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<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal align=center><FONT size=3><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">Nebadonia--</SPAN><?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:date Year="2010" Day="12" Month="7"><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">July 12, 2010</SPAN></st1:date><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
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<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">--U.S.A<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>NEBADONIA--T/R-JL<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(The shrinking earth) <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Relationships and attitude) <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(What is prayer?)<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>(When things seem meaningless)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Potential and actual) <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(God’s will as an ongoing discovery)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Dear Mother Spirit and Michael,<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Tonight I want to thank you for all the help your lessons have given me in changing and expanding my relationships with people. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I’ve always been blessed with a few close friends and a larger group of acquaintances at work or in the neighborhood, but I pretty much ignored everyone else in my day to day casual contacts.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Looking back I think I just ignored folks by using an automatic dismissal. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I saw people in stereotypes by their physical shapes, the clothes they were wearing, whether they were attractive or not to me, and other summary things.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>But with your help and with these wonderful lessons I’ve been able to see individuals and really delight in the variety that you, and Michael, and our Father have created. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s a treasure now just to walk along a city street and be able to see so much character and soul in each individual face. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is a blessing indeed and I can only imagine that in the next phases of eternal life to come it’s even more so. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I think this is what you mean by our consciousness being expanded, and our spiritual sense of value continuing to grow on and on forever. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Then to think of meeting other personal beings besides humans; it’s quite a thrill. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So I thank you for your many lessons on the essential nature of personal relationships between unique beings.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Amen. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">NEBADONIA:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Good evening, my loyal children, this is Nebadonia, your spirit mother. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I am also your Holy Spirit, your Great Spirit, the bringer of life. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I receive the thanks and the appreciation from all the worshipful folks on earth, whether they know my exact identity or not.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I am literally part of their mentality, part of their spirit power, their creative and recognition power, understanding and courage.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And this is my greatest delight, being part of so many children of so many different orders and kinds and species on so many worlds, even including all the architectural spheres. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is part of that greater glory that you too will grow into as you come to meet my various orders of children, and even the visitors from outside our Local Universe, some of them hailing all the way from </SPAN><st1:place><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">Paradise</SPAN></st1:place><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(The shrinking earth) <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>While your growth is gradual, purposely so, so as not to overwhelm you, you are already getting a start towards this glory with an inner orientation and stillness which gives you so much consciousness of soul wealth in this your first, human life.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s this inner life, leading to an appreciation of each other--of each others’ backgrounds, that is so desperately needed on Urantia right now.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You are being shoved together with your mass media truly shrinking the earth from what it has ever been.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s like going from being a country boy or girl to suddenly being rushed into the center of a large cosmopolitan city with so many races and cultures and ethnic backgrounds. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is essentially what all parts of the world are going through.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Couple this with a kind of polarization stemming from an increasing clarity of different points of view that, on first contact anyway, bring them into stark contrast with each other. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>More and more you can see the critical necessity for everyone being able to recognize their underlying humanity through all these cultural differences. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>This is why consciousness itself has to expand, everyone’s consciousness. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Else you get into some very fearful fundamentalism as people try desperately to retain all the particular essence and unique qualities of their separate culture, fearful their treasured, holy traditions will be lost in some kind of Disney-esque theme park of an all-too-modern plastic world. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The only way out of this double-bind situation is for everybody to grow, grow both their appreciation for everyone’s cultural and ethnic differences, and, at the exact same time, also grow ever larger their perception and appreciation of the universal humanity that you all share.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>One solution is what you are exploring, my children, being able to see through ingrained prejudices and stereotyping to individuals.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It may seem like a paradox or a contradiction you stumble over, over and over again, but your very individual uniqueness is what you all have in common.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yet this seeming paradox can turn into a deeper appreciation of both your differences and shared humanity reflecting each other. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is how everyone gets to keep their most precious cultural identity. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They appreciate their ties with the long history of their group, yet welcome a growing ability to embrace so many other different folks as God’s universal children. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>So we’ve had our lessons on the enormous differences that exist on Urantia. This lack of a unifying worldwide culture yet is partly due to the failures of your Planetary Prince and his staff, and then later your Material Son and Daughter, Adam and Eve.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There are near stone-age tribes still in the jungles and backwaters of your world, all the while you have folks living in outer space.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Right there is the re-capitulation of the technological evolution of the human race, and, as Michael said in his last lesson, there’s a real limit to which folks can walk in someone else’s shoes and truly appreciate what they go through in their day to day life.