[tmtranscripts] N. Idaho TeaM 6/6/02

[Rick P. Giles]

North Idaho Teaching Mission Group
Topics: Progress Report, Choice (Fixed, Frim, Free)
Teachers: Machiventa, Elyon

June 6, 2002

*	Machiventa (Mark TR):  This is Machiventa.  I would take this opportunity
to address you and bring you confirmation that the lesson plans we have long
formulated for your benefit have been delivered in the most acceptable
fashion by
your teacher assistants on our side.  We observe of you that you have retained a
level of understanding of these lessons which we deem to fall within the
acceptable level, and we are pleased to acknowledge that real progress has been
made in this aspect of the Correcting Time.  Many of the lessons have found root
deep within your beings, and these sprouts are the promise of the future
developments.  While the learning process is certainly in no way completed or
fulfilled, we see that significant progress has been made.  I, being of an order
desiring to implement action, urge you to reside with the aspects of our lesson
plans which you now possess as part of your own being, and to look for
opportunities wherein these well-seeded beds may be fruitful.  I urge you to
hold
fast to these truths and realities as we proceed forward on a larger scale.  By
holding onto these broader perspectives and universal truths, individuals
such as
yourselves should not be caught quite so unaware or off guard when future events
on your world provide the stimulus for much needed growth.
	As you have become aware, growth happens in many fashions: the slow steady
plodding, the foundation building, the sudden realizations, the epochal changes;
all are varying levels employed to achieve the overall desired growth. 
Therefore, be not afraid if in your near future changes of a larger
magnitude are
fostered so as to create mood shifts we have discussed before, and these shifts
provide those who are alert with the conditions right to be of great assistance
and of great service to those who are caught off guard, those who are uncertain
of these deeper principles and universe realities, those with both feet firmly
planted on the ever-shifting sands of time.  Those individuals will be
shaken and
stirred while those of you who are centered in your spiritual progression and
spiritual growth will be stimulated and called to minister to those around you.
	In a way I would classify this as an acknowledgment of your progress; a
quarterly exam has proved fruitful, and you each have gained mastery and recall
of much that has been delivered to you.  Now you will begin to see that as these
principles are indeed your principles, you may find yourselves in a position to
be immanently helpful to another around you during times of tribulation.  Be
prepared, alert, aware, and sensitive to the issues of those around you so that
you may find yourself in instant ministry at any time.  This does not mean that
one forsakes one's own individual studies, because in the final analysis, the
most important good you can do while walking this earth is to be faithful and
true to your own spiritual progression and growth.  Your service and your
ministry are outworkings of this very same growth, and this personal growth is
paramount to all other concerns in this short life of yours.
	As observed from my side, I say well done so far.  There is much before us. 
You are each one thoroughly enlisted on the team, valued team members who we
will
utilize as the occasions arise.  Your opportunities will come, and I am certain
you are prepared for them.  This is gratifying to me and to others who have
invested ourselves in your spiritual maturation.  Well done, all.  Thank you.  I
welcome you into our future together.
	That is all.

