[tmtranscripts] N. Idaho TeaM 4/14/02

[Rick P. Giles]

North Idaho Teaching Mission group
Topics: Relationships
Teachers: Elyon, Machiventa, Olfana

April 14, 2002

*	Elyon (Jonathan TR):  Greetings friends, this is Elyon.  I guess my topic
will be relationship.  I have admired your discussion for your inquisitiveness
and your ability to draw from one another feedback that does contribute
significantly to understanding.  May I add to your mix my discussion of the
golden rule, that interpretation given in your text that the golden rule is so
relating yourself to another that they gain the greatest possible good, that
your
relationship with another becomes the opportunity for the realization of the
reality of God for that other individual, not in a theoretical acknowledgment of
God's factuality, but rather in the intimate dynamism, that energy flow of the
presence of God through one of His children to another of His children.
	Friendship is a factor in relationship, however, there need not be
relationship in order for friendship to be long-standing.  Many of you know this
from friends of years' past, those whom you still hold dear yet you have no
daily
interchange that fosters relationship.  Therefore friendship is a state;
relationship is a process.  In order to further friendship, that is, to uplift
its state, you must -- and I perceive this day that you are -- develop the
skills
or at least the sensitivity towards those skills that foster interrelated
friendship, that being relationship.
	The Father has undertaken an immense plan, and that is the bestowal of as
many personalities as are resident in potential in His being that can be
manifest
individually apart from Him, and then to draw these very personalities back into
unity with His being, not a return to the state of oneness, but to ascend to
that
Supreme level of relationship, interconnected unity of diverse personalities. 
This is a transcendent oneness, a togetherness.  This being His desire, you are
faced daily with this dynamic of relationship.
	No one does well in isolation, and you will find in your life little
opportunity to be isolated, for all that makes up your daily activities requires
some form of exchange with another individual.  It is inescapable.  Of course I
might add this does increase the importance of stillness, time alone.  However,
it is aloneness with the Father, again, another interpersonal moment.
	It is often taught in your culture that friendliness is good manners, and
manners are confused with friendship.  Friendliness is not friendship. 
Friendship grows from understanding and love.  Friendliness is actions that
maintain interchange person to person.  One can be friendly and have no
friends. 
One can have many friends and fail at being friendly.  One is an internal state
of being and the other is merely a code of behavior.  Relationships, it has been
said, are an end in themselves, and what is that end but friendship?  There can
be no superficiality of relationship.  The very word itself demands
interrelated,
interdependent connectivity.  It is not had through formality of behavior,
and it
survives improper behavior, for love will penetrate all mistakes and reach
to the
core of the being to whom the relationship is invested.  The keys, the
tools, for
relationships are found in the citing of that which is the fruit of the spirit:
forgiveness and tolerance, mercy and patience, kindness, deep and sincere
interest in another being, and curiosity about the makeup of another
personality.
	Yes, I witness that each of you is at times baffled by your own personality
makeup.  It is difficult to discern how well you tick, perhaps more difficult
than it is to discover how another operates, for every layer you uncover in
yourself reveals a deeper layer.  It is unending, for the penetration of the
understanding of self leads to the discovery of the great Personality of
Paradise.  That task is endless.  You are limited in the understanding of
another, and therefore your attempt to understand reaches an end, for it is
impossible to take the inner journey of another individual.  In order to benefit
from the uniqueness of another bestowal of God in the form of another
creature of
free will you must enter into relationship.  It is not had through a probing,
searching, of another.  It is had through enticing the bequeathment of the inner
state of that individual to you.  That is done best through your own willingness
to lay before another your being, your wishes, your ideals, longings, and goals.
	You know that the master gained understanding of others through questions. 
That was the enticement for the other to share.  He did not run down a checklist
to make sure they filled in the proper blanks before he sought their
friendship. 
He sought their friendship without knowing them, and in their revealing of
themselves they became his friend and he became theirs.
	You know of the phrase of taking the mote out of your own eye before you
take the speck out of another.  I refer to this line to illustrate my
comments of
how much more deep and unfathomable your own personality makeup is to you, or
perhaps more correctly, how much more access to the depths of personality you
have of yourself than you do another.  By sharing the depths of yourself
that you
have discovered you allow another to receive the benefits of that interpersonal
relationship and give the opportunity for another to be so related to that they
come to a deeper understanding of themselves.  The deeper your connection with
the Father's presence the better friendship, relationship, and ministry you will
have with another, the more you will be able to relate yourself to another
as God
would relate to them.  What is God's primary goal but the revelation of His
being
to His children?  He does not demand that you reveal yourself to Him.  He seeks
to reveal Himself to you.  In your discovery of that revelation you are inspired
to reveal yourself to Him and to others.
	I have a few clamoring to speak with you today as well.  I will pause.  I
am in our presence for the duration.  Any one of us would take your questions,
and we seek for your mediumship in order that we may express ourselves to you.

	Ginny:  I'm impressed by what you said about how important it is for us to
reveal ourselves to each other, thus revealing God.

*	Elyon:  Thank you for that observation; it is one of my main points today.
	I would like once again to return to the line of the mote and the sliver. 
Rather than look at it in terms of one's faults and another's faults, to look at
it as the potential of discovery by placing your mote, that beam in yourself,
before another to witness.  If we define that beam, that mote in this case,
to be
the depths of your personality potential and actuals, another may discover that
they do have but a speck, but a sliver, of discovered potential within
themselves.  That little speck can enlarge into their own beam of self
awareness,
of Father consciousness, and of universe citizenship.

