[tmtranscripts] 12-28-03 Rio Rancho TeaM

[Gerdean O Bowen]

DATE:                 December 28, 2003 
LOCATION:         Ann's Domain 
TEACHER:         TOMAS 
TOPIC:                 Opinions 
Q & A:                 Re: same 
T/R:         Gerdean 
Men-O-Pah's Prayer:
Our Father, we have You say that where there are two or three gathered
together in Your name, there shall You be, and so we sit here at Your
feet, asking You to guide our thoughts and speak through Tomas those
things that You want us to hear. We ask these things in Your name. Amen
TOMAS: Yes, by all means, let me not stop the flow. Let's hear the
question from the student. 
Thoroah: The question submitted is: "What real value or purpose do our
human opinions have/serve here on earth, as well as in the 'grand scheme
of things'. Or in other words, "What purpose, if any, do our opinions
serve in a real spiritual sense, as well as in an intellectual
(material/earthly) sense?" 

TOMAS: A student pondering the words of the Teacher is what we enjoy,
students who are paying attention to our lessons so as to augment their
own understanding of what comes into their mind to be a part of their
reality. 
Let me begin my response to this man's real questions by remarking that
the mistake many make is to conjecture that God is in his heavens and all
is right with the world, as if God On High were some transcendent being
who had no common interest in what makes men tick in the ways of the
world and in the process of finding one's way through the world. God is
not in some far off place, but is within each of you and therefore within
each of your experiences. Even when a mortal being is without
consciousness, God is nonetheless and even so in that being and a part of
his or her reality. The extent to which the human being seeks to
incorporate spirit reality is the extent to which God is allowed
expression. But this can be done even among the heathen, even in
foxholes, even in sewing circles. God is no respecter of persons; he will
work with and through any and all of you who have your wits about you.
Thus, let us return to the question. The young man, Bob, my friend and
student from "Down Under," has inquired about my use of the word
"opinion." I had said I had no opinion on the Christmas holiday, and this
seemed to support Bob's theory that opinions are worthless in the spirit
context but are, rather, configurations of the mental and intellectual
realm, somehow thus having less meaning, less significance, less reality,
and obviously less godliness. 
However, he wants to know what is the reason for opinions. What is the
purpose of opinions and, with the world situation the way it is, the news
being what it is, even your own social circles being what they are, even
the Teaching Mission itself plagued by opinions ... which, of a
certainty, would seem to be distracting from the solemnity of the spirit
or the sense of oneness that spirit will bring, - why do we even tolerate
opinions? What possible worth have they? What good are opinions? And
ought we not simply refrain from having them, as I did in terms of
Christmas, because it is not a part of my cultural background?
Well, we enter into a discussion here of supermortal interest, because
the opinions that I will discuss, the need for opinions, that is, will
have to do with meaningful values, rather than the opinions that everyone
has, which constitute drivel because they are insignificant. 
Opinions are a part of the process of ascertaining your perceptions. They
are a way of interjecting your perceptions into the social arena in order
to try them on for size, in order to find out who is with you and who is
against you. Who agrees with your opinion and who takes exception to your
opinion will tell you how other people's perceptions weigh against your
own.
I will not discourage you from your opinions or your opining, for this is
very much like the process engaged in when an artist takes up the brush
to create a masterpiece. Each brush stroke has something to offer. Even
though one brush stroke by itself may say nothing, as it is set next to
other strokes, with other colors, the overall dynamic begins to take
shape, and so we have the shape that has been created by the group
through its combined opinions, and I ask you to look around, then, and
see, what your opinion has contributed to creating?
I am working with you in terms of the correcting time, that is to say, we
Teachers are intent upon working with you to help you correct your
perceptions, to include the consciousness of the Divine in your lives in
all you do, in order that the consciousness of the God of all creation
can be a part, again, of meaningful life for all its creation. 
This is not only in your personal religious experience, but as it is
played out on the social canvas, in the political picture, a part of the
global paradigm of going from one perception of reality to another, and
so as we up-step the mind of the individual, naturally this will
stimulate the development of the up-stepping of other individuals and
ultimately will up-step the entire globe.