*	Elyon (Jonathan): Greetings, friends.  I am your teacher Elyon, happy once
again to be in your presence to share in your fellowship.
	It is a favorite topic of mine to address, that being choice, for it is of
supreme importance throughout the evolutionary ascent.  The Supreme is a vast
ocean of potential time/space experience.  It is alive, ever moving.  The tides
ebb and flow and create the energies wherein you may derive growth, while at the
same time your ascent contributes to the dynamics of the Supreme currents.
There
are three elements to choice that I will focus upon today.  The first is
freedom,
the second firmness, and the third fixation.
	Perhaps it is easiest to address fixation from the standpoint of
stagnation, choice which has eliminated future potential.  Let us consider
ourselves each as a boat upon this ocean of the Supreme.  You, as a vehicle, may
choose your course of journey.  If you fix your choice negatively, it is as if
you had dropped your anchor and you are unable to sail forward.  However, if you
allow freedom in your volition you can roll with the tides; you can adjust your
tack to achieve your destination.
	But freedom must be accompanied with a firm hand at the helm, and that is
your strength of conviction, your determination to reach your destiny, come what
may, whether your journey is extended, having to adjust to the fluctuations of
time, or whether your course is as direct as you first perceived.  Firmness
guarantees your arrival.  Freedom allows you to adjust so that you attain your
goal.
	Fixation provides a temporary harbor wherein you feel secure, but it must
not substitute for firmness.  Ever be ready to drop anchor, to cut anchor,  and
to sail forward.
	You know of the most important choice of your mortal career: the Supreme
decision to survive the temporal life and to enter upon the eternal career of
finding God, becoming like Him, and revealing your Supreme origins to all
creatures throughout eternity.  This is a choice of firmness.  It is not a
choice
that is fixed.  It has permanent repercussions, but you today are at the
beginning of your journey, such a decision will meet with constant fluctuations,
and you will choose forever firmly the same goal, all the while freely adjusting
and projecting your course.
	I have spoken in the past of the levels of choice and decision.  Choice is
a power of personality; decision is an act of mind.  Understanding this
mechanism
will greatly aid you in the quandaries you face, the dilemmas of discernment. 
Decisions can be likened to tossing your sail from one side of the ship to the
other in order to pursue that which you have chosen.  Fret not over a decision,
for they can be remade, and they can be altered.  Be ever safeguarding of your
choice, for that will bring you to your destiny.
	Friends, I am overjoyed to be on board this ship, to be one of your
shipmates.  I will take your questions if you have some to express.

	Jada:  Is fixation a sense of taking a rest from progression?
*	Elyon:  I have attempted to illustrate that a decision that is firm allows
flexibility where a decision that is fixed removes the potential for
adjustment. 
A decision may be permanent but it must not fix.  It ought to be firm and
accommodating to the variabilities that face you in life.
	Does this clarify?
	Jada:  Yes.
	Mark:  Would I be off base to say that is the resolve of a person, that you
are resolved to a mission wherever it may take you?
*	Elyon:  Good observation. Your resolution will accommodate adjustment.  Your
eyes are on the other shore, though you may have to make your way around islands
to reach that goal.  Your determination to make your journey will not change,
though your course may have to adjust.
	Mark:  That determination often comes from our faith that, even though
there are stormy seas requiring adjustments, the storm will pass and we will
make
it. That gives the strength to face the storm head on and do what needs to be
done to make it to still waters again.
*	Elyon:  Indeed.  The fundamental of evolutionary life is constant change,
dynamic interchange.  The only thing constant is your ability to continually
choose.  Without change choice is irrelevant.  It is not the Supreme purpose of
the Father in this universe age to eliminate change; that has preceded the
Supreme
experience.  Now the currents flow; personalities evolve, and, as you say, the
storms will rise and fall.  The days will be clear and stormy.  This is a
dynamic
universe.
	Mark:  I get the sense from the teachers, even Machiventa this morning,
that the potential for great change may be upon us.  I want to tell all of you
that I feel prepared for major changes as a result of your lessons.  Thank you. 
Bring it on.  We are equipped even for rough seas.  Thank you for preparing us
for sea-worthiness.
*	Elyon:  I acknowledge your feelings, and I discern that your sails are in
good order, that your ropes are wound appropriately.  You are ready to take on
the seas.

	Mary:  Machiventa, I thank you for your many years of service and devotion
to Urantia.  You were here in the times of Abraham.  We see Mother Teresa
working
in the gutters of India and what a blessed soul she is.  I think you qualify for
that, Machiventa.  Urantia must be the lower end of the universe as far as
desirable places.  You have certainly been putting in your time.  I appreciate
you.
*	Machiventa (Mark):  I accept your vocalizations of gratitude.  I state that
as a matter of course all glory and goodness are attributed to the Father, that
you may have some difficulty in your perspective understanding such long term
devotion to patiently wait out this master plan.  But I tell you that as
impressive as that may be to you, one of the Father's creations, I am equally
impressed by your having come from your station in life of a created being
to the
embrace of the Father and the wisdom that is inherent with that embrace.  In one
short lifetime it is exceedingly rare to witness such spiritual progression, and
I am often in awe of the steps you each have taken to be at this place with me
here and now.  We each have a great deal to learn one from the other and we each
have a great deal to share with the other in our understanding of the greatness
and the glory that is the Father.
	I recognize you as well.

