[tmtranscripts] 5/1/97 transcript

[ZooidODell at aol.com]

Posted to tmtranscripts 01-09-99
From:  Gerdean
Group:  Pittsburgh Pumpkins
Transmitted:   May 1, 1997
Subject:  Personalities
Teachers:  Merium and Tomas
T/R:  Gerdean and Hunnah

Urantia Book Study:  Paper 6, The Eternal Son
Stillness and Sharing

TEACHER SESSION:

TOMAS:  Greetings, my friends, I am Tomas.
GROUP:  Good evening, Tomas.


TOMAS:  It is good to be with you again.  All of us in the celestial realms
rejoice in your steadfastness, in your yearning to grow in spirit reality, in
your desire to do His will, and in your efforts to serve.  Lovely
personalities, how are you this evening?

CELESTE:  Wonderful.
LEAH:  Just great.

TOMAS:  It has been a good evening and continues to be productive of spirit
communion.  This evening's studies regarding The Eternal Son have brought now
into your comprehension of Deity an aspect of action in mercy and as you have
observed in your recent assignment regarding personality, the fact of
personality is activated by and through mercy.  You now have the chief two
ingredients toward living a life of loving service.

Those instances where you observe personality, without judgment, wherein you
recognize a fleeting glimpse of reality -- be it childlike faith, confusion,
experience of the ages, relative retardation, enchanting aspects, and all
manner of personality manifestation -- there is within you then that which is
called to serve.

Many times the smile is adequate.  Many times the acknowledgement speaks
volumes, fills untold wells of loneliness.  It may not be your responsibility
to bring your concern for their well-being into the picture, but as you accept
and acknowledge and pass by, you have served.  We have spoken of this from the
beginning -- to open doors between you; to allow the fear to fall away, in
trust of divine guidance.  

And now you begin to see the Father at work in the lives of His myriad
children.  You have sought for Him, you have found Him in the Isle of
Paradise, you have found Him within your own essence of association in your
own Mystery Monitor, and now you glimpse Him in others.  Not only in the
spiritual, but in the actual, the mortal, the existential existence of your
fellow creatures.

This acknowledgement that these beings are the children of Our Father enlarges
your world.  You are not alone.  You are embarked on a joyous adventure
wherein you will encounter other interesting personalities throughout
eternity.  Much of your on-going eternal education is adapting to, adjusting
to, responding to, working with, appreciating, enjoying personalities.  You
cannot always select what personalities you will encounter, but you always
have free will choice as to how you will treat/regard any and all those that
you do encounter.  How would the Father regard this child of His?  

As you see personality and may or may not opt to respond in a service way, you
may deprive yourself of the opportunity to serve altogether, but as you are
touched by life, as you see the Father-indwelt personality with the
difficulties that they suffer in this mortal life, the challenges they face,
see them in mercy of their standing.  Allow the embrace of The Eternal Son to
wash over that being -- your brother, your sister.  And so even when you
cannot or will not engage yourself personally, you can operate through the
spirit to project your Father's love and mercy on that personality.  
This you can do as a conscious act of your will.  It is a service.  I invite
you to look at this because oftentimes the distress that you see in your arena
is enough to allow you to pretend that it does not exist, for the frustration
is potentially overwhelming as to how you can serve, how you can do something
about it.  Rather than deny its existence, envelop it (the individual and
their circumstances) in a shroud of love and mercy as you pass by.  You need
not ask for anything on their behalf or in their regard, but direct your love
that you have received from the Father to them through the Father.  

It is, of course, far more intriguing when you allow yourself to become
involved in the realm.  Nothing is more important, you see, than the work of
your realm, but it is true that your capacities cannot encompass every
individual human being.  You do have finite capacities, after all.  But to the
extent that your own expanding infinite love is eager to serve, direct your
free will to love and mercy.  Merium is here this evening and would speak
regarding the Sermon on the Mount.  One moment.

MERIUM:  Good evening, my lovelies.  Tomas and I are yet getting used to each
other, you see.  Teamwork takes time.  Sharing is a learned condition, and
although Tomas is infinitely eager to share with me his platform of teaching,
he is not entirely accustomed to my personality and so we adapt, as he has
said, and as you already well know.

