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<DIV>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal
align=center><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT
size=3>Michael—August 30, 2010<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Marin TM Group—Mill
Valley, California—U.S.A.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><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','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>(Free will
dignity)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>(Social requirements for
having an ego) <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>(When the adventure gets
rough)<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','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>(Motivating
others)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>(Balancing potential and
actuality) <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>(Feeling you are not of
the world)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>(The God-created
uniqueness of each personal being)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Dear Michael and Mother
Spirit,<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Welcome once
again. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Welcome dear friends, dear
divine parents. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We wish we could
take you up on your invitation, Michael, and go fishing with you.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Maybe we can someday.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We really appreciate how the two of you
do your best to make us feel at ease in your presence.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You even ask us to let you slowly earn
our trust, and so we have these many weeks, these many years.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We’ve learned to put our souls in your
hands and open our hearts and our minds in these sessions to follow along where
your point of view leads us to see ourselves and see each other.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It is your viewpoint, that we cannot
anticipate, that we find the most rewarding and the most valuable.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is essentially what we cannot fully
do for ourselves, although we try.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>As one of our poets said, “What a gift God could give us--to see
ourselves as others see us.”<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And so
in a general way you do this for us. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You help us more fully realize our human
condition. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Your lesson last time on
freedom was very appropriately addressed to what one of us asked: what is this
freedom from?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You pointed out it is
mostly freedom from our limiting viewpoints and prejudices, even the mental
poisons of hatred and anger. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This
is what we need to be free from, in order to be free within ourselves.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Then we can have the ability to make
conscious choices about what we want to do, what we are trying to
accomplish.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You also pointed out
this is a<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>never-ending,
never-completed movement, towards freedom, towards realizing what it is we are
doing both with ourselves and others. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So thank you for this loving touch, dear
parents, that, hopefully, helps us be more loving with ourselves and take
greater cognizance of what we are doing with others. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Amen.<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','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Good evening.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is Michael and I certainly welcome
you to share some time with Mother Spirit and myself, for we’re both definitely
here. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Perhaps you can feel Mother
Spirit’s Holy Spirit all around us, and right inside you. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Perhaps too you can feel me right beside
you, your lifelong companion.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Those
of you who have not been so fortunate as to have had a loving, considerate
father can find just that in me; and so please understand, my children, the
trust I have in you to let you be and not impose myself upon you.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It is my desire to let you be free to
live your own lives, for this too is my idea of an ideal
parent.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>(Free will
dignity)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Mother Spirit and I are
here to give you a little boost from time to time, to help you realize--make
more real--this very life you’re living this moment.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yet we want to let you be, and so in our
lessons here that we’re speaking out loud, we do our best to encourage you to be
free.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Realize and enjoy this
potential that our Father himself has ordained: that human life, your life,
encourages you to grow into the full estate of being a creature of free will
dignity.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>If you’ve read and
followed our lessons we’re certain you can make the distinction between this
inner awareness of freedom and a kind of blind, ego-driven, narcissistic
emphasis on just me, me, me all the time which actually cuts you off from
genuine contact, not only with your own larger self and your soul, but also from
the love and a genuine touch and sharing with other folks.
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>This free will dignity
we speak of is your rightful estate of soul-possession because it gives you the
possibility of realizing a true individuality of unique experiences.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You can realize not only your
superficial notions about yourself--which is more or less your ego--but have the
wonderful humility of realizing that you are more than this. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You are so much more than you can hold in
your consciousness as your own, self-created ego formation.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is the humble dignity of being
truly your self, your larger self.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>This is being true to your real personality and its potential that God
created, as well as your soul.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>To do this it helps to
accept our definition of your personality as the persisting essence/reality of
you that makes you unique in all creation.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>You are complete in each moment of time as is the rest of God’s creation,
and yet not perfectly realized and unified within yourself so far, so you’re
living a kind of constantly unfolding discovery of yourself and your
potential.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In addition you were
dropped right into the middle of an adventure relating to an enormous,
dynamically living and moving universe, right down to your personal world.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You absolutely are, yet this dynamic
adventure is constantly coming toward you to be handled, to be dealt with,
calling you out of yourself.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Even
this body/mind of your own is an adventure of discovery, not only as a baby and
a child, but throughout your life for it too is changing with living
experience.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>One part of the human
dignity we speak of is your freedom and ability to embrace with your will this
adventure which may, at times, be full of pain and uncertainty: your choices
exist within these very challenges.<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','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>So the dignity we speak
of is your ability to realize who you are right in the midst of an adventure
which is only partly what is coming from you, and partly all of that out there
coming towards you. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We’ve spoken of
individuals who’ve undergone a lot of life experiences with this courageous
acceptance and so have a deep, wonderful soul they shine forth as character,
something that can be recognized and cherished by others.