None of this is outside of God’s purview. None of it is outside our
interests. Remember when Teacher Ham initially announced the opening of
the circuits and the beginning of the correcting time, he indicated that
these changes and these teachings would infiltrate the educational
system, the economic structure, the very philosophies of living, it would
enter into science and religion, it would become a part of all of the
fabric of humanity, all the schools of thought that have been bereft of
the guidance and counsel of the Material Son and Daughter and the
benefits of the initial civilization of Dalamatia which was lost to you
through the Lucifer Rebellion. 
This entails a tremendous amount of invigorated involvement in every walk
of life, every fiber of planetary existence, and thus we will encounter
myriad opinions and they will change from day to day as perceptions
change, but to put forth your opinion is like wetting the tip of your
finger and holding it up to see which way the wind is blowing. The wonder
of it is, the individual who is truly growing will be open to allowing
his opinion to be modified according to the winds of change which come
into its consciousness that provide food for thought and soulful
consideration of the paradigm of reality from what was to what can be. 
Now, we are talking to religionists. I am speaking to you as students of
spirit reality and as that spirit reality impacts the life you live and
the planet you live on. Therefore, I will respect the fact of your
opinion because it reveals to me the perception of reality that you have
at this time. Thus, if you are a good student of the teachers, you will
not "slam" someone for having the opinion they do, but will appreciate
the character of the individual who holds the opinion in order to
ascertain how that opinion was formed. 
You must become as the Ancients of Days, and determine from that vantage
point the background of the individual, the conditioning they have
experienced, culturally, educationally, intellectually, socially,
financially, religiously and otherwise, for all of these brush strokes
will have contributed to create the portrait of the person you see who
has opined in such a way as you feel compelled to respond, in such a way
as you, the art critic, have chosen to point out the flaws in the brush
strokes of your friends and neighbors. 
In other words, my friends, it is not a crime to have an opinion.
Opinions are to be encouraged, for he who has no opinion has not been
thinking, has not done any thinking of his own. For surely you can
appreciate that if you are hearing someone voice an opinion, which is
merely mouthed words from an opinion he has heard from someone else but
which lacks substance, which is perhaps merely an emotional platform,
which is not an opinion but an emotion, you will know how to deal with
that. You will be able to set that aside as having relatively little
value as compared to the thinking individual who truly opines the
philosophy that has been felt in his heart and mind and soul, as
contributory to value.
The individual who seeks to advance value will remain open to other
opinions. He has not fixed his opinion into a set belief, but remains
open to growth and development. And this is a good student: one who is
flexible enough to allow his opinion to not be the bottom line and the
end result of all his studies, but a mere supposition of reality based
upon what he knows thus far, given the information he has encountered to
date. This leaves the way open to further discourse and further
investigation and further development of respect for your fellows who
think and who have the tenacity to stick with the issue until it is
revealed what the divine way will reveal -- which is the way that will
provide light for all to see. Whether that is in education, economics,
ecology or whatever. 
To disregard someone’s opinion is to disregard their very existence, in
terms of your relative incompleteness, the fact of your mortal stature.
If you were God, if you were completely perfect, if you were evolved to
Paradise and beyond, it would be different, but you are all in a state of
becoming. You are all advancing and developing. Therefore, none of you
know all absolute truth. 
It is a great man who can listen to the simple opinions of the
simple-minded and respect the fact of those opinions, even when he knows
there is so much more to truth. This is like the wise parent who will sit
down with his child, who babbles and tells fantasmagorical stories of
wonder and amazement, but which – while appropriate for the child mind,
is inadequate for the hunger of the adult who craves greater substance –
gives the young mind an opportunity to grow. Just as you give the young
soul an opportunity, for all of these contribute to the development of
the human being, and this world is indeed comprised of human beings. 