ELIZABETH:  Someday you will have to describe your personality for us.

MERIUM:  Someday as you get to know me, you will be able to tell me about it
yourself.  Indeed, you remind me of our session on Tuesday, but I will only
titillate you by that hint, and so you must find out by hearsay how we carried
on on Tuesday, but this evening I would like to discuss, but briefly, this
thing about the meek.

You have, some of you, been discussing the meek.  The meek are easy to discuss
for they do not threaten.  Like the elderly man and woman, like the Butler
citizens, like the Sunday school children, these are examples of the meek.
There is no threat from them.  They are easy to recognize, easy to observe.
Their's truly is the Kingdom of Heaven.  They have not only inherited the
earth, they are quite comfortable upon it.  They make themself at home here.
They have no argument with their Maker or their lot in life.  They have
accepted and adjusted.  They are not angry.  They are not impatient.  They are
meek and they are beloved.  They are not trouble makers, they are not rabble
rousers, they are not do-gooders, they are not movers and shakers.  They are
meek, easily accessible, too easily vulnerable.

ELIZABETH:  Well one person who isn't meek is Kaz.  He was an example of a
personality that wasn't meek.

LEAH:  Very un-meek.
MERIUM:  I recognize that.  I did not include him for that reason.

In, again, focussing on blessed are the meek, I remind you to be meek.  To be
at home on Urantia.  To be a man among men.  That you might rub shoulders with
your fellow men.  (Am I receiving signals that I should be saying female
gender words here?)

ELIZABETH:  No!
LEAH:  You probably heard me say that.  There are no men in this room.

MERIUM:  It is a language usage.
LEAH:  Of course.
MERIUM:  I intend no disrespect to our gender.
ELIZABETH:  "Our" gender.
MERIUM:  I return you to brother Tomas.
LEAH:  Thank you for coming.
ELIZABETH:  Thank you very much, Merium.

TOMAS:  We are both here and are both available to field questions or
comments.  I apologize for my lapse earlier, but it wasn't "a big deal" so
let's move on.  Are there questions about our discussions or about your
experiences on your assignment or about your reading or any commentary?

ELIZABETH:  Well, in speaking about personalities, sometimes I feel a little
concerned because I enjoy putting personalities around me that I find easy to
deal with and pleasant and I don't think I'm getting a lot of practice in
dealing with the other type of people, and so I think maybe I'm not using my
time here to learn as much as I should but I prefer not to have to do it
unless it's thrust upon me.  I certainly did put in a lot of years with my
father who was a bit of a curmudgeon personality, so maybe I got a lot of
practice there, I'm not sure, but I was getting the idea that you were saying
something to us about a lot of our growth is going to take place in our
relationships with these diverse personalities.  Is that correct, Tomas?

TOMAS:  That is certainly correct.  And this will be so throughout eternity.

ELIZABETH:  And yet I seek the personalities that are easy for me to deal
with.  That's not a lot of practice, as I said.

TOMAS:  You have become skilled at insulating yourself against the
vicissitudes of life.

ELIZABETH:  Yeah.  I have.
CELESTE:  That seems to be a very normal thing to do.

TOMAS:  It is a normal thing to aspire to, but it is not always successful,
and yet, Elizabeth, you have effectively insulated yourself from much that
could cause you damage, that is, you and your family.  But you have also
removed yourself from the main-stream wherein the seeds are able to fall on
fertile soil.  

It is perhaps not your liking to fraternize with the ilk of the Alpheus twins.
Granted they are not what one would call socially fragrant, intellectually
challenging or stimulating, creatively stimulating, even spiritually
compatible, but they are important, you see, for they are your brothers.  They
are part of your family, and although you can insulate yourself and educate
yourself and so forth, you will one day need to accept your fellowship
leanings.  

There is no satisfaction as deep as recognizing the fraternity of siblings in
the spirit, and in the spirit it matters not whether you are clever or smart
or witty, but that you are real.  In time you will yearn to become not more
gracious, more refined, more well insulated, but more real.  Indeed, as you
grow in the spirit you become more Real, and like the velveteen rabbit, this
is not done by remaining insulated and on a shelf, but it comes from being
rubbed and hugged and scratched and buffeted until your whiskers fall off.