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>This is the purpose of
the cosmic adventure: that personal beings can grow to ultimately know what God
himself experiences by way of the abilities He has given them. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This certainly is part of His
omniscience, His ability to experience what each of us is experiencing. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Your Urantia book puts it poetically as
God’s “escaping the fetters of infinity” by also experiencing what it is to be
an independent, free-willed, finite created being. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yet too because He has created each of us
so, each of us has His gift and hallmark of creativity. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There need be no end to any of us
because, in this creativity, we are most like Him; and this too is the essence
of our freedom. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This too is our
choice: whether or not to continue this personal adventure that He has set us
down into the middle of. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>And so as you live and
love and learn, entertain as best you can a thousand different viewpoints on a
thousand different subjects.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This
way even the limited view of yourself you normally identify with--your ego--your
moment-to-moment, momentarily changing attitude towards this whole complex
structure you think of as yourself--who you are and who you’ve been; even this
ego structure of yours is capable of growth and development and enlightenment.
<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You could say it’s a way of
consciously choosing not to stand in your own
light.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>(Social requirements for
having an ego) <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>In order to be a social
creature and relate with those around you, you do have to have this ego
structure. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You do have to have some
notion of who you are and who you’ve been. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Think back on some of your earliest
childhood adventures with others and all the dozens of ways you presented
yourself, experimenting, discovering not only who you thought you were, but who
you were accepted as. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I’m sure you
can recall dozens of times when your playmates definitely let you know that who
you though you were was not quite how they saw you.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Your budding ego got trimmed back a bit,
sometimes rather painfully, when your playmates let you know in no uncertain
terms you were puffing yourself up at their expense: and so you learned.
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>From time to time you
would be astonished about something that came right out of the blue, wonderfully
astonished at yourself. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You could
suddenly do or understand something that you couldn’t the day before.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We tease you with the notion that this
is not only out of your own creativity, your own spiritual nature and potential,
but some of these ideas came from the presence of God within you--your Thought
Adjuster, merrily adjusting your thoughts towards something a little more
all-inclusive, holistic, a broadening and deepening of your perspective.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is true, my children, even to the
point where there is no ultimate separation within your soul of what you
yourself have created and what this presence of God has suggested to you.
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>This too can be a
wonderful ego-recognition: that this encompassing within which you live is
partly your Thought Adjuster, a presence of God not only devoted to you, but an
intrinsic, living part of you. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This
too your ego can recognize: that you are always more than you can realize in the
moment. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This awareness of
time/space limitation is very humbling, righteously so. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s a spiritual blessing. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You can’t ultimately stand outside
yourself. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That would be just
another grandiose, puffed-up illusion. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Moment by moment you are who you
experience yourself to be. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s
only in retrospect, even instantaneously, you can, as it were, stand outside
yourself and make some assessment of what’s just happened, including you.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But in the living here and now--this
unique moment in time—the full encompassing in which you live is an aspect of
God’s will you can recognize and orient yourself towards.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It is also in part your greater,
creative self, the true personality and full soul that you are, responsible for
the co-creation of your life.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So
welcome this humbling understanding. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>This is how you will
yourself to grow. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This too is an
intrinsic potential God has endowed you with. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As we said in our last lesson, this inner
freedom of yours depends upon your attitude, your willingness and your ability
to relate to all that is not-you, however you think of that or encounter it.
<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It depends upon your understanding,
for all your conscious decisions take place within a framework of both conscious
and unconscious assumptions.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yet as
a creative being yourself, you are not necessarily bound by these assumptions in
this living moment, this here and now.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>You have the potential for something new to come out of you, out of the
life-force that God has given you, that is unique to you.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It is your own creativity, my children,
that presents alternatives within these assumptions from past experience. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It gives you some choice. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You are not absolutely bound by all that
has come before, all the past, all that you’ve feel you’ve been. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In your confrontation with this living
present moment, you can have the ability to come up with something new.
