[tmtranscripts] 12-01-01.SPOKANE TEAM

[ZooidODell at aol.com]

DATE:  December 1, 2001
LOCATION:  Spokane, WA
T/R:  Gerdean
TEACHER:  TOMAS
TOPIC:  MERCY


[preliminary on-going conversation:]
  
THOROAH:     ... that person not being who the other person thinks that 
person's supposed to be. So everybody is trying to please everybody else.
GERDEAN:    Or they're not who they said they were.
THOROAH:    They're not who you THOUGHT they said they were.
GERDEAN:    Right.

THOROAH:    I'm going to go back there every time because we keep saying they 
are misrepresenting themselves to us.  That becomes a crutch.  "Somebody 
misrepresented themselves to me."  Well now, whose fault is that?  If I let 
them misrepresent themselves to me, I wasn't paying attention.
GERDEAN:    Or I was seeing what I wanted to see and not what was really 
there.  

THOROAH:    And I have gone back so many times and said, "Yes, I saw that but 
didn't want to deal with it." You know?  I mean when you've been through so 
many relationships, you go back and look at what you've overlooked – 
overlooked on purpose! - and the stuff comes back to haunt you.  To take 
people for who they are, you've got to be yourself.  I think as much as a 
people are themselves, is the extent they allow someone else to be 
themselves.  Those two things are kind of tethered together.  

GERDEAN:    Right.  It's that "acceptance" thing.  
THOROAH:    And that's why we have to first love ourselves.
GERDEAN:    Right.  Exactly.  That gives me more compassion and tolerance for 
other people because I know I have to accept myself in order to live with 
myself - honestly.
THOROAH:    Yeah, it's like we're trying to turn everybody blue, but if we 
aren't blue, we're only part blue. So that's kind of where we are.  We're 
only part way there, in learning what it is to love ourselves. 

        I think there must be something that we can learn in this physical 
realm that will help us quantumly to overcome some conditioning.  We have 
been conditioned and conditioned and conditioned for so long, and I know the 
knowledge of the spirit; just the exercise of talking to our teachers on the 
spirit level are practices in getting to know ourselves better while learning 
to love ourselves better.  But man, the faster we could learn to at least 
LIKE ourselves ...the quicker stuff will start to happen!

GERDEAN:    And then it helps, too, when it's reflected back   You know, you 
could be barking up a tree if you keep saying, "I like me, I like me, I like 
myself" and you put yourself in a position where you're constantly being 
reminded of the areas where you don't like yourself.  It gets really hard to 
grow when your flaws are being constantly thrown in your face!  

THOROAH: Yeah.  Those affirmations about liking yourself ... I suppose it 
helps to have the mind-frame that "I'm trying to learn to like myself" and 
those affirmations will help, but you learn to like yourself out of habit, 
just like you've learned to dislike yourself out of habit.  It has to be a 
thing where you actually see your own value somehow.  You recognize the truth 
of it to the point where that truth takes over.  

GERDEAN: Or it's predominant.
THOROAH: And becomes more and more predominant out of pure habit.
GERDEAN: Conditioning.  Re-conditioning.  
THOROAH: Yeah.  
GERDEAN: Well, let's see what the Teachers might have to offer.

TOMAS: Good afternoon, little flock.  I am Tomas, your brother, teacher, 
guide, companion, fellow ascendant.  This is a process, this perfecting that 
we undergo, and you courageous little villains are on the initial rung of the 
eternal ladder.  Not only are you beginning at the beginning in your own self 
awareness, but the stage upon which you operate is under reconstruction also. 
 This is wonderful for those of you who enjoy drama, who worry that the 
heavenly gates will offer you eternal boredom, so you tend to scramble around 
incessantly attracting to yourself those circumstances which will enable you 
to savor your chaos indefinitely.

