>have--concurrently on the planet--nearly the full spectrum.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In early civilizations it is difficult
for individuals to express themselves wisely and their relative immaturity comes
out more as license; in the group, more as social chaos or simple anarchy.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Consider the various episodes of this
all through planetary history and today when societies relax their grip--so to
speak--in certain bacchanal, high feast celebrations, and individuals are not
mature enough to keep from harming themselves and others in orgies of
irresponsibility.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Societies only
mature as the people within them find ways of expression which are peaceful,
creative, positive, and mutually respectful of other individuals.
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>So think about this, my children.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Think about: how capable you are of
being a mature individual yourself, expressing your individuality in a way that
does not offend or threaten others, but seeks a loving response? <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This touches upon the theme of
response-ability, your ability to respond to others.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As you and others around you become ever
more mature, so you can afford to allow each other greater latitude of
individual expression. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>This is the glory of an advancing
civilization and we’ve teased you with the notion that in the next, Morontia
phase of your life, stunning will be the fact of having survived and now living
in a more soulful kind of reality, a more transparent kind of reality where you
can perceive each others’ souls and character so much more clearly, so much more
spiritually. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yet you can touch so
much of this here and now.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is
one reason we’ve given all these lessons on your uniqueness, my children: so you
can feel this in yourselves; and having felt this in yourself, you can begin to
see and feel it in others. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You can
let others be more and more who they are. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You can welcome their character.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You will be mature enough, strong enough
inside to be able to see individuals, not just stereotypes and prejudices. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is the growth of personality
abilities--your abilities.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is
the growth of the soul.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is
just another evolution of mature individuals living in an ever more mature
society. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Another name for it is
freedom, freedom with responsibility.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>They grow together.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>So consider these things, my
children.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Think of how much
equanimity and balance and a kind of tough openness you have--to welcome others
and encourage them to be more who they are. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is what feeds your soul. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is how you will grow more and more
on into eternity as you come into contact with not only with other human beings,
but with other whole orders of personal beings. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is definitely part of the way God
has set up the creation for you and everyone else.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Welcome it with a joyful heart.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Welcome home.
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Now if you have any questions or
comments this evening along these lines or any other, I certainly welcome the
character you show. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Thank you once again, Father Michael,
for all your support and love and understanding and patience with all of
us.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You are very welcome, C.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You and J were talking earlier about
personality and individuality, so I thought I’d talk a little about these this
evening myself.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Did this help
clarify the difference between the God-given reality you are, and what you
develop as you grow toward maturity?<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It almost seems to me we have two
personalities: one being our material bodies and minds made up of chemical and
electrical energies, and the other is what God gave us as spiritual beings.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>One is based in this world and will in
time fade into the past, while the God-given one will emerge.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I don’t know if that is corrector
not.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Social permissiveness of
individuality)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes and no--(Michael laughs).<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You are correct that the personality you
are, just staring out here, starts from scratch but with a physical heredity
from your parents and grandparents.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Then you acquire the culture into which you were born.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>These are just given to you, and so,
true enough, your personality has to emerge out of this more or less chance
circumstance to earn your individuality and character, both for yourself and
others. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is what Mother Spirit
called somewhat whimsically, a “conglomeration of circumstances” from the
standpoint of your personality.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>You had no previous existence from
which you chose your particular world situation of your parents and so
forth.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So yes, you have to slowly
find ways to express yourself out through all this stuff that was just put upon
you, that both gives your life meaning and yet also threatens to stifle your
unique expressions.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In the more
primitive societies great individual expression is simply not permitted.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Due to the oppressive necessities of
economic survival and constant warfare, it cannot be afforded.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Rather, each individual seeks--quite
unconsciously--not to stand out but to copy and be like everyone else for
security.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The chief and leaders of
the tribe are just as much enslaved in their own way to the taboos and mores as
are the least members in this truly organic unit.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As the living human energies needed for
economic survival and self defense lessen there is a complimentary adjustment
towards a more liberal attitude regarding self expression and individual choice
in all aspects of behavior.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is
the growth of individual recognition and freedom in the ways I mentioned
earlier.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>So yes, my son, it is a kind of
emergence of the personality, yet not so much beyond the body and mind--leaving
these behind, but actually using these as a means of expression.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You will always have an energy-form
expressive of your personality which is analogous to your present physical
bodies, only more accurately/spiritually so--inside to outside--as time goes on
and you advance from one sphere to the next.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Does this seem to be in accord with what
you understand?<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes and no...<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Let me put it this way.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Does the human-evolved personality we
have, does this disappear when we get into the next life with a whole different
body, and a whole different set of circumstances?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It seems the God-given personality would
be there all the time.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Exactly.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You, as a changeless personality, will
find yourself with a more spiritually sensitive Morontia body and mind.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The bio-chemical determinism you know
now--your physical body and strictly material mind that do inhibit your
spiritual sensitivity in this life--will be transformed into what you can only
think of as a more soulful reality, both within as an enormously expanded
consciousness, and externally in what you can perceive.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In this sense the
