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<DIV>Happy New Year everyone! My apologies for such a late
delivery. Many things; but: no excuses. I was gone awhile; I lost
help in transcribing; a seasonal ennui gripped my soul: the usual
suspects. A bright new day dawns. See you there.
Jerry. </DIV>
<DIV>
<H2 style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 10pt 0in 0pt" align=center><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; COLOR: windowtext; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">Michael—December
6, 2010<o:p></o:p></SPAN></H2>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Marin
TM Group—Mill Valley, California—U.S.A.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Michael—T/R-JL<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">(Personality,
body, mind, and soul) (God’s co-creativity) (The changing and the changeless)
(Genuine contact) (A shared recognition) (A good parent or teacher) (The
yearnings of the heart) (What groups need) (The thing about adventure)
(Marvelous uncertainty, with security)<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Dear
Michael and Mother Spirit,<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We
thank you for your straight talk, especially the last lesson of your Nightline
teleconference, Michael, in which you helped us be aware that though we do exist
in a world of real objects--like the Urantia book you talked about—as well as
all the unique personal beings we come in contact with every day, it remains our
responsibility of how we take them.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>And so, how we associate people in our minds by age, sex, race, social
class, religion, nationality, ethnic type; all of these associations are of our
own limited creation: people are individual.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And just as we differ from one
individual to another so do these collective-perceptions differ from one of us
to another.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Thank you for helping
us keep in mind that to transcend these differences we must begin within
ourselves in order to see individuals through all of these habitual, lazy, often
outdated generalities.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We thank you
for your help in this.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Amen.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<H2 style="MARGIN: 10pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; COLOR: windowtext; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Good evening, this is Michael.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Thank you, dear children, dear friends,
dear students--and teachers, for indeed Mother Spirit and I enjoy learning from
all of you.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Each one of you is a
wonderful example to us of God's creativity—that he can create unique
personalities such as yourselves and endow you with creative spirit.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Truly the future is wide open not only
for us but for each of you too, for you surprise and amaze us and fill us with
wonder with what you can come up with, right out of yourselves.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is the wonder of personal creation,
not only of all this stuff floating around in galaxies beyond number, but also
of all the personal beings who live on all of these worlds, of all of the
different orders you will come to know as you encounter
them.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></H2>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><o:p><FONT size=3
face=Calibri> </FONT></o:p></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">(Personality,
body, mind, and soul)<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Tonight
I would like to review a few points that Mother Spirit and I made and that you
alluded to in your introduction, and that is the question of objectivity and
subjectivity.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There is a very real
objective universe all around you, right down to your world and the room you're
sitting in.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It is very definitely
there.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yet as your Urantia book
reminds you, you are a spiritual being, a creative being, and this co-creativity
of your personality is incessant.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>It is involved in everything you perceive and register within you for,
from the standpoint of your personality, this includes even your own body and
mind and that other transcendent reality co-authored by a presence of God—your
soul.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This co-creative relationship
of yours to all that is both you and not you extends throughout the cosmos and
will be your responsibility for the rest of eternity.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Let's call it the part and the whole,
and look at your co-creative relationship between them. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">It
starts with your personality, the fundamental reality that you are--the unique
observer, the participant/experiencing-living-being of your life.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>What is your relationship to the whole
of your being?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We say you are
little infinities not only to each other but even to yourselves, for while your
living body with all its sense perceptions is definitely finite and material in
itself, how you register it and its perceptions is a function of your
extra-material mind.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>For while your
mind is in turn influenced by your body and everything you take into it, it is
also influenced by the totality of your life’s experience captured in your
soul--this combination of your memories, plus your life as it is also
experienced and taken on by an individualized presence of God.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So immediately you have an unfathomable,
subjective component in the experience of your own body/mind/soul and how these
material/extra-material/Morontia parts of you influence the perception of
everything else moment by moment. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">You
have a very real life and this life is being captured not only as you experience
it but also as a presence of God within you influences and understands it as
well.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This can give you an enormous
amount of trust within yourself that, though your memory may fail someday,
though your body/mind are, in a way, scheduled to come all apart, not only you
as a personality will continue but all your spiritually valuable experiences
will continue with you as your soul.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>In your meditation and in your prayers you can experience moments of this
soul of yours and feel how enormous and how complete all of it is, and becoming
ever more replete. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Let
us offer once again for your understanding: a feeling of humility on your part,
to the whole of you--as well as to everything else—can be a marvelous
recognition, a marvelous glory that you can feel in the presence of something
enormous.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>While there is the
possibility of feeling small and helpless and humiliated, as some do, you can