It is no mistake that the world of the cross is regarded as that one which 
will evermore reveal the Eternal Son's mercy.  Were you to even now create a 
temple to the Father, you would ultimately be led to allow its foundation to 
built upon a stance of mercy and the throne would be crowned by mercy.  Mercy 
is the element which is essential in this world and to those who hail from 
this world.  Without mercy there is no hope, there is no lasting joy, there 
is no real progress.  Thus while you attempt to become strong and live up to 
your potential -- as warriors, braves, shamen, masters of morontia reality -- 
you will have mastered nothing until you realize the value of mercy.

Mercy does not mean you go around feeling sorry for yourself or other people. 
 Having mercy does not mean that you wield power over your subjects and that 
the blessing of mercy is something you grant as if it were a favor to those 
who grovel at your feet.  Mercy is the lubricant that allows the rough edges 
of your imperfection to be glossed over in the realization that each of you 
are aspiring toward perfection. While perhaps your interim behavior and 
growing experiences belie that unspoken reality, the truth is, if you want 
mercy you need to show mercy.  

This is a very real aspect of your character as a student of cosmology 
inasmuch as your native planet is that world of the cross where the Creator 
Son made his final bestowal toward acquiring sovereignty over his universe.  
His life is a flowering depiction of mercy, even to those statements on the 
cross as to forgiveness.  Even as he met with crucifixion and death, still he 
depicted mercy, for as a Son of the Eternal Son it is a part of who He is, 
just as mercy is a part of who you are as you equate yourself to being a Son 
of God. If you deny your mercy, you deny your sonship.  

If you desire the mercy of others, you will bestow mercy freely and 
generously because it is part of you.  Not because it has been earned or 
because it is well deserved but because it is like a fruit of the spirit 
which is an inherent part of the Spirit which lives within you.  Tap into 
that core reality of mercy and embrace it and make it yours and allow it to 
become a viable part of the benign virus, for what is love if not mercy?

* * *

We were having a discussion, Paulo and I, before we ventured "on stage" here, 
as it were, about the Master's well known words having to do with being born 
again, born of the spirit, wherein he makes reference to the capacity of the 
spirit-born son to "see with eyes to see and hear with ears to hear" which 
requires, of course, a focused eye and clarity of these high senses. And we 
remarked that when Jesus spent time with his apostles, when he preached and 
taught the multitudes, his times were such that there were no printing 
presses, there were no messenger services such as your inter-net provides or 
the television, the newspapers, magazines.  The written word is the 
predominant form of communication in your world today.  You listen far more 
to the radio, the television and music and their messages than you do to each 
other. Even your personal communications are often reduced to notes and memos 
left on little yellow stickies in order to catch your friend's attention, to 
pick up milk at the store, to remember to let the dog out, to please get gas 
on the way home, to remember Mildred's birthday, to say "I love you".  

But Jesus never gave any counsel in terms of how you read.  He didn't say, "I 
call upon you to be born again, born of the spirit and discern what you read 
with the eyes of the spirit."  Thus many of you who eagerly consume most of 
these media presentations are vulnerable to whatever influence comes sailing 
over the airwaves or into your unconscious.  It's such a part of your 
culture, it would be unnerving for you to close it off.  You would feel you 
were betraying your responsibility as a human being to not hear broadcasts 
about your neighborhood, your weather, your world, your neighbors, in terms 
of the written word.  

We find it interesting that you will sit and listen to the Teachers in faith 
of our concern for you, in faith of our integrity as the Teacher Corp under 
Melchizedek and in service to Christ Michael.  You will listen to our words 
and read them voraciously, glossing over the imperfections that are revealed 
in the transcripts as insignificant in view of the wonder of our words and 
our communication with you.  The very process itself of these elders 
attempting to commune with you and help you in your growing, is such that you 
overlook the imperfections of the process.  You show mercy.  You have mercy 
on the transmitter, the transcriber, the teacher, the group itself, the 
individuals who ask questions, sometimes - to your mind - foolish questions, 
but you embrace it all in the spirit of mercy because it's part of the 
growing reality of your spirit life, your morontia reality.  When you read 
the Urantia text you have the same acknowledgment of authenticity that allows 
for you to grapple with the concepts it presents and allow for its wisdom 
even when occasionally these concepts disturb and interrupt your own 
well-fashioned concept of belief, in order to allow it the benefit of the 
doubt, so that you yourself can expand and grow in consciousness and in 
reality.  How can you take this same yearning to absorb truth, beauty and 
goodness into your world and face the plethora of information that is coming 
at you as an intelligent and discerning human being, child of God, without 
also recognizing those same spirit tools that are afforded anyone who is 
spirit-born and God-led?  

