Elyon Group 10/25/98

[Rick P. Giles]

Coeur d'Alene Teaching Mission Group
Topic: Service Project, Meditation, Ego
Teachers: Machiventa, Elyon

October 25, 1998
*	Machiventa (Jonathan TR): Greetings to you, fellow missioners, this is
Machiventa.  I am happy to be among you, and, as one who has been here in form
like yours before, I can truly sympathize with your zeal, with your enthusiasm,
and hope intently that you continue to foster this energy that you are sharing
with each other.
	You have read of my dealings with your ancestors and how successful these
soldiers of faith were in spreading the core of my teachings around the known
world.  I assure you today that your choice of presentation of your subject
matter is freely yours to decide upon.  I would only place upon you one
obligation which I place upon those others at that time.  That is to build
everything upon the foundation of the fact of the Fatherhood of God and to
establish with surety in whatever you say that the relationships of brotherhood
implied through this fact are for all to have, for all to experience deeply. 
Picture, if you will, that any subject that you address, any theatrics that you
execute, are all at the wide opening of a funnel.  The narrow opening is my only
request of you, that everything feed back to the essential truth.  Upon this
eternal relationship we are building a great universe civilization, in reality a
spiritual family.  Since the family of the Father is enormous, beyond the
comprehensive ability of the mind of man to grasp, great latitude is granted in
what you choose to share with others in promoting the conscious realization of
this spiritual family among your brethren, for of great importance is the
promotion of this awareness.
	I am certain, from my understanding of you, that your motives are not for
self-recognition, that you have no drive to prove to yourself your worth as a
spiritual teacher.  But I do sense a searching for what you may say, what
you may
present, and I simply assure you today that there is great latitude.
	The kingdom of heaven can be thought of as like a large library, this
library being the library of truth.  You may freely pull one book from any
shelf,
absorb, and present this to another.  But for another to continue their process
of growth and enlargement of spiritual awareness, it is important that they come
to understanding that they are sitting, that they are existing within this
universe library.  That realization will grant the freedom for them to explore
numerous vast areas of truth.  So, I express today: pick your favorite book, for
you will do best at sharing this while you undertake the process of
enlarging the
minds of another and heightening their appreciation of the magnanimity of truth
and its availability to the sincere soul.
	Thank you for hearing me today.
	Mark:  You have witnessed our enthusiasm, and you will witness our actions. 
We desire to be as effective as possible and to work with you to bring about our
ideas into fruits of ideals.
*	Machiventa:  Your expression is greatly appreciated.  As has been expressed
to you years past, you are our hands.  The ideals of Michael presented through
ideas of the Teaching Mission will only prove worthwhile through the action of
yourself and your fellows who follow our curriculum, who understand it and
become, yourselves, teachers.  You will be assisted, for we have invested much
time to date and have no intention of casting away the opportunity to
further the
Correcting Time.
	Mark:  You say we are the hands.  It may not be given that the hands should
know all that the brain has in store, but we know that the hands can have a
practiced memory.  We have been engaged in this repetitive process of practicing
the lessons, and the hands are becoming acquainted with some of the material. 
Now we seek to go out and play together, only desiring that the hands fully
express the desires and ideals behind them.
*	Machiventa:  I could continue with this metaphor, as it is intriguing.  I
would add a few comments, that you have been manicured.  You are learning to
pull
the slivers from your fingers when you receive them, to restore your own health
and sanity.  Your muscle memory is good.  The circuits are stronger than they
have ever been, making our connection with you more resolved.  As you spend some
time in the days ahead considering subject matter, remember you are hands; you
may use a hammer, a guitar, or a fork, whichever you choose to accomplish the
task, ever keeping in mind that the work is the work for Michael. 
	Mark:  Thank you for your inspiring words.  You have our commitment as does
Michael in this effort.  May we work together.
*	Machiventa:  I am greatly pleased that Michael has given me his commitment. 