I understand that the structure of your life has deep roots.  Great history
goes into this insulated existence that you have found yourself in.  But it is
true, as you say, your eternity in front of you involves adapting to other
personalities and it is a good place here and now to begin, recognizing that
all attached humans to these personalities are not necessarily what you would
call lovely.  It is hard to love unlovely mankind, but it is an aspect of
sonship that you want for your brothers even that which they do not know that
they want for themselves.

How have you been, Kate?

KATE:  Good.
TOMAS:  It is good to see you.

I sense that you are not as vocal this evening as you normally are.  Perhaps
it is because we have experienced some focused sharing.  Have you found merit
to our exercise?

GROUP:  (Assent)

TOMAS:  I enjoy hearing you learn to communicate, to convey meaningful value
to each other.  

ELIZABETH:  We're probably going to continue in a certain respect, we're going
to continue a little bit of this, even if we get a new assignment.  I think
we're going to do this again.

TOMAS:  I appreciate the sharing aspect and would encourage it to continue,
for it eliminates excessive chatter.  I do appreciate the need for
socialization and the culture which you share, and indeed the fragrant
personalities that you are that would give rise to such joyous socialization,
but it is my purpose to introduce the spirit into your lives.  

The Paper having to do with Religion in Human Experience indicates that there
is a difference between a social gathering and a spiritual gathering, and I am
going to pull rank and say that I believe that if we are here in honor of
Michael and to study how he lived, it is more toward a spiritual meeting than
a social meeting, and so I would like to keep communion as a part of our
gathering together, and perhaps when you have a party I can observe without
comment.

I do not want to usurp, however, your intercourse, and so when I have
concluded, or when the teaching platform has concluded, you are certainly at
liberty to return to your social customs.

ELIZABETH:  I think it's productive to do what we did and to keep it to a
certain extent focused on a spiritual path.  I think everybody else feels that
way.  We do a lot of social things, so this isn't supposed to be truly social.

TOMAS:  I will then think about an assignment for you for next week, and let
us continue then to observe what is personality -- not that you have to do
anything about it, mind you, but observe what you perceive to be personality. 

(In reference to those personalities who are so difficult of loving -- you are
cherished for your efforts, for your long suffering, for your endurance, and
indeed for your mercy, for final judgment is beyond the mortal realms.  It
lies in the Ancients of Days who have greater wisdom that we.  It is not for
us to determine when personality has become extinct, when the light of a
personality has gone out.)

We will continue to observe personality in terms of the living tree, the
living fruit.

KATE:  Fruit of the spirit, Tomas?

TOMAS:  Always.  I do not mean to bring up this fruit to maturity too quickly,
but in observing personality, observe personality as it is alive.  The tree is
alive and showing fruit.  It is not ready to be hewn down and cast into the
fire.  It is the living person-ality that I want you to observe ("Let the dead
bury the dead.").  Focus on that child of God.  Continue to appreciate their
person-ality, their mortal personality aspects as a child of God, given
personality by Him.  

And see, too, allow your spirit inside you to speak to you regarding your
service.  Is it a nod?  Is it eye contact?  Is it "Hello?"  Is it shared
laughter?  Is it a complaint about the weather in good humor?  Is it further
discourse?  These small steps open doors.  Continue to remind yourself of the
purpose of your life:  to know God, to be more like Him, and to serve his
children, fostering the reality of God on Urantia.  

Yes, we will not go too far in the assignment.  Continue to study personality.
Observe, admire, be amused by your fellow brothers and sisters, and feel for a
leaning in terms of service.  Report back to me then next week regarding any
leanings you may have felt.  We will go from there as to what then to do with
those leanings.  Alright?

GROUP:  (Assent)

TOMAS:  Merium joins me in wishing you well on your adventures this upcoming
week.  It is Spring.  People are out and about.  They are innocent.  They are
fresh.  They may be grumpy but they are happy that it is Spring and so the
positive outweighs the negative.  Therefore, enjoy yourselves.  Walk in grace
and in beauty.  Farewell.