	Evelyn:  Could you say more about fixation?  You are always so positive and
not likely to point out our faults, and each of us can imagine our own
fixations,
but can you point out perhaps a group fixation?  Something more specific.
Firmly
being directed toward the Supreme is a bit lofty.  What fixations are
impeding us
today?
*	Elyon (Jonathan):  The purpose of my focus upon these words "fixation" and
"firmness" was to underline the importance of flexibility.  A boat will take on
water if it is not allowed to sail freely.  However, a directionless vessel will
likewise lose its course and be blown afar.  I would ask you to make this a test
as you face decisions.  Are you reacting in a static, stubborn way to conditions
that confront you?  Or are you holding firm, able to adjust and yet stay the
course dynamically?  I do not perceive a serious flaw with any one of you.  I
desire only to provide you with a technique that will help you during the
difficult times of choice.  It is good to be firm in resolve.  It is not good to
be fixed and stagnant.  The only thing in all the universe that is unmoving is
the Paradise Abode.  All else is dynamic.
	One of the more difficult decisions to be made is that which entails the
leaving behind of something once cherished.  It brings a sense of potential loss
and, if not appropriately addressed, can make some feel that perhaps what they
were leaving was once wrong to have held on to.  You know through the course of
your growth that every stage is a stepping stone to another level of attainment
and valid.  Walk firmly.  Do not become fixed at any step.  Step strongly at
each
point.  Be who you are as you are today, each day.  And ever be ready to roll
forward.
	Again I have no specific item to address.  My desire is simply to offer a
technique that will help you at any time.
	Mary:  We don't realize how often we make choices.  A lot of choices are
reflexive.  We could be more conscious of choosing, that things aren't
inevitable, like the choices of how to react in a situation.  We think of
choosing to act, but we also choose our attitudes.  It would help to be more
aware of our choosing when they aren't momentous choices.
*	Elyon:  Good point, and I would draw upon a word you said, "reflexive" and
compare it to "repetitive" and parallel those with "fixation" and "firmness". 
Reflexive can occur almost without your ability to control.  Repetitive is a
decision to choose once again the same choice you made beforehand.  That you
have
control over and can alter if the need arises.
	Mary:  Choice can interrupt a habit we may have seen as reflexive.  By
engaging consciously we can interrupt a cycle in need of change.  Now may be the
time to interject choice and make it current and appropriate.
*	Machiventa (Mark):  Machiventa here again.  I would offer you what may be a
helpful, quick, flashcard type examination, when one is interested in discerning
what one's fixation point may be in a given situation or what the anchor may
be. 
One might simply ask yourself the following;  "I would do great things if it
were
not for ____."  That is, "I would do lofty things; I would be idealistic; I
would
follow my visions if it were not for ____".  Therein you will find your tether;
you will find what binds you to your fixation point.  It could be a variety of
things, but the urge to follow your loftiest ideal may be reined in, may be
anchored, at a specific point.  If you follow that back to the anchor you will
find the source of your fixation.  So, next time inspiration comes to you,
say to
yourself, "That is a great idea.  I would do that except for ____",  and
then you
have something for you to work on.
	Jonathan:  We can be firm in saying, "I would (such and such)" and notice
where we fix it, and then address those two points, what is desired to be
accomplished and what we are using to thwart the purpose.
*	Machiventa:  Even to take it one step further, rather than, "I would, if it
were not for ____", "I will even if if I have to overcome ____".  That is the
difference between the long range, "I will conquer" and the short range, "I
would
if it were not for ____".  One denotes determination to conquer, the other
denotes defeat at your anchor cable point.
	Tom:  That's where we find our freedom.
*	Machiventa:  Well said.  Cut the tether if it does not serve you.  You are
entitled to cut the anchor cable.
	Thank you, class.

*	Elyon (Jonathan):  This is Elyon.  I would draw a close to our meeting by
saying let's pull into port and take shore leave.