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>So welcome this
creativity; depend upon it; take responsibility for it. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Let yourself be humbled by this gift of
God’s and the way He shares not only personality with you, but creativity
itself. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You are only free to choose
to the degree you can rise above all of your conditioning, all of your culture,
all that actually gave your life meaning and value up to this moment: you need
not be bound by it. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Else there
would be nothing new in human reality and human history. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>All of mankind would be going round and
round on a rabbit-path of inescapable familiarity; whereas actual planetary
human history has been one of the incessant evolution of thousands of cultures
over hundreds of thousands of years.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>(When the adventure gets
rough) <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','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>I say all this for your
understanding so when the adventure gets a bit rough at times, as it does, and
we most humbly acknowledge that, Mother Spirit and I; we most humbly acknowledge
the pain, the fear, the uncertainty even to the point of agony that human life
has known: still you have this kernel of freedom to reach out to us and to our
Father for help. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Welcome the
adventure of your life as much as you can but never fear, my children, to pray
and ask for help.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Then, in the
fullness of our Father’s blessings, let your hearts overflow with the
appreciation of worship to get even closer to Him. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Let yourselves be enlightened, and help
shine this light out there for others to see by. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Give of yourselves in self-forgetfulness
to fill your souls with them, the most priceless possessions you can have--each
other. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is your freedom.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is your choice. <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','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>We thank you, dear
Father, for setting up the universes this way. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We are truly humbled by each and every
single one of your children who have right within them this kernel of Your
boundless infinity, the hallmark that they are indeed Your children. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Now if you have any questions or comments
this evening, let them spring forth. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Hi, Father Michael.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>How can I motivate my grandson to reach
his full potential?<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>(Motivating
others)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes, my son.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Can you remember where your Urantia book
talks about a person’s spiritual fragrance?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(Vaguely)<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This totality of your being is what
truly motivates others. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You have
another way of saying it: lead by example; especially from one generation to
another, from an oldster to a youngster, if you will.<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','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Consider these aspects I
talked about tonight--your attitude, your understanding of life as you’ve lived
it and learned from it, your creativity right in the moment. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>These are most important, my son, because
you are demonstrating to others what is possible. This is not only with physical
things, say in teaching a craft requiring some physical ability, but also in the
mental and spiritual realms.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s
how you approach things, how you yourself are handling the adventure, what you
can come up with. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This totality of
your being is what they are absorbing like a sponge, not only in their conscious
minds and ego-sense of themselves and how they relating to you, but also in the
broadest super-conscious realms of theirs registering meaning and value.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Topping this, their personality can
recognize another kindred soul.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>To
truly encourage others, it helps if you stay true and honest to your deepest
self. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I feel you know this
instinctively. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Sometimes you call this
tough love, making decisions not just for a momentary reward of gaining someone
else’s pleasure, but by staying true to what you know of as life, and how it
works, and what its deepest rewards are.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>You encourage others by remembering and talking about those you’ve known
who realized their human potential, who had real character.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Recognize, yourself, when your
youngsters are being fulfilled with their own creativity, because it might well
be going against the grain--(Michael chuckles)--of what you were expecting.
<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So: be open-minded. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Recognize every other person is a child
of God’s with this unique personality all their own within them, right along
with the absolute and infinite presence of God--their Thought Adjuster--being a
living part of them. <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','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>As I spoke of earlier
this evening, be willing to let them be. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You often think of this as being
not-overly-protective. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Let them
make their own mistakes and help them, as you’ve done with yourself, learn from
these experiences. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Finally: just
enjoy them as Mother Spirit and I so dearly enjoy each one of you. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Be thankful and appreciative, if you
will, worshipful within yourself, of this particular person of God’s creativity.
<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Now does all of this seem like it
might bear good fruit? <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes, it does. It sounds an awful lot
like: lead by example, teach by example. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Indeed. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Just keep in mind this huge
encompassing--(Michael chuckles)--that we all live within.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I mentioned this evening how you can be
enlightened and, though you never escape it--you can never, in a sense, stand
outside your own subjectivity, you can learn.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You can be humble in this wonderful
awareness of the great encompassing of God’s we all live in.
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Student: Thank you,
Father Michael.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL: Thank you, my
son, for being such a good grandfather. <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','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Student: Yes, Michael,
last time Mother Spirit talked about freedom as well, about living the adventure
and putting oneself out there to experience ones potential--to take that leap,
so to speak?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The question is: when
does one kind-of like push the envelope, so to speak?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>When does one take that leap?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There are times when I feel I want to do
something different with my life, although I know each moment is a new moment,
and each experience, even though familiar, is a new experience.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But sometimes I feel this pressure
pressing me to do something more with what I have come to understand.
<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Maybe this is my own
idealism, my own imagination, but all I can do is just take one step at a time.