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Just the specialization in the more technologically advanced cultures can mean that neighbors living side by side sometimes can barely understand how each other lives their days. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>One can be involved in hands-on physical work, compared to which his neighbor deals in realms of pure financial abstraction. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Both can be equally productive and necessary.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Relationships and attitude) <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>So think about all that’s wrapped up in that one little word--relationship. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Your Urantia book introduces the concept that life is not only what takes place within you--your heartbeat, your breathing, turning your food into energy, all that your mind is capable of thinking and remembering, all your spirit is capable of valuing and creating.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Human life is not only all this inner reality, it’s equally what happens between the organism and its environment.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>For most people not living as hermits off in the woods somewhere, the really great part of their environment is the other people in it, as well as their homes, their cars-- all their possessions. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>These are your family, your friends, your near acquaintances, and work-mates, all those others, as you say, you come into casual contact with just walking down a city street. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>So wonder about these relationships from time to time.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Meditate on this.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Feel for how much of a tough equanimity and balance you have within yourself, my children, in terms of welcoming in another person, whether an old friend or a complete stranger.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Once you have a rich inner life, how much can you let go this wonderful inner reality we’ve encouraged you to get a feeling for, forget yourself, and take in another person, unafraid? <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>How much can you really listen, letting go your own thoughts and your own points to make?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Can you really listen and trust that your own response will pop up again?--only now, having listened carefully, you will be more responsive to the dynamic here and now, this here and now, this other living person. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Your Urantia book defines your attitude as both your willingness and your ability to relate to reality and the people in it.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>What is your will?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>What is your intention?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>What are your desires in this aspect of your life, these relationships?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>What you want?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>What do you hope to accomplish?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Given all these, what is your ability to relate to others, or, at times, your lack of ability? <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>When have you had enough? <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>When is it time to be alone, to think and get some rest and understanding from all the confrontation and connection? <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>The ability part we’ve covered so often, breaking down the word--responsibility--into your ability to adequately respond to a situation irrespective of how much you can directly control it. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In fact, how much can you relinquish your control of a situation and still feel comfortable? <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>How much are you in touch with your own basic humanity and that tough equanimity I mentioned, so you can give other folks the benefit of the doubt and extend to them an as yet unproven trust--faith in your fellow men.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Can you be a little thick-skinned and not take offence when none is intended? <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>How forgiving can you be of other folks’ lack of manners, or rudeness, when they are unintentional?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Can you meet all those faces you encounter with this kind of a tough balance inside, ready to return a smile or disregard a slight?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>All this comes under the heading: being there for others; being the cheerful, stalwart soul you yourself so enjoy meeting. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>So, my children, if you think about it, a good way to behave, yourself, is right there in your ideal of the kind of person you’d enjoy meeting.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In my very first lesson with this group I challenged you to think of a better world, a world filled with more spiritually appreciative people. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Another way is to imagine what the Morontia worlds must be like where everyone’s character and soul are so much more apparent and willing to be shared.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Then think of how much of this you could accomplish day by day if only you could have that strong, delightful and playful orientation.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Let yourselves go.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Forget yourselves.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Relinquish yourselves with this enormous strength of spiritual assurance and determination--your most sincere attitude--your willingness and ability to relate. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>If there is a critique we could make in a most general way about some of your more modern folks, it’s what you’ve begun to recognize as “cocooning”--living in a self-chosen cocoon.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The very specialization you all enjoy in a highly advanced technological society enables folks to live so much more alone by themselves with only the TV and the internet for company. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>These are marvelous inventions, wonderful sources of information on, now, worldwide activities, cultures, and history, available at your fingertips. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But it’s not the same as being out there meeting other folks and doing all kinds of things together, work and play. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>In his last lesson Michael teased you with the notion of rediscovering the great art of conversation, being able to entertain yourself and each other with your own creativity, resisting the temptation to be merely passive consumers of entertainment. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So spend some time and meditate on your relationships, my children. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>See if you can feel what we mean by a higher consciousness that can expand and grow to encompass more and more differences.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Welcoming this challenge is the best way to exercise your spirit. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Keep this spiritual orientation deep inside: all-inclusiveness. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Be unafraid to look upon any other human condition whatsoever, and bring all of the folks of the world you can be aware of, bring them all inside you. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Be willing to stretch your own limited notions of what humanity means, and what it means to be human. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Be willing to see everyone, every man, woman, and child as your brother and sister, for only then can you truly appreciate God’s infinite power in creating so many unique personalities, even on one little planet among billions. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>This day to day practice of enjoying other folks can be a most sincere form of worship, of thankfulness, of realization, of all that is behind the word--God. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You are all little walking infinities--as we like to call you--so infinity is not only out there among the galaxies, it’s right inside you as well; and inside everyone else. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In this you are most like our Father, my children, in that He has endowed you, if not the ability to create infinity, at least the ability to appreciate it in each other. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That’s the truly fundamental relationship: between you and all the unique personalities your Father has created. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So: enjoy.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Enjoy each other as we most definitely enjoy you.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Thank You again, dear Father, for these my children and the joy we share. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Now if you have any questions or comments, we enjoy these too.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Hello, Mother.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Thank you for all your lessons.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I have one question about praying: what is prayer?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>What is the best way to pray for someone else?--and myself also?<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(What is prayer?)<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>NEBADONIA:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes, my son, your very asking is a kind of prayer.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Let me suggest two things, and they are: devotion and time.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Prayer is essentially devoting your time to acknowledge greater spirit, and asking of this greater spirit for help.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There is no hard and fast line between prayer--which is a kind of asking for help, and worship--which is essentially a gesture of thankfulness; they are so closely allied.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The asking for help in prayer is a worshipful acknowledgement of spirit--of your Father’s spirit, of Michael’s spirit, and my Holy Spirit.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><FONT size=3><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">Your Urantia book says that the most devout prayer comes after you have exhausted all of your own abilities and are sincerely asking for that which lies beyond your own power.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So prayer is this opening your heart to feel, and opening your m</SPAN><st1:State><st1:place><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma">ind</SPAN></st1:place></st1:State><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"> to receive.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The presence of God within you, my son, is capable--with your attention and devotion, and your acceptance--of actually giving you discrete ideas and guidance.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Your prayers for another are, again, acknowledging this connection, this spiritual connection that exists between you and the person of your prayer.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Your Father, Michael and I--we are the conduit, the medium that carries your intention to another.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There exists God’s great personality circuit throughout the universe that concretely, right here on earth, connects you and someone else.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It is your devotion to be spending your time, and sending part of your life-force to another: this is the essence of prayer and love for another.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In a sense you are asking of your own spirit, through the whole spiritual community, to give this other person some help in their life.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>So there is a sense of worshipfulness, of thankfulness in sincere prayer, my son, that helps open your heart and helps you form your determination to care.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This devotion and determination are their own inner reward for you.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They help make you strong and loving.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The glow you feel is the hallmark of your appreciation of our Father’s existence, and His connecting everyone to everyone else.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Now does all of this accord with your own feelings of what prayer is, and can be?<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I feel one step closer in understanding, because I wasn’t quite sure in my own heart I was doing it right.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Now maybe I understand there’s no wrong way to do it.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>NEBADONIA, laughing:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Exactly!--just thinking of someone else, and sending them your love and strength--wishing and hoping for the best for them.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I think I know the answer, but I’m not positive: do the words make any difference?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Or is it that God, and you, and Michael can know the intention of my heart.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>NEBADONIA:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Again: exactly!<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You recall in your Urantia book’s version of Michael’s life among you what difficulties Jesus had persuading even the members of his own group they needn’t engage in some formal, predetermined, priest/rabbi-certified form of prayer, but that the most sincere form of prayer is an inner conversation with God.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s with your devotion and trust--your faith--that you can feel and acknowledge His presence, that His spirit is capable of carrying your intentions and strength to someone else in need of them; that prayer can be a real, effective gift and not just some kind of wishful thinking or self-deception.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is the strength of faith.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>So yes, my son, we are capable of seeing not only your personality and its desires, but your very soul.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We definitely feel the love you send through us to your dear friend in need.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<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, Mother.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>NEBADONIA:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You are very welcome.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Keep praying.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Keep worshiping.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I think you can feel how this is helping you grow inside and grow in all your wonderful relationships we talked about tonight.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Prayer and worship are very much a part of your willingness and your ability to experience the great personality circuit of God’s.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Be in my love.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes, Mother, you’ve touched upon so many things I’ve been thinking about, mainly, what it is to be truly human and appreciating each person’s uniqueness--that adds so much flavor to our lives?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>For myself, it’s when I relinquish a need for control that I feel I‘m coming from a space of integrity and love, rather than from how I think things should be.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I’m allowing myself to experience and explore that infinitude of being you expressed tonight.