words--Morontia--and--soul--are nearly equivalent.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>With respect to other human survivors,
their souls and character will be so much more perceptible; you will be able to
recognize former family and friends with an utter delight in the
enhancement.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Each unchanging
personality, with a whole human lifetime and now a genuine rebirth as a
soul-possession, can immediately know such a greater maturity and
self-security.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Then here come some
of the lower angelic orders you will be able to visualize and fraternize
with.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(Michael
laughs)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It does indeed sound
exciting.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Michael:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Well, it’s quite an adventure--believe
me.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You’ll never forget those first
few minutes of walking out of the Resurrection Hall and looking around and
seeing that sky, and the plant and animal life, and each other.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There’ll be no hiding, no dissembling
your surprise and wonder.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Thank you, Father Michael.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Incidentally, my son, you will feel my
peace and Mother Spirit’s love immediately.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is what we mean by your increased
spiritual sensitivity.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You’ll be
that much more alive to our presence, and our Father’s presence.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We’ll be that much more palpable within
you.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But for now: be in my
peace.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That sounds best of
all.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We look forward to
it.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes, Michael.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I’ve been reading the Course in Miracles
because I wanted a blend of Buddhist teachings and…well, something I felt wasn’t
being met.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The teachings are
beautiful and enlightening, and opened for me a whole new paradigm of man’s
nature in the here and now.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But
something was nagging me, maybe my own resistance or ambivalence; but the
experience was very profound with the teachings and the meetings, and the
healing exercises too.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Then the
Course in Miracles--which are supposedly the teachings of Jesus--gave me the
same open and expansive feelings as when I was participating in the other
groups.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It was like manna from
heaven, like: Yes, this is what I was looking for in the meetings, and
meditating on, and wondering about.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>It’s very similar to the Teachings of the Masters, and the Great Freedom
workshops.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It opens up new visions
of what really is.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>They say that as you mature then you
are more open to broader meanings in what these teachings have always expressed,
but you weren’t ready for yet.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So
that’s where I’m at.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I’m
understanding things I first encountered in 1976.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I had to pay attention to this feeling
nagging at me that I was still missing the point, even though I might have heard
it before.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes, my son, I think you are in accord
with what I talked about this evening.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>You notice that, after a few years when you go back and read the same
thing--be it a philosophical or religious text, or a work of literature--a great
novel or play--even, or especially, the Urantia book with its complexity--you
can see it in a whole new light.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>A
book is a physical thing; it hasn’t changed: the new reading is giving you a
sense of how you have changed and grown in the meanwhile.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And this is not only what we call
material mind, physical brain and nervous system changes; this is your
soul.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is the meaning and value
of life itself that you’ve acquired, being reflected in everything you perceive,
especially a great work of art or something like the Course in
Miracles.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Nagging feelings of unfulfilled
potential)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>I might suggest, my son, that the
nagging feeling you expressed is a kind of reverse intimation of your own
potential, that there is more you can do and learn.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In some this leads to a severe
dissatisfaction with anything new because they have a notion firmly fixed in
their mind from erroneous teachings that there is a kind of ultimate
enlightenment experience after which, from then on, life is all downhill.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They will have this huge experience and
they will know everything there is to know, and from then on their life will be
all settled and done with and they can kick back and coast the rest of
eternity.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Whereas we say that, in
spite of all that is--the completeness of reality at each moment--the
realization of which is a huge human experience--there also exists the potential
for eternal growth in the infinity of spontaneous creativity, both your own and
God’s in His presentation to you of a growing, changing
universe.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>The creativity of spirit, this lively
dance that is going on, is so spontaneous in its essential nature it need never
stop.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The creative spirit of God’s
will present itself to each personal being--even Mother Spirit and I--as an
endless universe adventure, and we define adventure as not knowing, and with no
way of knowing, exactly what’s going to happen next.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(Michael laughs)<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That can be all the way from not knowing
if your car is going to start because the battery might be run down, to clinging
with your fingernails to some cliff-face over a three hundred foot drop; from a
minor inconvenience to a major risk.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>As I talked about this evening, in the future you’ll be awakening on a
different new world with a different kind of body and mind, to look around and
see a wholly different organization of physical energies and material in the
life forms of the plants and animals; yet you’ll still be
you.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>So part of your feelings of a nagging
incompleteness is your wisdom letting you know: it ain’t over yet!<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There will always be another step to
take.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>One of your poets expressed
the acceptance of this fact by writing: Dear Lord, let me continue to be
unsatisfied.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It means you realize
there is more to come and you need to avoid being smugly self-satisfied in order
to embrace it.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There are those times where, after I
participate in these profound teachings, I feel so full of love and so moved,
and so open, that when I leave, it’s: now what!<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>What can I do?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>What am I going to do with this
energy?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There is that feeling that
there is nothing in the world that can approach what I’m experiencing.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But what the lesson is: OK, I’m still in
this space, and I still have things to do.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>I can meet every person with love and respect--real and genuine.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I can enjoy whatever I need to do.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>I think what happens is people have
grandiose ideas of what enlightenment is, and they think life will be all bells
and whistles, and they don’t realize they will still have to live on the earth
with day to day things to do.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Maybe
they see it as some kind of escape from things, but enlightenment is really
supposed to enhance them.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>What it
really takes is faith to be open to the adventure.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>After some great meetings there seems
to be a feeling of a void, and what do I need to do to fill the void?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Or do I need to fill the void with