instead be thankful that you have the ability to perceive this enormity and
relate to it.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is why we
consider humility to be such a spiritual blessing. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You can feel you are a real part of such
an enormity, and even beyond that, consider that you were given the ability of
co-creating all of that--for you.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>It’s the unfathomable marvel of God-created personality
itself.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">(God’s
co-creativity)<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">You
have the saying that you were made in God's image, and in this co-creativity is
where you are most like him.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>For
our Father also co-creates everything by giving each personal being their own
creative autonomy, their own freedom--even from himself else there would be no
ungodly behavior.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is his
relationship to the whole of his creation that, though he is creating it, each
personality within it has their own unique autonomy.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Every personal being endowed with
creative spirit is their own co-originator of their experience of reality.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>What a power this is!<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>What a shame there are those who go
throughout their entire first life as a human being somewhat unaware of this,
their own co-creativity is so seamless, so incessant, and so all-pervading.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They do not experience this
co-creation--their world and their self--in terms of response-ability; and take
creative responsibility for them.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>They do not have the humility, but then neither the wonder, of accepting
that how they take things is individual and unique to them.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is understandable because things
seem so objective, other, and immutable to one if one has this attitude.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Yet
too some of you have had the experience recently of how several different people
originally interpreted Mother Spirit’s lesson on the human races, and also how
each then interpreted the Urantia book’s chapter differently again, for
themselves, on the second or third reading.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Each of you experienced and took
something different from that stream of words so objectively there on the
page.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And then after entertaining
each other's viewpoints, and Mother Spirit’s, you were able to go back and
reread it and get yet another interpretation of these supposedly unchanging
words.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Can
you get a sense of what a changing organic experience you have of reality, my
children, not only of your understanding as you entertain different viewpoints
and reconsider things, but that the very reality around you is also then
changing with your understanding?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>That could seem kind-of scary.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>What is there--there?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Is
there really an objective reality out there?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This was an ancient philosophical
problem.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>How does each individual
personal being know that he or she is not God, creating everything, and has only
self-forgotten that he or she is?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Is there any way to escape one's own subjectivity and directly and
finally know something solely in itself?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Or is one forever cursed to be doomed to uncertainty?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">What
does the Urantia book speak about marvelous uncertainty with security?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Where can this security be found if
there is no way to get to a strictly objective viewpoint, especially if some
folks feel, mistakenly, they already have it?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>On a very practical level, are the
different viewpoints of people you mentioned in your introduction--these
reactions to sex, age, race, nationality, religion, politics and so forth you
seem to encounter: are these distinctions forever doomed to be at odds with each
other?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>For the individual: is their
reality like a dog chasing its tail round and round with no catching up to, and
touching, the ever changing real, inside and out?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Or is there a way to perceive and
appreciate the overarching glory in everyone’s infinite diversity? <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">You've
all come across this basic human dilemma as soon as you start to form some
comprehensive and cohesive philosophy of life that includes others.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is an ancient problem that came up
very early on as people started to compare notes on what their lives were like
on the inside.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>One thing that
emerged a few centuries ago was what is called the empirical method.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>If you make some statement about
reality, you have to be able to demonstrate it.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And if human life is composed of,
roughly, physical facts, mental meanings and relationships, and spiritual
values, this method is one way of sifting out the physical facts which can be
repeated and demonstrated.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>What was
demonstrated came to be known as Natural Law, the understanding of which has
gotten you standing on the moon, living in outer space, and replacing living,
beating hearts from one body to another.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>It's all the classified knowledge you call science, derived from the
scientific method.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Still,
as we've pointed out, there is that other aspect of universal reality that is
not repeating itself.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This moment
has never happened before and it will never happen again.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It is not open to demonstration because
it cannot be repeated in its entirety; i.e. there may be no agreement on what
happened with which to reconstruct an event.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Think of how the facts, in legal
matters, are only what your courts of law determine, and not just by
preponderance of evidence, but as a human judge or jury evaluates that evidence
based on what is admissible, and on their own varied experiences of
life.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">(The
changing and the changeless)<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">So
how do you find security in our living, dynamic, not-repeating cosmos if also
you too--your understanding and perceptions--are changing, and changing
