[tmtranscripts] Michael 11705 - Personal Uniqueness

[JERRY LANE]

Dear Folks,    Here are some more examples of the challenging but liberating 
vision Michael would have us enjoy, of both Himself and each other of us.  
Jerry - Nytrayn at msn.com.

Michael 1.17.05

Marin TM Group

Dear Michael and Mother Spirit,    We offer You our prayers of thanksgiving 
for the help You have been giving us to realize what was ours - innately 
ours all along: the potential we have to contact Spirit; first, the 
spiritual dimension of our own lives, and then beyond this, a whole host of 
other spiritual personalities who have always surrounded us with Their good 
wishes.  Amen.

Michael:  Good evening, My sons, this is your Father, Michael.  This is your 
Brother, Jesus.  I would like you to think of Me in both of these 
relationships I offer you.  One is no less important than the other.  As a 
father, I proceed you, I come before you, I prepare the way for you - the 
world in which and on which you live.  In this I am a Son myself and I have 
a complete relationship with My Father, Who in turn came before Me, Who 
created Me and arranged a realm in which I could function and create, 
Myself.  So in this same manner I have created you in Our image.  And I 
created you with an enormous potential such that, since so much of this is 
yet undeveloped, I need to remind you, from time to time, to realize you are 
just beginning.  You are taking just the first few hesitant steps in 
eternity.  This is your potential and you should feel reassured with this 
knowledge.

As a brother, I share your human life with you in a way I could not have 
before I myself lived a human life.  This may be difficult to understand.  
You can wonder why a Creator Son, who has such intimate knowledge of His 
creation over such a long period of time on so many worlds; why would such a 
Creator Son have to actually experience a human life Himself to know what 
this is?  But here I am most like you.  I too am a creature of experience - 
of which there is no substitute.  This a dimension of reality - if you will, 
a realness of reality that is in no way any kind of play-acting, no kind of 
show, no kind of mere practice for the real thing.  This is what we are both 
engaged in.

The fact that so many humans do feel themselves caught up in a kind of 
unreality, a kind of mere shadow-play, in no way means that their life is 
unreal.  It just means they are momentarily dysfunctional and unable to 
personally realize the absoluteness of their existence.  Thus I wish you to 
appreciate to the fullest extent the importance of experience - an absolute 
cosmic reality that is being created moment by moment and so, forms an 
expansion, a growing of reality itself.

When We say there is no substitute for experience, it means that no Being 
whatsoever, not even God, not even the Trinity, has yet experienced this 
reality being formed, moment by moment, throughout not only the entire realm 
of time and space, but also as you have read and been taught, a whole 
universe beyond time and space, a billion worlds around Paradise Itself.  
This is what you are involved in.  This is a reality you share with all your 
fellow personal beings, from the highest to the lowest - in the sense of 
scope and power of creativity; but also from the oldest and most ancient to 
the newest babe being born, just starting out.   We are all part of the 
Deity Absolute, the absolute reality of all personal beings created by God, 
and in the most intimate touch with Him without any break whatsoever.  All 
personal beings are members of a brotherhood.  We’re all children of God and 
we are all growing.  We’re all expanding in a way that you find difficult to 
imagine for more than a few moments for, from a human perspective, all 
reality seems like a balloon that must surely burst at any moment…but just 
keeps expanding.  And so, realizing the nature of this expansion is somewhat 
a matter of faith if you cannot directly grasp it more than momentarily.

It is this necessity for experience that I accepted joyfully in becoming 
human.  I myself feel humbled by My inability to express in your language 
the full meaning of My human life to Me.  It was and it remains precious 
beyond words.  I earned - I personally achieved - a compassion and 
understanding of My own fragile, tender being, and it added so much more 
amazement within Me about what you all experience day to day.  I found My 
love for you to be overwhelming and so, again, and again, and again, I 
thanked My Father that I could feel so much, I could understand so much more 
that even I, as a Creator Son of God, could imagine.  This, My children, is 
the chance you too are given.  This is the potential in the situation of 
your human lives for you to enjoy and thank our Father with the most 
profound worship.  This is how I am your brother.  My loving desire is that 
each of you will realize what I was able to.