*	Machiventa (Mark):  This is Machiventa.  I address this classroom as a
subset of the greater project we are involved in, the classroom of your
world.  I
make the observation for you that there are two levels of growth to be
observed. 
One overall, grand level; the class as a whole grows and moves forward step by
step.  Achievements are made and progress is evident.  Within any given
classroom
the individual students are involved in their individual growth cycles.  As two
children sitting at adjacent desks, there may be much interaction between these
students separate from the lessons being delivered to the class.  There is as
much, perhaps even more, growth potential resident in the exchange between two
individuals engaged in this ongoing dialogue as there is when they both are
called to attention to listen to the professor.  Indeed, sometimes the
instructor
may find it more appropriate to suspend the intended lesson in favor of the
issue
involved in small groups of students who through their exchanges with one
another
are far more in place to experience these growth spurts, being personally
involved in the situation and having personal interest in the material
delivered. 
The awareness becomes much keener of the implications when individuals are
directly impacted, and the stakes at times seem higher.
	This all important method of growth through interpersonal exchange is, in
the final analysis, where the bulk of learning occurs, and we as instructors
recognize the value inherent in this process and attempt in our lesson plans to
accommodate every aspect of this interpersonal learning we are able.  Sometimes
it becomes helpful to clear your throat in the classroom and once again restore
focus to a central point, a common issue, that may be delivered.  Invariably
once
again after exposing good and earnest students to a new principle or a new facet
of an old principle the students fall once again to their separate discussions
and take this new material to be passed around and thrown back and forth as in a
sporting event.
	In the final analysis when the bell has rung, the instructor has left, and
the students have dispersed each one must take the lessons of the day delivered
by the instructor and expounded upon by their private discussions home to their
own space where each one must separately reconcile themselves to this new
discovery, to these new insights.  It is when the day is through and when you
prepare to lay down and go to your rest that the sum total of your exchanges may
filter into your being and becomes a possession of yours.
	So, you see these stages of delivery and acceptance follow this pattern,
and when you are confronted with a new circumstance invariably you will find
these patterns to hold true.  You must be exposed.  You must churn over the
information within yourself and between each other, and then personally and
privately you must come to terms with these points.  When this process has come
about there is only one more step to bring it full circle, and that is to share
it with another, to express what you have gained through this process, thereby
starting another's circle of understanding, another's cycle of interpretation.
	It is a pleasure to witness each of you going around in circles.  With that
I take my leave and leave you with my thanks.

*	Olfana (Ginny):  Hello, this is Olfana.  Growth in friendship is very much
like cultivation of your plants.  At this time of the year we all turn our
thoughts to sunshine, dirt, wind, rain, and we all get excited even if we
are not
gardeners about new growth.  Let us think for a moment what it takes to grow
healthy plants.  Let us each contribute something to this little exercise.

	Jonathan:  It gives me goosebumps because images were being given to me
before you spoke of pony packs of seeds started under grow lights and how the
light and the fertilizer in the soil are like the Thought Adjuster or periodic
revelation that help us get started.  The pony pack is like how the angels draw
people who work well together.  Once we are set out, acclimated to morontia
life,
we merge our roots.  That is when our relationships will really inter-tangle. 
Now we are beginning to grow, but we are destined to a deeper interconnection. 
But no plant does well planted too close to another.

*	Olfana:  Thank you for your observations.

	Mark:  I sense slightly what it must be like for the Father and Mother
Spirit through our limited grasp, to have expectation of the potential inherent
in the process of growth involved in our planting a seed with the expectation of
that seed to become what we expect it to become.  Our wisdom has in this process
gained us the perspective to see the plant in its entirety when we set it out. 
To glimpse the long term wisdom of the inherent potential in our limited
scope is
thrilling.  It must be spectacular for the Father and Mother Spirit who plant us
here and see us as fully matured specimens.

	Evelyn:  We don't plant peas expecting to get macadamia nuts.
	Plants benefit from watering, but I think they feel refreshed by it, too.

*	Olfana:  Maybe during this week as all of us think more about these
flowers, the colors, the freshness, the bright green of everything, we can spend
some time pondering what it takes to keep our gardens looking beautiful.  As we
clear out the rubble of winter, as we clear out what we no longer need, as we
prune the dead branches and the dry leaves, which still have a purpose by
the way
in your recycling, let us keep in mind all the elements, all the steps it takes
to keep a plant free of danger and surround it with the nutrients of the
elements
to grow into a healthy plant.  These are the same qualifications, these are the
same reasons why we need to treat each other in the same way.
	In cultivating our friendships sometimes it is necessary to cut off what we
do not need and to be wise about where we plant, how deeply we plant, and how
much we plant.  This is an excellent lesson and an excellent analogy at this
time
when we are surrounded with beauty everywhere and we are breaking up and tossing
out the dead branches and leaves to give room for more growth.  So, let us think
about these things in our daily dealings with the earth.

	Jonathan:  Cultivating friendships in light of regeneration in spring, I
think of how we don't have to see alike to be spiritually be alike.  Each of us
is a different plant and is beautiful for this alone.  The goals are to produce
the different fruit.  In cultivating friendship we stir our common ground, the
soil, our humanity, our divine family, things that contribute to all of us
regardless of whether we are weeds or trees.  I trust my friends to mulch my
dead
matter for others to grow from.  We help each other stir in the old as compost.

*	Olfana:  Well said, my friend.  Thank you all for your company, for your
friendship.  Now go to your gardens.