everything else?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Is there some part
of you that in its essence is not changing?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We get back to what Mother Spirit and I
mean by personality--the assertion we ask you to entertain that personality is
that changelessness; a discrete living being that is unchanging in the midst of
all of this incessant change.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Because of that unchanging nature, coupled with a creative spirit and the
possession of a growing soul of real experience seen not only from the
individual’s viewpoint but from God's unchanging viewpoint as well; this is the
fundamental, even the supreme possibility for security we ask you to
entertain.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Ultimately it’s your
choice moment by moment.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Though you
cannot grasp your personality as some demonstrable object, by your very
continuing you can find security in all this uncertainty, even to the point of
being thankful for the blessing of the un-repeating, growing adventure this
uncertainty provides.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The future is
truly impenetrable.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But to know
that what is impenetrable to you really already exists, not only as your own
potential eternity, but also that of every other personal being you
will meet with their equally ungraspable personality and soul, their own unique
experience of life.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">You
can know this for sure, and this is the great liberation, this
paradoxical-seeming realization that actually transcends paradox or
contradiction: that this uniqueness of experience and soul-wealth and security
of an unchanging personality; this is what we all have in common.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is the real transcendent viewpoint
that is literally the advancement of civilization.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It is this realization that allows you
to trust, to reach across the divisions and find agreement, to discover ways of
being civil with each other for all the ferocious, territorial natures you also
have.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Here I mean territorial not
only with respect to land and possessions but with respect to ideas and beliefs,
religions and philosophies as well.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">This
civility starts right within each one of you, my children.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is where you find the resolution of
any conflicting viewpoints: within yourself.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is your creative spiritual effort
and generosity we speak of, your gift of unmerited grace toward others mirroring
God’s own grace showering down upon everyone as life itself.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In this too you can strive to be more
like him.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This giving of oneself,
this forgetting oneself to share your spontaneous soul with another; this is the
glory of the diversity that is being presented to you every time you meet
another.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is a possibility of
agreement, of sharing, for in this you become most like our Father whose divine
nature is one of sharing himself with all his creation of a nigh infinite number
of autonomous personal beings whose freedom he respects and encourages.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You too can escape the limitations of
your own creativity by setting each other free, by realizing that others are
infinitely more than you could ever imagine on your own. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">This
is something real you can experience.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>It takes courage to open yourself this way, to trust before you know for
certain--to extend a hand, to be genuinely charitable with what you have both
materially and spiritually.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And so
I offer you this invitation and this challenge, my children.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As you look out upon the turmoil, the
very real problems of your world, reach across all these divisions you see.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Approach everyone with interest and
curiosity.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Resolve all
contradiction within yourself first.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Take full responsibility for how you react to things--where you are
coming from, and another’s point of view.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>This is, if you will, the purpose for all of this out here in time and
space--this never-ending adventure, all for the purpose of sharing ourselves
with each other in an ever new and growing situation.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It all adds to the Supreme soul of
existence.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We are all indeed made
in his image, and we all share in his creativity and his unchanging
essence.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We can all glory in the
diversity he sets before us and be exceedingly glad.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">(Genuine
contact)<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">In
this holiday season, poised as we are between your giving of thanks and your
celebration of my birth and my life, and the birth and life of every unique
person born on your world, we pause and are still for a few precious moments to
feel our deeper self that God has filled with a wonderful yearning for genuine
contact, genuine relationship.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In a
way we are independent, free, and self-sufficient, totally an autonomous part,
but a part like every other, capable of standing in thankful, freely given
worship in the face of his whole creation we are blessed to perceive and relate
with.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We are all
related.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">So
if you have any questions or comments, we can share these
too.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes, Michael.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The idea that seems lost in talk about
human beings--their race, and gender, and status and everything, is the idea of
human value that overrides or trumps all of that.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Every human being is of the highest
value possible no matter what their sex, or race, culture or nationality,
abilities or disabilities, education, wealth or lack of it--any of that.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It's the value of simply existing.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That gets lost in all our opinions and
beliefs.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I relish the day when we
are able to simplify our value in being in the image of God, and truth.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Human
value trumps market value; you can't put a price on it.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It's priceless.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You can't even quantify that.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Human being is always worthy, even if