The enormity of a single human life is beyond grasping.  How many of you 
understand that a part of this estrangement - this unknowable quality you 
find in each other - is because – truly - you are infinite to each other?  
How much of social tradition has grown up over endless ages to enable you to 
ignore this fact?  How much then of the cultivated racial need for 
familiarity is based on ignoring this fact?  How must society, right down to 
personal behavior, need to be transformed so more and more individuals can 
perceive and acknowledge and then someday share this supreme fact of each 
individual’s unique creation?  But this is something you can try your best 
to understand now, and to welcome as a matter of faith - to prepare yourself 
for that moment when you begin to see other persons as infinite.

Can you imagine the kind of freedom you would then be willing to grant each 
other?  Can you imagine the kind of respect that would automatically flow 
from your heart?  Can you imagine the amazement and the love you would feel 
compelled to feel?  Does this give you some inkling of this dimension of 
reality which human society must embrace in order to keep growing 
spiritually?  Can you see how this perception, person to person, can and 
will change the world?

It is in this way I invite you, My sons, to welcome those about you.  Even 
your long-time friends may seem a bit uncomfortably strange at first.  But 
have faith, trust that there is something within you capable of growing to 
encompass this strangeness, and transforming it into a blossoming of 
personality.  This is why, when I lived among you, I stressed and tried to 
encourage an emphasis upon the individual, not in some self-aggrandizing way 
of puffing yourself up in your own eyes, but exactly the opposite - a way of 
relaxing through self-confidence in being a child of God and letting your 
own God-created personality just be.  This is a paradox, so don’t be too 
hard on yourself or on your friends and others for not realizing it sooner: 
the more you try to be unique and individual through your own notions and 
efforts, the more you oftentimes fall into the trap of imitating others - 
falling into general stereotypes.  Whereas the more you feel deep in your 
heart the self-confidence to be who you are when you are alone with just you 
and Myself and Mother and our Father, in stillness; this is how you achieve 
the singularity of your true personality.  So it is not something invented, 
let alone embossed, but more a continuous discovery, and this is just 
another gift of our Father, ironic but real.

This was My great delight when I lived among you - that I could see God’s 
handiwork in each person.  This was the point - the object and the essence 
of My teaching.  It is My greatest desire to see the peoples of Urantia, as 
on My other worlds, be able to perceive this, realize this, enjoy this 
transcendent truth: as God’s children, we’re each unique, for only He is so 
creative.  And this quality - I could  say, this equality above all makes us 
brothers and sisters.

Think about this, My children.  Be with this for awhile.   If you have any 
questions this evening, I would be glad to answer them.  (Very long pause)

Well, as I have said before, questions are not necessary.  I appreciate that 
you can set yourselves aside for awhile to feel My presence, and let My 
words soak into your souls.

Student:  Father, I do have one question.  How were You able to be with each 
person on a continuing basis - from person to person to person - without 
lapsing into fatigue or, as the phrase is now, going into your head?  I 
don’t understand that one.

Michael:  Yes, C, if you will remember from last week’s lesson, this is 
similar to a question of how does one stay alert.

Student: Yes.

Michael:  And We suggested that it is a two-fold challenge, only part of 
which you can meet by sheer effort.  The other part is to be confident 
enough within yourself to let yourself go, to cease being fascinated with 
your own life, and have the courage within yourself to feel a genuine 
curiosity for your fellows.  See if you can suspend this bubble of 
familiarity you think you need right now in meeting your fellows.  Suspend 
an unnecessary reassurance that you know who they are.  We are pointing to a 
kind of renewed perception.  We are telling you that this is not something 
you invent or have to imagine, but it is a further dimension of reality you 
perceive as part of your process of maturation.  It is an ability you 
acquire in maturing spiritually.  Otherwise, it is even, sadly, a factor in 
aging prematurely, physically and mentally.  If you cannot begin to perceive 
this dimension spiritually, the bubble of familiarity we ask you to evolve 
out of is what slowly strangles you and cuts you off from the continuous 
creation which can renew you - because it is real.  At first it takes wisdom 
to understand this intellectually as a possibility, then faith in trusting 
that this newness you encounter is not inimical to your health, but rather, 
if you allow it to pique your curiosity, what can lead to a very healthy 
moment to moment renewal of yourself.  Do you understand?

Student:  More and more I understand.  I’ve been seeing that bubble of 
familiarity that I live in, that I hadn’t seen before, and I‘m still in it.  
I’m looking how to get out of it - the bubble of familiarity, that is.