When you see a child's drawing on the wall of a cubicle of a co-worker and 
the letters are mis-formed, the words misspelled, you don't hold that against 
the child or the person who has posted proudly the message from the child.  
Can you not also look at these outpourings from your human fellows as if they 
too were attempts at creating a greeting card for their parents?  Can you not 
overlook the misspelled words or the flawed perceptions, understanding that 
they are created by one who is in process of being formed? 

That wonderful image comes to mind of your adage, "Be patient with me!  God 
isn't finished with me yet!" is at the heart of mercy.  As you attempt to 
supplant error with truth, your critical nature is sharpened, and while the 
discernment that results is essential, it is also essential that you manifest 
mercy lest you unwittingly crucify the creative expression of that child who 
would seek to spew forth his or her words and wisdom offering, just as if it 
were an expression direct from the Thought Adjuster, from the personality, 
from the spirit consciousness of the mortal, he who has eyes to see and ears 
to hear.

Sometimes these many journalistic essays stimulate the various adjutant mind 
spirits.  Your reaction may be a "knee jerk reaction" based on your spirit of 
intuition, and, without recognizing what in you is stimulated, you carry on 
as if it were a Holy Grail rather than stimuli for the spirit of intuition.  
The same is true for all of the adjutant mind spirits.  Almost all mortal 
information is directed at one or the other of those circuits that will pique 
your interest and generate your energy.  In this way the writer, the author, 
the originator is encouraged, derives feed-back, is rewarded.  

It's not everything that is going to come from the Spirit of Truth.  It's not 
everything that is going to rise to the level of wisdom, or even acknowledge 
the level of worship, but all of you can certainly understand those values 
which are inherent in the human condition which evoke empathy and sympathy.  
You all have an emotional comprehension of how it feels to read the small 
print of an insurance policy.  That is hardly rising to the level of 
revelation, but it certainly will do something for the spirit of courage.

Well, these are some of our observations as we look upon you this afternoon, 
on a very enclosed environment.  Anything you want to talk about?

* * * * *

THOROAH: The subject of mercy, being a lubricant.  I was thinking, as you 
were talking about that, when oil is taken to stressful points in an engine, 
the viscosity of the oil is tested, challenged, and it seems as though 
perhaps we are, on this planet, (which would be known as much for mercy as 
anything else,)   – we're sort of testing the viscosity of mercy.  There 
seems to be a lot to overlook.  That was the thought I had.

TOMAS: Overlooking is not the same as being merciful.  Turning a blind eye to 
actuality is irresponsible.  At this point in your evolution, in this world, 
upon which you live, your mercy is purely personal and thus you have a flawed 
perception of what mercy is.  It's undeveloped.  It's unappreciated.  As a 
whole, as a community, as intelligent generations begin to become mature 
enough to manage its affairs globally, as an organism, as an entity, as a 
planetary whole, mercy will take on new meaning as new appreciations of 
justice come into play.  

The confusion at this point is because you feel (you plural, generically) 
feel that being merciful is allowing someone to get away with something, and 
that in order to maintain order, to uphold justice, it's essential that mercy 
be tempered with wisdom.  This is entirely true as we speak of behaviors 
which affect the whole -- and, as you know, we're engaged in a process of 
uplifting the whole of Urantia by and through the re-encircuitment, in the 
Correcting Time.  And so each of you individually are requested to ponder the 
quality of mercy in your own heart, your own soul, and ask yourselves if your 
actions as a conscious child of God has challenged the viscosity of Michael's 
mercy or was that only as you acted in ignorance and in fear?  Proceed.