they lack of self-worth.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>If
everyone saw themselves as worthy and everyone else as worthy, there would be
far fewer problems in the world, less prejudice and chaos, less anger and hatred
towards others.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">It's
been in my head ever since one of my clients was going to raise the rent on one
of his tenants, like $400, because he said that was the market value.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But I thought, what about the human
value?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They have their stories;
they have their lives.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Fortunately
he didn't raise the rent (chuckle) because he got a lot of flak.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But we seem to disregard human
rights.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Why are we even questioning
the right to have food?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Every human
being should have the right to have food and shelter, clothing, and a decent
wage.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Why is there even debate
about that?<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">(A
shared recognition)<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes, my son, that's a very good
statement of the spiritual side of man-- the innate value of each.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Tonight I hoped to offer a way for
individuals to, first, realize this value within themselves, then strive for the
ideal of seeing through all the superficial divisions that might categorize
others, to the unique individuality in each one.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But it requires courage to go from here
to there--to go from whatever judgmental situation they are in here, as you say,
lost to this greater spiritual value--to there, to being able to see in another
pair of eyes--that can be so frightening, so intimidating—still: to see a shared
recognition of each other’s human soul.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Here is where each finds that truly infinite value in another.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">One
step at a time; one person at a time, for they are individual, coming from their
different upbringings and conditioning in how they were raised, and what they–as
individuals–value.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You can only,
within yourself, do your best.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Take
some comfort and rest in that: and start again tomorrow.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They say that in the first four or five
years of our lives it's so important that we live in a stable and secure
environment, to feel that way within ourselves and discover more who we
are.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Then we can carry that all
through our lives.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>If we don't have
that sense of security, that home base within ourselves, then we’re grasping for
some sense of security outside of ourselves.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We’re not open to self-discovery, that
sense, as you said, of who I am.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We
see that played out.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>People hang
onto what seems to them real points of view that no longer serve them.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But they believe they’re true, because
without this belief they have no sense of themselves.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">(A
good parent or teacher)<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes, and this is further reinforced by
those in power who derive their authority from their followers’
un-self-questioned allegiance.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Rather, it is the sign of a great parent or teacher who grants his
children or students a freedom to be themselves, and delights in their curiosity
and independence when they openly question him or her.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But how we make progress with those who
were not blessed to have had this experience in their youth is by trusting there
is a yearning in the human heart for the recognition of truth and freedom.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It's Mother Spirit's adjutants; it's my
Spirit of Truth; it's their own Thought Adjuster--the presence of God within
them; it's their own intrinsic human creativity that offers this
possibility.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">And
so rest assured, my son, we do see this happening.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We do see a civilization coming about
that you can value all the more, with a sense of history, of just how uncivil
the human race started out.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The
Urantia book talks about whole colored races of people being wiped out.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There’s been a million years of
incessant warfare starting with clubs and rocks, anything that came to hand;
people bludgeoning and smashing each other, so delighting in combat that when,
as your Urantia book says, the peace between tribes became oppressive, they
would start another rock battle for the sheer excitement of it.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There are still those who delight in
making war. <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Try
to get some appreciation too for the disasters that befell this planet because
of mistakes made by high spiritual beings in the past.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Consider the resulting absence of
powerful and loyal Local Universe Sons, and a Material Son and Daughter, on the
surface of your world, who could show the way.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Still there is always hope, a trust in
the human heart coming from your own feeling of security within yourself; then
recognizing this heart in others by way of a hunger to share your life with
theirs.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We see this happening on
this world.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We see this coming
about more and more as all of these divisions we talked about this evening are
being transcended.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There is more
and more of that recognition, one person to another, one nation to another, one
culture to another, of their mutual human value.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Just
think of all the people you've known in your life, there in your soul
forever.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Sometimes when I’m just driving around,
I do look around with a sense of impermanence about everything I'm seeing.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It could all be gone—changed--in a few
years.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But I also know what you
just said--a sense of me lasting through it all.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That, to me, is my soul, my inner home
base.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That's always there, and
here.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There is nothing to
hold onto, in a sense.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It just