Michael:  What I am suggesting is that, ultimately, this changed perception 
is valid.  The world around you, which you have known and is so familiar, 
will achieve a new depth, and this depth is something real and already 
existing.  If it helps to think of reality divided into physical facts, 
mental meanings or relationships, and spiritual values, the dimension I 
invite you to perceive is primarily one of spiritual value. This is the 
extraordinary gift God has in potential for each of you: the world around 
you will grow in value.  Each person will appear more individual, and you 
will value this uniqueness of each person more and more.  Stereotypes, 
judgments, classifications, categories - all these are tools of familiarity 
it takes courage to dispense with.  You may find yourself embarrassed and at 
a loss within yourself.  How you relate to true individuals coming at you 
one after another - from the viewpoint of familiarity, this can be very 
scary.  You might have to stretch your notions of what being human is all 
about.  You may have to trust you have the ability to do this.  This 
perception of all of those around you becoming more and more valuable may 
demand all kinds of changes in your own life and in your behavior.

But I assure you this is what can renew you.  Just think of the world you 
will inhabit when everything and everyone has more meaning and value.  This 
is the way to grow.  Enjoy it.  You find it largely by being in My peace.

Student: Thank you, Father.

Student:  Michael, I don’t have any questions this evening, but I would like 
to just…thank You for opening Your heart and sharing it with us in the 
fashion You have just done.  I always greatly enjoy it when another is able 
to open their heart without any pretense or façade, and just allow who they 
are to be expressed as You have done this evening.  I’d like to thank You 
for that.

Michael:  Well, My son, you have truly grasped what I wished to share this 
evening.  This is My greatest desire, that all God’s children see each other 
for the infinite beings they are - of His handiwork.  This is what will 
change Urantia.  This is the way the people of the world will grow 
spiritually.  And be in My peace.

Student:  Yes, Michael, there so many things I wish to discuss with You.  
There are so many questions and ideas that are swirling in my head, even 
pertaining to what has been discussed this evening in the last few 
questions.  I have been reading this book on nonviolent communication that 
stresses getting beyond judgments and opinions and communicating with 
compassion - which is our natural state of being.  I think this is a very 
important book for everyone to read, especially children, to learn how to 
communicate from their heart.  And there is a group in the Bay Area that 
gives courses which I think I will be pursuing.  So that’s, that’s one 
thing, especially since today was a day to honor Martin Luther King who, 
like Gandhi before him, preached non-violence not only in deed but also in 
word.  And looking how we speak to each other, even a subtle teasing can be 
violent in action or word – if it masks what we truly feel.  So that’s one 
thing I wish to express to You.

Secondly, I’ve been looking at this idea of familiarity even before it was 
brought up last week, and I wasn’t even here.  I’m always questioning my 
motives and what I am doing moment to moment; and the patterns of my life - 
patterns I feel no longer work for me, and how can I best free myself from 
them.  And then I thought about how can I create the life I wish to create, 
or God wishes for me to live, and how can I manifest the things I need in 
this life to make it more enjoyable not only for myself but for others 
around me?  And the more I pondered this and thought about this, I thought 
about my own creation and went deep into meditation about this - thinking 
that initially I was a thought, God thought of me, or who I am, and I was 
created.  I’m sure there’s more to it than that, but I was just thinking: 
When did I begin?  Where did I come from initially - my primal self?  And I 
feel that if I could understand that, it would help me create the world or 
the life I desire to live here and now.  In a sense I’m asking: Who am I?  
What are my beliefs or…beyond my beliefs?  These are things I’ve been 
pondering.

And  thinking about pure existence, what does that actually mean?  Because I 
relish the thought of pure existence - when I let go of all patterns and 
beliefs and ideas and judgments.  It seems so strange - beyond familiarity.

Michael:  Well, My son, you seem to be enjoying the path.  About what you 
said at first: very definitely words are actions, there’s no separation.  
About who you are: the word personality has so many meanings in your general 
usage that you must keep in mind the special way in which your Mother Spirit 
and I use it, in the general context as it is expressed in your textbook, 
The Urantia Book.  Indeed, there are several chapters of many pages devoted 
just to this concept.

Personality, as We express it, has qualities, one of the foremost being the 
uniqueness of each personality as created by God.  For only God, Himself, 
has the infinity of creativity to create unique personalities beyond 
comprehension.  You cannot even begin to imagine trillions of trillions of 
trillions of trillions of beings and grasp that each one is unique.  Only 
God experiences what each of these personalities experiences, in a way 
beyond any notion or perception you have of time and space - 
instantaneously.