Human beings are what will right the wrongs of the world and carry
forward the evolution of humanity, the combined races and genders and
cultures of your planet and of any planet. Therefore, think. Think deeply
and well. Not merely mouthing the opinions that you have heard from
others. Not merely carrying forward the opinions that have been handed
down to you through tradition. But that you are in the process of
developing as you develop your own reality, for in this way you are able
to forge your own growth and the growth of others as you pass by.
I like to keep relativity in mind. Not only in this context, but in all
contexts. Any absolute statement can be taken at face value, but in the
end, even absolutes must be given a frame of reference of relativity, for
in the context of eternity, all things are modifying and changing. Even,
for example, the idea that beliefs lack reality as Bob said I said. They
lack reality as compared to something. They don’t lack reality
completely. This element of relativity is sometimes taken to the enth
degree, to the point where nothing is meaningful anymore. 
Yet you are creatures of time and space and as creatures of time and
space you must surely appreciate the value of relativity, for while you
have attained certain assurance in one area, you have yet to begin to
investigate others. And while you may have attained a degree of
perfection in one skill, you may be completely artless in another. This
does not wash out your growth. It does not negate your accomplishments
thus far. It merely indicates the relativity that you must consider when
you consider 
 anything!
The early mortal races tend to think in terms of black and white, all or
nothing at all, forever or never. And this yin yang approach fails
entirely to appreciate the variegated and kaleidoscopic variation of
potential that exists within you each for your own enjoyment and
edification. Marry yourself not to one point of view. This makes you
myopic. It curtails your appreciation of other points of view. It leaves
you wanting for relationship with others. It allows you only to be one
stray blob of enamel far away from the canvas of life that is depicting
human growth today. Join the human condition. Have an opinion. And do
everyone a favor: have it be an opinion that you have generated by and
through your own mind.
Now I have completed my professorial duties. What would you like to
discuss today? Have you questions regarding the lesson itself? 
Myra: A statement, Tomas. Before we started the meeting, Men-O-Pah had in
his prayer, "where two or three are gathered in my name, there you also
are" and when you started talking about opinion, I started thinking about

 if people did not have opinions, or share opinions, there would be no
conversation! Because, I know, I was trying to think of a conversation I
have had in perhaps the last week which did not include opinion and I
cannot think of one. And so, that brought me to thought that 
 that is
why we are a spiritual family, because we need each other
 and that
opinions then become very, very important because those opinions almost
become like rungs on a ladder, because when we get other people’s input,
it is the input that helps us grow from step to step. I think that is the
first time I have put that together as a need. As human beings, we are
communal people. So when you were talking about opinion today, it was the
first time, I think, that I put that together of how much I really needed
other people, but it wasn’t a question, it was just a statement about
what I learned, what I got out of today’s lesson.
TOMAS: I’m glad you got that out of today’s lesson, and that my words and
Bob’s question have sparked this recognition within you. But I assure you
that you have had additional help for your mind from perhaps the
Quickeners of Morality and other spirit entities that enable you to grasp
certain concepts that will enhance your appreciation of the greatness of
the adventure we are embarked upon. Upon this tremendous experience of
discovering how vast and magnificent the spiritual experience is. And
living is a spiritual experience, just as thinking is a vital part of
this experience. For in our thoughts, in our thinking, in our mind is
where we mull over those concepts, which we assimilate or discard
according to our current growth needs. 
There are many wonderful thoughts that come your way that you haven’t
time to deal with now. Just as if you were receiving Christmas gifts, you
receive opinions from people night and day. From the television, from the
newspaper, from the telephone, from your personal companions, from your
associates, even from strangers whose voices waft in and out of your
consciousness, floating on the air waves of time and space. 
Many of these are deflected and cast aside, not because they are
uninteresting, but because you haven’t got room for them right now, just
like many Christmas presents are quite marvelous baubles and pleasant
detractors but you haven’t time for them now. It is appropriate that you
should set them aside until a time when you are tired of thinking and you
choose to divert yourself in amusement, at which time you are able then
to pull out the thoughts you were able to set aside from your earlier
context, to now muse in enchanting delight. And vice versa. 