That was a joke!  But I do warmly receive your dedication, and I know that
Michael likewise receives this dedication.  Beware, such dedication will be put
to task.
	Tom:  You made mention in an earlier transcript of the interconnectedness
between finding one's center and effective meditation.  Could you speak a little
more on that issue?
*	Machiventa:  I would first address this topic by making a few definitions
of sorts.  Effective meditation is the process which you undertake that allows
the mind to focus, to become undistracted by surroundings and daily
thoughts, and
to penetrate to the values, motives, and ideals of your heart, your personality
longings.  The spiritual centering goes beyond your mind to the Father's
presence.  This is the ultimate aim of any meditation, that spiritual embrace. 
Like my earlier statement using a funnel, meditation conforms to the same
principle.  The techniques of meditation are many, and they all focus to that
single experience of communion with God.  It is often taught that the silence of
the mind is the goal of meditation.  This is not the complete and final goal; it
is the end goal of mind meditation.  Spiritual communion may be attained whether
or not there is mental activity.  If, for instance, you  are not inclined to
silence of mind, then directed thinking will better bring you into that
fellowship than struggle with a technique more fitting to another personality
with a differing mental endowment.
	Have you more comments?
	Tom:  Only to thank you very much.
*	Elyon (Mark):  My friends, I come among you today; this is your friend
Elyon.  I simply desire to express some characteristics I have noted just in
this
last week.  It is indeed thrilling and exciting for myself to witness the growth
involved in the group.  It is inspiring to see the sharing of meaningful
factors,
the stringing together of previous lessons, the inspiring budding of potential
rising to the surface in your discussion of service projects.  These are the
fruits of your labors.  These stirrings within your souls represent undeniable
growth on your parts.  You have heard that true maturity is impossible to fake
and undeniable to those who witness it.  This is the case, my friends.  You have
risen to the challenge of moving forward, have accepted the responsibilities
within, and have chosen in full knowledge, with consciousness, to be about the
direction you perceive to be the right one.  This pattern will serve you for the
rest of your ascension career, a cycle of internalizing learning and growing
followed by a response of desired outreach and service to those around you which
results in more learning and growing and outreach and learning and growing.  You
are just beginning to see this pattern unfold in this life, but I tell you, you
will become intimately familiar with its stages of effort and rest and
reward, of
work and of satisfaction.
	So, I say to your plans and your directions, yes, yes.  Let us be about
them together, and I have every faith and trust that however you decide to
manifest these realities will bear great fruit in the service of our Father.
	This is all I have to say to you today, as I feel no need to deliver any
more lesson.  There has been quite enough to examine given here today.  You are
realizing that much of class these days is taking the form of lab or, more
accurately, field class.  Much of where your desires are focusing you will be
outside this classroom as we study the results of our efforts in the field.  We
will always maintain this huddle as a means of support and direction, guidance,
but we will now branch out and experience our field trips with the same
enthusiasm and purpose we feel sitting in our private setting.  I will take my
leave unless desired to be engaged for some other purpose.
	Jonathan:  In our field study a year ago we discussed personality and ego. 
You had said personality decides, and how we put that decision into action is
ego.  Could you clarify: Is the ego a faculty of personality that projects the
decision in manifold ways, or is the projection itself ego?  When the
personality
does something, the very outworking of it is the reality of the ego, or is there
an intervening step?  When the personality does something, the ego is the actor,
and the action is distinct from ego?
*	Elyon:  The way to visualize the relationship of the ego in the example you
presented is that the action will come through the projection of the ego; it
will
be colored by the ego; it will be sized and directed by the ego.  The ego
will be
the aperture in this example.  It will be the lens through which the ideal is
projected and therefore be responsible for the characteristics of the image
projected.
	Is this in visual form for you?
	Jonathan:  Yes, it is.  I realize now that in that lesson we were squeezing
noodle dough through apertures.  Now I see that the actual projection isn't ego,
but ego has a definite influence upon that.