These personalities, of whatever kind from the highest to the lowest in 
terms of the dimensions of reality they can experience; all of these have a 
relative freedom of action within their sphere of realization.  When we get 
down to a specific human being raised in a particular time and cultural 
society - especially a modern society where you are surrounded by so many 
different forms of media - quite different, say, from someone raised as a 
cave-child within a circle of several dozen persons - your society and your 
companions are so complex, you very quickly develop layer upon layer upon 
layer of reaction and self-image.  So We invite you to let these layers go.  
Just relax them and gently sink down as a pebble sinks down through layers 
of foam.  Sink down ‘till you rest at this home base of just purely 
existing, and you will realize the irony I mentioned earlier: that all these 
layers of actions and reactions - learned behavior, social norms - all these 
are somewhat stereotypical insofar as they’re shared patterns.  When you let 
them go, you’re actually approaching your own unique self.

Again: the more you try to be unique in a kind of self-image way, what you 
call ego, the more you generally become somewhat of a stereotype because 
this is what so many else are doing. It is only by relaxing all these 
efforts, by way of a genuine self-confidence in connection with Spirit, you 
find yourself more and more unique and truly individual.  So this is not 
something that has to be invented or imagined.  This is a God-created 
reality and this is there for you to discover.  So keep going, My son.  It 
is good that you enjoy the process.

Student:  Yeah, there’s that sense of excitement like there’s something in 
me saying, yes!  And those layers You talked about, the stereotypical layers 
and patterns limit my self expression, limit that voice within me that’s 
saying yes.  So I do relish those moments.  I do not wish to be limited any 
longer.  I want to create and to love unencumbered and unconditionally, and 
communicate from that place, that non-violent communication of compassion.  
Thank You.

Michael:  You’re welcome, My son.  It helps to feel the irony of the 
situation because it helps you be gentle with those around you who have not 
yet seen this, and who struggle so intensely to be unique, and end just 
being - at least as they present themselves - another copy.  This is 
somewhat similar to the caution about gilding the lily: each personality is 
radiantly shining in his or her own essence and so must be cautious about 
adding layers of paint.

This is what I suggested this evening: that when people begin to see 
themselves and each other more and more as God-created infinite beings, 
compassion arises out of a sense of generosity and worship, and it becomes 
unthinkable that one would deliberately harm another.  Thank you for your 
observations, and be in My peace.

Student:  Could You expound a little on why You had to say, “Fear not,” to 
Your public more often than any other phrase?  Would it help us put people 
at ease, be a little more gracious, or is that something You found 
absolutely necessary at that time in history?  I know today people are very 
fearful, but how do we use that method - that You used - a little more 
effectively, if you will?

Michael:  Yes, V, I think it would help to keep in mind the essence of grace 
in the theological sense of - unmerited gift.  We speak of God’s grace as 
His love flowing to us as much as we can accept, absolutely independently of 
our behavior.  And so if we wish to emulate our Father and be gracious, see 
that it comes from an overflowing heart.  When we are so full of love and 
worshipful thankfulness, and able to perceive that each of our fellows is 
this creation of God, this is simply the definition of graciousness.  We are 
overflowing with the gift of love for our fellows - irrespective of their 
behavior.  This creates and sustains such a situation, such an encompassing, 
that most of our brothers and sisters do respond in kind.

As you know from reading about My experience, it is not always so.  Your 
very graciousness, no matter how well-meaning and genuine, can be mistaken 
and appear threatening.  But if it is genuine, if it is somewhat independent 
of another’s behavior, it is still a gift of God coming through you.  It is 
still His way and no one can take this from you.  This is your gift.  Just 
the feeling, the awareness of God’s love pouring through you, is reward 
enough - can be more than enough.  This is the joy of life and there is no 
substitute for this experience either.  Does this answer your question, My 
son?

Student:  Yes, it’s wonderful.  I can see why you can naturally say, “Fear 
not,” just to put people at ease.  It seems like a separate item, but I’m 
sure it was just a very relaxed and common phrase, probably uttered just to 
put them at ease so they could share in the bounty - bounteous theme of 
generosity You were proclaiming and giving.

Michael:  As I said, and as My life demonstrated, it didn’t always work.  
There were those who, for various reasons, were terrified of Me, and could 
be forgiven for that very reason.  But you do your very best and God’s 
reward is right in the doing, instantaneously, moment by moment.  You enjoy 
the completeness of knowing you are in His love.

Now rest in My peace, My children, and tomorrow, when that new day breaks, 
see if you can go out and greet all your fellows anew.  Good evening.