<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But I can’t seem to when I’m
really, really tired, or I feel despondent. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I feel like I’m in this circular pattern
and even though I do stillness and rest, I just sense there’s more to gain to be
a complete human being than what I am experiencing.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Is there any balm for that?--(Michael
and students laugh)--for that kind of…pushing, that wanting to express more of
that potential? <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes, my son: you keep sitting right in
the middle of the paradox. (Hmm--I feel that!--student laughs)<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>On the one hand you know yourself very
well and this is a result of a lifetime of thinking and contemplating and
wondering, reading and exploring. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You’ve had a great deal of fun and
enjoyment in this. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>At the same time
you do feel this inner push, this intrinsic desire to keep growing, yet you are
rightfully fearful of any kind of just petty dissatisfaction. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is a righteous fear because no one
wants to feel this dissatisfaction with the infinity of God’s miracle--(Michael
chuckles)--in which we are living.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>(Balancing potential and
actuality) <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>There is a balance here,
a living balance, moment to moment, between your intrinsic need to keep growing
and extend yourself out into life, and fully appreciating all that you already
are; what Mother Spirit taught you as your potential and your actuality.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Your life is both your own and what is
coming towards you with people, places, things, events.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It has requirements in terms of
energy--physical, mental and even spiritual energy--so you righteously feel
being overwhelmed with what you call tiredness, and how it changes
things.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>To deepen your
understanding, consider: when you feel this incompleteness coupled with an
almost painful uncertainty of where to grow next, where next do you apply
yourself, what could be new for you, you are making an assessment of risk and
reward with what your own imagination can come up with.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You only have to think, Wouldn’t it be
nice…<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>A lot of folks play a game
within themselves to explore possibilities in terms of winning the lottery.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>If all the economic considerations of
life were suddenly whisked away, what would you do?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That’s one way you can explore and
realize limitations. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>In other words, let your
imagination roam free for a while even though it may be painful to think of all
the things you could have done, yet haven’t so far.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Think of the times you’ve plunked down
your dollar to give the lottery a try, and when the right numbers didn’t come up
for you, there you still were.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>With
all potential this is the risk you have to take. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You have to take the risk of failure,
failure as it will occur to you in your moments of tiredness, moments being
overwhelmed with life coming at you with things to handle, like necessities not
only for yourself but for your loved ones too.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>This is the risk you run
by giving your imagination a little freer rein in all aspects of your
life--physical, mental and spiritual. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So ask yourself: what is it you are
afraid to try? <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is just a tool,
if you will, something to point you at: Wouldn’t be nice…and yet too: what would
be painful if it didn’t work out? <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>One irony or aspect of a lifetime’s
wisdom you can have is: a superficial take on this wisdom can get you down.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So go deeper.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Don’t feel you’re too wise to try
something new and unfathomable. <o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yeah, right!--because sometimes I do
feel like that.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Even though I have
my daughter and granddaughter and others who live with me, I am basically by
myself.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And I am comfortable with
my own company: but like you said, sometimes a false kind of wisdom keeps me at
bay from interacting with others.<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','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>There’s a couple of
things I’ve been expressing to others, you know, like I said, all I can deal
with is what’s in front of me.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>That’s where life is: right here in front of me and inside of me right
now.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That’s all there is--so deal
with it.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But the other experience I
had, which is kind of fascinating, was after what I was experiencing with this
other teaching in a gathering on Sunday morning, I would be filed with so much
love.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But then I’d be by myself; so
what do I do with it?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>What’s the
good of wisdom and love if you can’t share them with others?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>At least there was a different attitude
when I went about doing my regular things.<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','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>So I’m coming to an
understanding that these things really mean something when they change my
everyday living. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I don’t need to do
anything grandiose, you know?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It is
true, like you say, that life also comes to me, and there’s life in me to meet
it.<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','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>My son, if you don’t mind me putting my
finger right on it, let me ask you: are you lonely?<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Student, laughing:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes and no.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There are moments when I do have those
pangs of desiring companionship, but not at the cost of truth and wisdom—in a
sense, my soul.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Each time I try to
initiate something, it’s like it doesn’t happen.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The stars aren’t aligned so far.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The time is not now.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In reality I just feel…hmmm…I just feel
not of this world.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I live in the
world but I don’t feel of the world.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>I feel like that song by the Beatles, The Fool on the Hill.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So I just feel…different.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But seven billion people are my company,
so I don’t feel lonely that way; maybe just alone in my own wisdom and
understanding.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It hurts sometimes
not to be able to express love—nonconditionally—that’s a word I coined a while
ago, where love is just love.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It
doesn’t require that other people feel it too.<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','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We have talked before about the human
condition being like having one foot on a solid dock, and the other foot out in
a bobbing boat: one foot in the continuous real and one in the ever-changing but
possible ideal—something you can imagine if not yet realize.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You are expressing well your
understanding of that.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You do
understand and feel the risk you’re taking to have someone else ideally deeper
inside you, at the same time staying true to your own