is.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">MICHAEL,
laughing:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s a true
adventure!<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Student,
laughing along:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yeah!<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I wish sometimes it were a little more
fun.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I wish the progress would
proliferate a little faster, but that might just be… more chaotic.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Maybe a slower pace is the only
way.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">(The
yearnings of the heart)<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But also, my son, it's the yearning in
your own heart for these very things that gives these things some possibility,
for you and for those you will share them with; that good
fun.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Student:
<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We’re supposed to be enjoying the
simple things.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You see people after
Thanksgiving getting up at three in the morning to go shopping--I mean, to get
something cheaper.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Did they enjoy
the sunrise getting up so early?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>That's my own opinion, obviously.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They too may, someday, for their own
benefit, discover a hollowness in all of that stuff all around them.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>May they face that situation with
courage, and wonder what else there might be.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Maybe come back home inside, and
rediscover what's there, and how their attitude changes everything.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And then you're open to what is really
necessary, to live.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>What do I
really need to live in this world--a fulfilling life?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>How can I live my life to the best of my
ability? <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I've gone through a lot of
suffering because an organization I've been attending has really been pushing
for a commitment to their four Noble Truths: direct awareness; the teaching; the
community; and to have one's own teacher or trainer.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">I've
always resisted that kind of formality, because I've had all of that.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I know the pitfalls of all of that.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But I know too they have their
organization as a way to support each other in their own growth, or
progression--a deepening confidence in their own understanding of who they
are--of clarity.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">In
other places I've read where-- it might be in the Urantia book--to go to that
sacred place within you, to talk to God in secret in that kind-of a home
base.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>From there you extract the
wisdom for yourself; and to live from that place of quiet and silence, and not
go out professing to know everything.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>But just to live from that place.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">So
there is that dichotomy: do I want to be part of an organization that has all of
this formality to it, even though there is an openness to it all?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Or do I want to go within myself and be
silent and still, and be one with the Force of all of this?--in my own way?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>People seem to relate to organizations,
and books like the Urantia book, or A Course In Miracles, as if these are the
end-all, be-all of everything.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But
they’re all only drops in the ocean of all of this.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There's part of me that does not want to
be confined to any one organization, book, teaching, or anything.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Do you understand the
dilemma?<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">(What
groups need)<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">MICHAEL,
laughing:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Totally, my son.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This again is that relationship of the
part to the whole; in this case, the individual to the group.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(Yeah!)<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I think your own sense of freedom can
you lead you to: I'll suggest one resolution, and it's by no means (Michael
laughs) the only one; and that is: the group needs nothing so much as being
composed of truly free-thinking individuals.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Unfortunately, so often the leaders
themselves do not realize this, or accept it.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Rather, as with a good parent or teacher
who encourages their child or student to be free and think on their own, to be
their own person, so a great leader finds ways to encourage his or her followers
to be more fully engaged in the group by being more creative and spontaneous and
independent in their thinking.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Everyone in the group contributes; the group brings out the best--the
creative in everyone.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Your
experience of groups stifling this liberty because of self-identification with a
particular text, or philosophy, or whatever; this is what I think your own
experience and instincts caution you about.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So you have to find the resolution
within yourself.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>If the particular
group you know cannot support that decision, go find another group, or start one
yourself, that can.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">When
the leaders of a group have too much power, and everyone else is just being an
unthinking, unquestioning follower—granting their leaders all this unconsciously
projected authority; so often this goes to the leaders’ heads.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They come to resent and resist any signs
of de-centralized autonomy—the equally-shared-by-everyone group spirit; for
without spirit there is no living, developing, unifying thing holding the group
together.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The ensuing
dis-integration is the unfortunate fate of so many well-meaning groups becoming
segregated within, so rigidly, into leaders and followers.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes, but the group I've been talking
about seems to be genuine, and genuinely good; and it is taking off
worldwide.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But about teachers:
there's this implicit notion that they've been there and done that, so to speak,
and they've resolved certain issues in their lives; and they're willing to
contribute to my life.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That's how
they look at it.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And the teachings