THOROAH: I had another thought about mercy, that we need to understand that 
mercy is there -  and I do at times feel like I take that mercy for granted - 
I find myself questioning whether I'm taking advantage of mercy.  Both of 
those attitudes or approaches are based upon a sense of guilt or of fear and 
anger, which is more pathetic and pitiful than it is evil.  It's hard to know 
which one of those reactions or intuitive feelings are real.  

TOMAS: You will discover it, in the end, even while your mind grapples with 
the value levels of your personal discernment, including your prejudices, as 
you approach the core reality of the issue, the situation, the circumstance, 
the lesson, the moment in this classroom.  There are those who presume upon 
divine mercy, and yet their presuming upon divine mercy is done in ignorance 
and not out of wilfulness.  If they believed, if they knew, if they 
understood that they were trying to get away with something, they would be 
aware enough to know the folly of their ways. Thus you may look at people and 
say, "They are presuming upon divine mercy!" and that well may be true, but 
unless and until the realization is made in their own soul, they will not 
benefit by your judgment of their condition.  

THOROAH: Well, in a sense, aren't we supposed to understand that divine mercy 
is a reality? Like gravity is a reality.  I just take it for granted and I 
assume that gravity is there, and so in the same sense, I assume that divine 
mercy is there.  I know more about gravity and appreciate it more than I know 
about divine mercy and appreciate it.  But as I learn, they'll become equal 
realities to me.  Is that kind of what the process is?

TOMAS: This is well illustrated in looking at the incident at the World Trade 
Center.  It's very easy for anyone to recognize the natural law of gravity 
when the buildings fell in upon themselves, but there are few who would 
immediately recognize the universal quality of mercy in the instant pain and 
lasting residue of the emotional comprehension of those affected.  Only by a 
grasp of the reality of the Eternal Son is it possible for you mortals to 
perceive the infinite mercy that is also a part of those kinds of human 
events which scar the face of Urantia. Only by the vantage point of a 
supernal personality are you able to recognize that absent the immediate 
angst and anger of animal reaction is the continual flow of love to and for 
all creatures great and small -- those taken and those remaining, those at 
work and those in denial, those responsible and those oblivious.  Many of you 
have a gut response that is akin to mercy, and yet you haven't yet developed 
an artful way of expressing your reality. You haven't yet found the words, 
the means, to denote the supernal reality which is mercy, as your perception 
is colored by your own fear, anger or misunderstanding of what has transpired 
that would evoke such a sense of mercy.  

It's an inherent conflict in those of you who are of dual nature.  At least 
until such time as your animal nature is sufficiently mastered to conform to 
the view of the spirit.  And this is impossible in toto because of your 
material reality. But you can still perceive from the spirit, and you can 
realize mercy as an inherent part of your divine nature which dwells within 
you, even as you walk upon Urantia a mortal being subject to the vicissitudes 
of the mortal life.  Being merciful is more than being kind.  And being 
merciful is not being blind.

THOROAH: It's empathy, sympathy and understanding – all of those.
TOMAS: And compassion.  Indeed.  

THOROAH: These are all traits of the Father that are hard to achieve.  
Sometimes it's frustrating knowing we can't achieve these things but I guess 
the grand experiment is how we take this spiritual reality that is a part of 
us and work it into the material.

TOMAS: Yes, because you can know them.  You can know these qualities because 
of the indwelling Adjuster, thus they are a part of you, and you can release 
that influence into your environment.  

Perhaps we should conclude for the afternoon, subject to your extended 
homework assignment of investigating the quality of mercy as a direct 
inheritance of the Son to his Sons.  (Pause)  Need I also recognize 
Daughters?   So be it.  Farewell!                                   
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