soul.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>(Feeling you are not of
the world)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>As for your feeling of
being not quite of this world, remember when we spoke of giving due respect to
the real, as contrasted to what you imagine could be?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Which one you perceive and treasure the
most does determine your orientation and your feeling of life itself.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Just do your best to be aware of this
orientation and make you choices as consciously as possible.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That way you are for the most part
living in freedom, living with the sense of having some choice.<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','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I’ve tried, you know, to approach people
with the desire of having a more complete connection.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There is one person I do care for a
lot.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But who knows?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Maybe it’s my own expectations getting
in the way.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And sometimes that more complete
connection is something that takes time to grow.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Love at first sight is often so illusory
there’s nowhere to go but to grow apart.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes, but it’s interesting though.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There are times when I do feel a
strong…I mean my heart just stops!<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Or my heart just wants to embrace them.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Obviously I can’t do that, but it just
wants to do that.<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','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Or!—you might forget yourself and go
over and give them a big hug.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>That’s a risk, isn’t it?<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','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Student, sighing:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yeah…<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I have…sometimes.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Sometimes it works and sometimes it
doesn’t.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>One last thing: it seems
like when people get enlightened, or think they are, there seems to be a
compulsion to start an organization of some sort.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You know my thing about
organizations.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It all seems to get
diluted or something, and I just wonder--what I’m hearing from you and Mother
Spirit--that it’s more one’s own experience that is important—than being part of
a group.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>MICGHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes, that’s a good subject for another
time: the balance between the collective and the individual.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There are very few self-chosen
hermits—very rare: everyone does live in different kinds of communities all at
the same time.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yet these
communities are no other than those individuals who comprise them.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The term religion usually refers to an
organization, but the basis for any community of believers is each person’s
relationship with God; the group is just the socialization of that inner
relationship.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Without the
individuals sharing their inner relationship with God, the group is not truly
religious but only a social organization—not that there is necessarily anything
wrong with that except, perhaps, the pretense.<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','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>It goes both ways.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>People can get caught up so much in
their own ego-aggrandizement they are only using the group for that purpose—a
mirror for their vanity. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>On the
other hand, all throughout human history there has been the slowly growing
recognition and acknowledgement of the individual, beginning at the tribal stage
where everyone, without exception and right within themselves, unconsciously
identifies with the group for security and a sense of belonging.<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','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I think sometimes the original purpose
for getting together is pure and complete, but then the organization becomes an
entity unto itself and people lose perspective about the reason they’re
there.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It becomes more about
upholding the organization than living the individual essence that started it
all.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So I’m always having this
inner battle with those groups I’ve participated in.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I understand it like the difference
between a drop of water and the ocean of consciousness it is part
of.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>(The God-created
uniqueness of each personal being)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes, this is why Mother Spirit and I are
careful to emphasize the absolute, God-created uniqueness of each personal being
and their continuing individual existence, even into eternity.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In this sense the drops do not, at
death, automatically return into the ocean from which they came, as some folks
believe.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That giving up of
individual existence would be another personal choice.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(Thank you)<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Be in my peace.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(long
pause)<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Are there any more
comments or questions?—my daughter?<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>No questions, but a lot of good
feelings—more amazing: it was brilliant tonight, positively brilliant.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Thank you.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Well, thank you, my dear.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It is your light that I am merely
reflecting, and it is your soul that recognizes the glow.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So thank you very
much.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>This is definitely a
wonderful stillness we can enjoy together, because we are freely choosing to be
here.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>From my point of view—and
Mother Spirit’s—this is one good reason true religionists, though they may
realize their completeness in God, and even within themselves, still there is
this extra-wonderful thing that comes about when they get together.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You can thank Mother Spirit in part for
her Spirit of Council, for your being able to sense and recognize the experience
of each other’s souls, each other’s character in this marvelous expansiveness we
create together.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It is not its own
reward for being?<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','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3>Good evening, my dear
ones.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Be in my peace.<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','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><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','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><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','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><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','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><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','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
size=3> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></P>
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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','sans-serif'"><o:p><FONT
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style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'"><FONT size=3><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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style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P></DIV></BODY></HTML>