are beautiful.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Am
I not being humble enough in not letting someone contribute to me, who wants me
to be the best I can be?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Am I being
too arrogant or self-centered?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Or
am I not following my path?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>These
are things that bother me, but I always come back to: this is an organization of
like-minded people, but it's just a drop in the ocean of consciousness.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Just one little drop.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I enjoy everything about it-- the
teaching, the people, the community.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>I just don't want all the formality.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Then I'm back to myself again.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(he laughs)<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Arrgh!<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>My son, this is part of the price you
pay for your freedom.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You have to
keep making this choice over and over and over again.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Freedom is having choices, and you only
have those decisions you try, and learn from the results.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I guess it's a fear of being left
behind, that maybe this is the opportunity I've been wanting, and if I don't
grab that brass ring then I'm stuck in my own… stuckness.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>If you know what I
mean…<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">(The
thing about adventure)<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Sometimes it's simply a matter of: you
can't know until you give it a try.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>That's the thing about adventure: you can't always see what's going to
happen even five minutes from now; maybe even a few moments from
now.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Then it wouldn't be an adventure, would
it?<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Exactly!<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That's its nature.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You might be hanging onto the side of a
mountain with only your fingernails, literally or figuratively.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In the case of a teacher there is the
selecting process; selecting a teacher, and accepting that relationship.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They say it's a friendship that will
last forever; which is a beautiful thing.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>I do desire to be stretched, to experience more than I am experiencing
now, to open up to new ways of being.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>So...<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That's all I've
got.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>(chuckle)<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Well, my son, even in this you're not
alone.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Living in a state of
question: that is a possible feeling of all of the challenges I've thrown at you
tonight, of the uncertainty that surrounds and penetrates being human; and being
a changing, growing being yourself.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>This realization changes all that heretofore seemingly-objective world
out there.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Where can you find
security, moment to moment, within all this shifting
uncertainty?<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Part
of it is in your attitude, your willingness and ability to relate to all that is
not-you, and make the marvelous discovery that it, or she, or he, responds!<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The ability of response.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The acceptance, earned through living
experience, of the necessity to live in such a state of question, and discover a
glory in it.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It's the curiosity,
the wondering, that, from our standpoint, Mother Spirit and I can only encourage
you never to give up.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Some might
see it as a curse: why was I constructed with such desires, such longing for
both independence and genuine sharing?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Yet you yourself realize that the stifling of that questioning would be
selling yourself short.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">So
right in your home space, my son, your stillness: keep opening yourself to these
things.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You’ve achieved a
remarkable amount of freedom, and yet you hunger for more, more everything; and
that's good. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That's what you have
in store. (Michael laughs)<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We
promise you that.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There is no end
to it.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Student,
laughing:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Can’t there be a little
bit more now?<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">MICHAEL,
joining in:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It is
now.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Can I accelerate it?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I want to show people—others, other
possibilities.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There is a way out
of what we've dug ourselves into.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Then you first must find it yourself,
must you not, in order to lead the way?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>If it's true contentment in genuine discovery, this is what you have, to
offer.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Those with eyes will be able
to see you.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Those with ears will be
able to hear you.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Student:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Thank you.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">(Marvelous
uncertainty, with security)<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">MICHAEL:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is your marvelous uncertainty, with
security, in the creation, because of your absolute faith in the Creator.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You have an ultimate trust in that the
very Being who created life and death, and such enormous, incessant change, also
has something of his own unchanging nature that he shares with you as well.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Be
in my peace, which is largely, just accepting it of your own free will.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(Michael chuckles)<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Let me leave it with you.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Good evening.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Tahoma','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P></DIV></BODY></HTML>