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>There’s a spaciousness to ourselves we need to tap into.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There’s a unified field of consciousness and intelligence we’re also becoming aware of through our science and its ideas of singularity.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yet it’s always been there.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s only our developing our innate sense of this that is changing.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We get so bogged down with points of view, and negativity, and hatred, and scarcity--ideologies and prejudices; we are missing the total picture.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We fight for things senselessly, that have no true meaning in the grand scheme of the cosmos.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>So I really appreciate what you said tonight.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I try to truly appreciate each relationship I’m a part of--or not a part of.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We’re all brothers and sisters.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I feel so blessed to be able to know that God is in each one of them, no matter how much or how little they have in life compared to me.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>God doesn’t love someone because they’re rich, or because they’re homeless and poor.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>At times I get disheartened because I feel I’m not accepting the fullness of my potential.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So how do I access this potential we all have?--to, like, instantaneously access all that we need?--or, in the blink of an eye, transport ourselves from here to there?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>I realize a baby crawls before it can walk, but the capacity to walk is there; it just takes time to get there.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And about prayer: it says in the Urantia book the only prayer is to pray to be in the extension of the kingdom of heaven, here and now.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So thank you for tonight’s lesson.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(When things seem meaningless)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>NEBADONIA:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You are very welcome, my son.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I enjoy how you ask and then answer yourself, because it does help you keep your orientation toward that open, universal field that is, ultimately and singularly, God’s will.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>If you’re looking for a challenge to tap into your potential, let me offer the viewpoint of Michael’s and mine that nothing is, as you suggested, meaningless.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So perhaps when you reflect on those things you feel are meaningless--we know what you mean by that--but see if you can perceive that nothing that happens--whether peaceful or warlike between people--is without its sufficient causes and effects when you include all their understandings and intentions.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This sense of meaninglessness of yours is only your own evaluation of an event; perhaps one you share with, or derived from, others of a like mind.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As we’ve taught before: everything that exists has a physical, mental, or spiritual/creative cause--in human events, a combination of all of these.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So the meaning of any human event can be extremely complex and, in so many instances, deliberately hidden for a purpose.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And even Michael and I would hesitate to say what is of absolute or ultimate value in the grand scheme of the cosmos.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>The challenge is to recognize that this perception of meaninglessness--so seemingly obvious at times, so out there and objective--as I spoke of in my lesson--is your own value-projection, originating within you.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This truth is really difficult to realize because the perception is automatic and instantaneous.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>To get through a projection to the underlying, more truly objective reality and meaning of an event has to start with fully comprehending and accepting this principle: nothing that happens is meaningless from a spiritually/inclusive point of view.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You have to reject the seemingly obvious perception and go deeper.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You’re rejecting simple-mindedness and superficiality for complexity, breath, and depth.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>True enough, people can act like automatons, subservient to someone else’s will, and without meaning to do the harm they do; but this is in itself very meaningful: it’s tragic.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So much of the horrific violence done in the continuance of the ideologies you mentioned is of this nature.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Try to see both the continuity of a tradition, or culture, or belief, as well as the specific causes and effects of a particular event--both of these factors.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Only then can you get a fuller meaning of any event in time.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>A hallmark of where to look is in what appears meaningless!<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That’s where you need to investigate a little bit more.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Perhaps investigate too what philosophy or understanding has led you to perceive something as having no meaning.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes, I understand that.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s partly impatience because I sense that life can be lived a different way, a better, clearer-minded way, that has always been there.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That better way has always been there!<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(Potential and actual) <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>NEBADONIA:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Let me stop you right here, my son, because this is where you’re lacking a distinction between potential and actual.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Nothing is “there” until it is there.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>True enough, potential has an existence as pure possibility, but consider how much potential is never actualized, and then the moment is gone and the possibilities change.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Everything is in a living flux.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>A thousand and one possibilities swarm around every single actuality--it’s the excitement in your sports--but that one thing is all that is happening. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You can lose what is happening, and what actually has happened in history, in your impatient focus on what could be, but never seems to come about; or what could have been, but never was.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Meanwhile the real escapes your respect for the difference between it and what only--might be.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is partly why the real--what is actually happening!--seems to lose meaning when you focus so much on what is not happening.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Don’t you have an olden saying, something like: The saddest words of tongue or pen are those that go: it might have been.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So keep your spirits up.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Keep both your sense of a better way, my son, and what actually is; but also keep a clear distinction of the difference.