There are those who are only able to deal with the glitz and shiny
baubles of reality right now, and who set aside those ponderous thoughts
of philosophy or theology or psychology that require grown-up thinking or
advanced application. And yet these thoughts are waiting in abeyance for
that childlike mind to begin to hunger for greater truth, beauty and
goodness; for a greater appreciation of morality, ethics, responsibility;
and they will present themselves because the Great Giver On High will
provide the ministering spirits opportunities to impart these ideas to
you later down the road when you are ready for further development.
The universe is busy helping you become more than you were, indeed, all
that you can be. And yes, it is true, people do need each other, but they
don’t always understand why. That entire concept of the gregariousness of
humanity is one I will perhaps set aside for another day, but the
organism of advancing humanity is an incredibly interesting discussion,
which reveals more about your contribution to the development of your
world’s approach to these matters, which will bring earth to light and
life, to a point of leisure and peace, which then gives rise to foresight
and a yielding to the higher drives held yet in abeyance as we await the
dissolution of these turbulent times. 
So much more lies ahead, and you will certainly play a part in the
planet’s advancement, as you are now today contributing, by opening
yourself to the concepts that I am given from On High to implant in your
mind, in order for you to be stimulated to develop those new opinions
within your own consciousness that can then be spread like seeds upon the
field of potential, for your planet and its inhabitants. 
Thank you, Myra. It is good to hear from you. I enjoy your participation
in our classroom discussion, for as a teacher, a fellow teacher, you
provide for me a certain innate camaraderie. I like to think you are
attending Continuing Education courses here. Not as if I am providing a
new field for you, but an extension of the one you have been practicing
all along. This is good for you as well, for it allows you to accept that
which you bring to the classroom – not as a new student, but as one who
is already well embarked upon the process of education. And appreciative
of the roles the teacher plays in the life of its students and the
relationship that we share with each other as fellow teachers. Even so, I
enjoy having you as a student, as well, for you uphold the learning curve
in our classroom. 
Myra: Thank you. I enjoy being your student, and I really like it when I
don’t fall asleep. (Group chuckles.)
TOMAS: Yes, well, I will no feel remiss. I was admonished many years ago
that when students fall asleep in my class, it is because they have been
carried away by another dominant energy, and this is not to cast negative
aspersions on my abilities as a teacher, but to acknowledge the greater
need that was met through my ministrations with the rest of the class
while you went somewhere else you needed to go. That may be into restful
sleep or into morontia travel of some sort. Whichever way is not my
concern. I am also feeding your subconscious mind, and so you cannot
escape it.
Myra: Good.
Men-O-Pah: I love the words, "Marry yourself not to the single opinion.
It will make you myopic." Nothing short of profound.
Thoroah: Yeah.
TOMAS: These adages that you pull out of the teacher lessons are yet
another product of the process we engage in that can be made material and
mounted on the wall, reinforcing again the initial concept I brought to
class today, that God is not far off in his heavens; he is here with you
and where you are. And one of the things that we will do (and are doing)
is taking God from that lofty perch and making him part of the fiber of
your daily lives. The more God becomes a part of your cultural
consciousness, the quicker we will see light and life.
Therefore, flood the environment with truth, beauty and goodness, in
whatever manifestation you perceive. For this helps brighten the path and
lighten the load of those who carry the delightful burden of the Master,
that we lift up our countenance to promote: the love of God and the joy
of service in all we do.
Paula: Well, you know these lectures and our participation in them, these
impressions, keep our minds active and I think they add a great deal to
us, each one, individually.
TOMAS: I accept your apple (group chuckles) and will set it on my desk to
proudly show my peers. You are precious to me, Paula. And all of you:
those of you who are here and those of you today who are absent; those of
you also who have been here and those of you who will return. Many of you
who have not yet come within the sound of my voice or the sound of the
voices of angels will one day come to hear the harmonious tones of spirit
which sing to all that siren song, "Follow me." 
Let us be on our way then, to enjoy the day and to carry forth the
lessons learned, the opinions that will germinate and formulate from
today’s theology, and the happiness we share in this Family of God. Amen.
And farewell.
Group: Farewell. See you next week, Tomas. Thank you.
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