anything?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Maybe I just need to
experience it and go from there.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>It’s just interesting watching it.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>So…thank you.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Apprehensions of
survival)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There definitely is a kind of anxiety at
times that grows up in a living being such as yourself, just in being
hyper-aware you are alive and susceptible to so many things to stay alive.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yet right in the midst of these, shall
we say, apprehensions of what it takes to survive, you can have an equal
realization of the positive completeness of your whole being.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You exist.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You’re happening.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And that is enough.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(Michael laughs)<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Compared to the anxiety, it’s more than
enough.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And so you glow for a
while, until, as you note, the day-to-day things make themselves known and once
again there arises a feeling of anxiety to meet them.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Here is where wisdom from long
experience can lead you to trust this feeling is only--if profoundly--your
animal nature’s instinctual way of revving you up to meet the challenge.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Your heart starts pounding and you feel
yourself coming awake, anxious and alert, like a little animal inside you is
pricking up its ears to scan for a threat.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>To feel this as a positive thing, to trust this--and trust yourself--that
even this fearfully anticipating part of you is trying to help you survive and
succeed; this does take wisdom and understanding as well as determination.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>All those who have succeeded in intense
competition have learned how to trust and use this upwelling surge of anxious
energy.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Some of the times though, like
yesterday, where even though I feel at peace, and at one, and connected with
everyone, there’s also a feeling of acute aloneness.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I’m having this great experience, but
there’s no one to share it with.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>It’s only a momentary feeling, just noticing that it would be nice to
share this with someone.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But I
realize it’s only filling the void with some preconceived notion, some
distraction.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Consider too, my son, that in these
moments when you feel this intense aloneness, it can be very distinct from being
lonely.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes!--that’s why I said
that.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This can be a deep intuition of whom and
what you are as a unique, God-created personality.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Again, it’s nothing you can get a hold
of concretely, but it is something you can be aware of, and that you can share
it only--completely--with God, whatever your longing to share it with someone
else.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student, laughing:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes!<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Sometimes I get so overwhelmed with love
that it’s hard to contain it.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>(Michael chuckles along)<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I
think that scares people sometimes, like: well--OK.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But that is true what you said about
aloneness.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Sometimes I feel it is
just me and God.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And then I
realize: that’s OK.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You are touching upon a real dimension
where it is just you and God.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>That’s a very transcendent dimension indeed.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>One last thing.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>A person I met years ago had a tragic,
life-altering experience when her husband shot her and then killed himself.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This was back in 2003.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Anyway, I kind-of lost touch with her,
but she was always in the back of my mind--a beautiful woman with beautiful
kids.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Then last Sunday, on Mother’s
Day, I saw a picture of her for a fundraiser.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Apparently she survived, but she’s a
quadriplegic, and she needs assistance; but she’s very determined.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Since I always had her in my mind, I’m
asking: would it be wise for me to see her and connect with her somehow?--maybe
be of assistance or just to talk with her about things.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I think she always admired me because I
always seemed so happy, you know, doing her landscaping.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I would see her and would feel something
wasn’t right in her relationship with her husband.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But she would see me and comment on how
happy I seemed--stuff like that.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So
anyway, I was just wondering if it would be wise for me to communicate with
her--if I’m able to do that.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>My son, I have two words for you.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Can you guess what they
are?<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I don’t know: go for
it?<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That would be three words, but you’re
close: why not?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In a very literal
sense: why not?<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student, after a long pause:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I guess I would like to be of service to
her--if it’s possible.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It may be something you can’t know until
you get there.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But if she’s been in
your mind all these years, someone with whom you shared a bit of soul there for
a while, you needn’t put any label on it except for that: something shared.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So: why not?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>OK.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I’ll go for that.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Thank you very
much.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Be in my
peace.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Stages of personal civilization)<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>We’ve had some wonderful discussions
this evening.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I did want to give
you a sense of the development, not only of the way each individual
recapitulates evolution as an embryo, but also recapitulates the evolution of
culture as they grow up through childhood and adolescence, all the way from the
constantly warring primitive tribal level--think of your little two- and
three-year-olds squabbling out in the sandbox with, fortunately, the inability
to do one another in--all the way up through your Machiavellian plotting of high
school gangs; to, hopefully, each person continuing to grow beyond their
parents’ generation’s understanding.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Each individual’s maturity adds to the society’s maturity as well--ever
more free; ever more allowing of each individual’s freedom because it is
accompanied with responsibility--deeply caring for each other, wanting to be
able to respond to another.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>So keep that in mind.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s part of the orientation of my
Spirit of Truth.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Ask yourself: what
about this lesson is true in your own life?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Hopefully, you’ve been able to recognize
something all along.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Be in my
peace, dear ones.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Good
evening.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><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 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><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 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><o:p><FONT size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
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