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This way you see the full meaning and value in everything.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>So carry on.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is your way of clarifying your thinking, and it’s necessary--something I enjoy doing with you.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes, because it seems we keep on repeating history, and we keep on trying to fix something using the same thought processes--which is a definition of insanity.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We’re on a hamster-wheel going round and round but we’re afraid to stop and be still for a moment.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I’m saying, Hey!--there’s got to be a different way--to see all this.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>NEBADONIA:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You have to see, and appreciate, the fear folks have of a different way, because not all those different ways are any better; maybe much worse.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That’s also human experience.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I think it starts with how we see ourselves and each other.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You’ve talked about that, how there’s not a world-wide uniform culture that everyone more or less agrees to, that enhances what it means to be human.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>What if we grew up knowing there’s nothing wrong with us, that we’re OK?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We’re not really sinful; there’s no Karmic retribution.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>NEBADONIA:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But realize, my son, that OK-ness only comes with maturity.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As you grow up you’re immediately confronted with pain, sadness, loss; with bigger, more powerful others; perhaps with selfish, self-centered and cruel parents: all the experiences that are not OK.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Irrespective of what philosophy you’re raised with, these are realities you have to contend with.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It takes maturity and understanding--at whatever age, but the younger the better--to achieve an acceptance and good feeling about all that you’ve encountered.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>But yes, the process is complicated by those folks who derive their power from getting you to feel you are not OK, and that they have the key to your better life.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>All through history there’ve been those who professed to be spiritual teachers and leaders who were merely politicians, and crooked ones at that, interested only in increasing their own power and possessions rather than gaining, and sharing, spiritual insights.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The reason I have these questions is, we don’t seem to examine reality.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Why am I acting the way I am?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Why am I re-acting the way I am? <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We never stop ourselves.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Sometimes when I say something is meaningless, I mean there’s so much more that language can’t say--there’s no words.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I mean I know that whatever happens to someone, it’s meaningful to them.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I’m just opening up and sharing with people they don’t have to follow every compulsion or sensation.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There’s a deeper, unified substance to all of this, and to all of us.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And we have access to that infinitude of feeling and love if we’ll just accept it.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Thank you.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>NEBADONIA:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That is a good definition of what we term God’s will, which is essentially loving and nurturing/supportive--creative.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That dimension does indeed exist.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I think Michael in his last lesson pointed out the living here-and-now is definitely not an “it.”<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s literally God’s will--in total I mean.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You all have your own wills and freedom too.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So keep exploring.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This orientation is the essence of Michael’s Spirit of Truth.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I think you’re driving all the Urantia people crazy.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>(God’s will as an ongoing discovery)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>NEBADONIA:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Not at all.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is something that the Urantia book itself reminds you, that even though we live in God and move and have our being in Him and in His will, it is moment-by-moment in space and time we discover what that will is.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We don’t just automatically know it beforehand: it’s an adventure.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As Jesus said, you approach ultimate reality with the faith of a child.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That kind of purity towards real and genuine simplicity--that spiritual singularity you mentioned that even physicists are pursuing--that is where His will is a discovery and no living person has a final handle on it, especially for someone else.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>An adventure is where you don’t know, and can’t know, everything that is going to happen.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You have to live it, and grow a soul.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>So thank you for the interesting conversations.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s good to see you embracing the adventure, because there is a growth required to go in both directions of embracing all of humanity, and more and more of the individuals right at hand.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The full spectrum of people, from the most primitive to the most enlightened, is humbling indeed.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You are even to yourself a little walking infinity; so much was--and still is--moment-by-moment--just given to you of yourself of body, mind, and spirit.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That there are billions of you does stretch the meaning of human nature.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>But there is no meaninglessness in that every person is moment-by-moment complete in God’s eyes, however much or little of this they can realize.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>What is there for them--the actuality--from the inside out--can be so meaningless as to overwhelm them in insanity.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And that experience is also fully real.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Human life is all very provisional, moment-to-moment: what you can know; what you can realize; what you can do; what you can share; how you can love.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s the orientation toward spirit, toward inclusive truth, that is definitely the way to go. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><FONT size=3>So carry on, my beloved children.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is your mother, Nebadonia, signing off.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Be in my love.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Good evening.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
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