	Thank you.  
*	Elyon:  Precisely.  Ego will condition the entire response and be
responsible in a sense for the response itself, in allowing the response, in
making possible the response, as a lens on a projector.  But the response itself
is not the lens but rather the image flowing through the lens.  The lens then
takes the image and focuses it, conditions it and portrays it on to  a
surface to
be experienced.  So, while the two work together, the role of the ego can be
seen
as the lens through which the desire has been focused.  
	Jonathan:  It ultimately goes back to the personality is the projector; the
ego could be wide angle, tunnel vision, panoramic in how it alters the image as
it proceeds through the lens.  We don't have multiple egos.  How each image hits
the screen isn't a manifestation of differing egos but rather a single aperture,
and various results all directed by the one personality. 
*	Elyon:  True.  If you were to see the personality as the projector and the
ego as the lens, you would also then realize that the ego has great power to
distort or to enhance the image by virtue of its relativity and coordination
with
the original image.  Therefore it may seem from the outside that the ego may be
entirely in control at times, but the image being projected remains the same.  
	Jonathan:  If we try to be egoless and didn't have a lens, we may not be
able to focus anything.
*	Elyon:  Precisely why in the lesson you heard that the two are linked
together and necessary one to the other.  A projector without a lens will not
provide an image, and a lens without a projector likewise.  It is your job in
this life to coordinate the exact functioning and positioning of the lens so as
to maximize the portrayal of the image being projected through this lens.
	Jonathan:  I like this imagery because, as The Urantia Book says,
personality is a unifier of all our selfhood.  With the idea of a projector, you
have film; you have a light bulb -- the divine spark or God.  The film could be
truth or your soul experience.  All those things are unified as the projector.
*	Elyon:  My friend, you have stumbled on another very good metaphor in that,
if you think of the Father's light as the light bulb in that projector and your
personality as the ... and your ego in charge of what to put in the ... (tape
flipped) then you would come close to an accurate picture of how things fall in
line together.
	Jonathan:  I cringe to bring up the tripod and the triangular 
relationship. 
*	Elyon:  Indeed, we could go on.
	Tom:  Where does will come in?  If personality is like the film that is
showing each frame, if the personality makes the choice, are these choices
prearranged so they pop up as we decide to go out now that our hour has come?  
*	Elyon:  My friend, remove from your mind the concept of prearranged destiny
in relationship to your freewill choice.  Going back to the metaphor of the
projector, it is up to you, your personality, to look through a series of
images,
a series of slides that you have at your disposal, and you choose which
slide you
would put in front of the Father's light.  Your will, my friend, is the part
which  activates the entire projector which turns on the entire switch.  The
Father's light is always ready, always in readiness to be activated.  Your will
chooses to activate the projector by turning on the switch.  Your personality
chooses which image to display, and your ego attempts to focus that image.  
	Jonathan:  You are using the word "slide" which, like in a carousel type of
projector, they can be arranged in any order.  Maybe our life experience put
through the projector results in our soul transcript, a film sequence that
becomes our life experience.
*	Elyon:  Precisely.  I have referred to this as your library, but transcript
is fine.  Either way, these are the sum total of your experiences and your
desires from which you have freely to draw at any time.  There are no
predestined
choices that have been made for you.  All choices you make are your choices.
You
choose based upon the resources you have in front of you,  your life-experience
library.
	Tom:  You say the personality chooses.  I guess that is me, isn't it?
*	Elyon:  Yes.  It is an aspect of you.
	Jonathan:  Thank you very much.  I rarely get a chance to talk with you as
I am often TRing.
	Elyon:  I enjoyed it, myself.  I would add one final addition to this
metaphor, that we should all go out and take more pictures to be made into
images
to be stored in our library to be put in front of the Father's light to be
projected with clarity and precision out to those around us.
	Thank you, my friends.