[tmtranscripts] 8-22-96.PGH "Relevance of 'the Well'"

[Gerdean]

DATE: August 22, 1996
LOCATION: Pittsburgh, PA, USA
T/R: Gerdean O'Dell

TEXTUAL STUDY:
Urantia Paper 179: The Last Supper
5. Establishing the Remembrance Supper


TEACHER SESSION:
The Relevance of "the Well"

TOMAS: Good evening, friends. I am Tomas.

Group: Good evening, Tomas.

TOMAS: I am your faithful companion, again ready to spend a moment in time with you in our configuration of fellow believers in earnest. (I will say parenthetically and at the outset that this transmitter/receiver this evening is not in the best condition. It will be difficult, frankly, for me to keep her at bay. I trust, however, that some semblance of sanity and sagacity will prevail.)

Indeed, we have been blessed by an abundance of celebratory attitudes and gatherings, and the accolades continue throughout your realm. Michael's birthday has instilled an air of festivity throughout Urantia, even reverberating through the local Universe as your acknowledgement of our Creator Son is noticed and appreciated, certainly observed, by the many who observe the development of this planet. And as I suggested last week, your party for a Creator Son has not disappointed us in its presentation, including balloons and Christmas cards, but I will still pursue my assignment. However, given the shaky condition of Gerdean this evening, I will not embark upon a lengthy lesson.

It was asked by Evangel recently -- regarding the well -- "What representation does the well have?" and I indicated that in our context the well would represent the fruits of the spirit and that we would look at these fruits, these character traits, over a course of time in order that you might personalize the fruits of the spirit and learn to put them into conscious practice in your daily life.

But briefly and for perhaps the benefit of our beloved Birthday Boy, the person of Jesus, the pride of Nebadon is indeed "the well" itself, for therein is the living water, the refreshment of life.

When you read earlier of the washing of the feet, think too of the well, for in bathing your own presence in the spirit well, you have washed away your dust and debris of the busy lives of the kingdoms of men, the emotional confusions, the strivings and the conditionings that you unconsciously carry with you. The well, which holds the water of life, is that which will cleanse you and refresh you.

It is a simple water, not a sophisticated drink, but pure and wholesome and sustaining. When you drink water in the course of a day, remember the living water, as you experienced in your communion this evening. It is always a reminder of the Master when you think of him as you ingest your food -- be it material food, mental food, social food or spiritual food. As you are fed, nourished and sustained, it is because of the Creator Son, because of Jesus. And as you sit with a friend and have a cup of coffee, or a coke, or a fruit drink, have in mind also at that time the wine of the representation of his blood --the living water.

There is no thing that transpires in the life of a kingdom believer that is not an act of homage and praise to the Creator. Yet, how much of your lives are lived automatically! How much of the wealth of life you take for granted! How many times the richness of your existence is cast aside as unsatisfactory, when indeed your very life is a manifestation of living love! From the well, I ask you today to drink of the cup of human kindness. 

Dear friends, I will not belabor the moment. Are you amenable to discourse this evening?

Elizabeth: Yes, indeed.

Hunnah: I'll comment about the parable of the farm. When you said the water of the well represented the fruits of the spirit ... and then . are the eggs of the girl her worldly provision? When I heard it I was thinking of the well as being living waters and her gathering the eggs more of the fruits of the spirit. It doesn't really matter.

TOMAS: It does not matter, for these allegories are well open to interpretation. It depends upon the context of the analogy. I indicated at Evangel's first request, that the well . in the context of our course of study of character . the well would represent the fruits of the spirit which are, of course, products of the living water.

It is also true that the eggs that are gathered in the context of the original scenario are inclined toward the gathering of materialism and worldly goods that one is sent out by mismanagement to perform as a duty. However, in regarding the well as the living water, the eggs could well represent potential, in that the eggs have not yet been hatched, and that as you stop by the well for spiritual nourishment, you then may go on to reach your potential.

And so these allegories are a way of entertaining your mind, for you are clever human beings, and rather than denounce your cleverness as lack of character, why not apply your cleverness to entertaining ways of thinking about truth, which then makes it palatable for you? As your mind is exercised by your own application, you begin to find delight in the process. Your mind begins to hunger for riddles that the universe then can offer you cosmic problems for your solving, and you have, in the process, gathered great eggs.

Iyana: I have a question, Tomas.

TOMAS: Yes.

Iyana: When one reads all that they can about the Teaching Mission and the Urantia Papers, sometimes when we want to speak of it, we cannot speak all of it. My question is, when you read all these things, is it stored away? Or does it just fade out if you don't keep it exercised, or what? Know what I mean?

TOMAS: Yes. I will give you another analogy, one which I am sure your mind can assimilate readily, that being if you have a checkbook with a checkbook register, and you write a book of checks and log them with a pencil, you will have that record on hand for some months, perhaps some years. But in time the pencil markings fade and you will not know, many years down the road, to whom you have written checks or what for. And in many cases, what does that matter? But if you were to need the information for future generations, it would do you well to make certain that the markings were in permanent ink, or that the records were so secured as to not allow for fading.

Indeed, that which you absorb into your mind consciously is registered in the gray matter, but whether or not it is usable and applicable in your life depends upon how much you have personalized the information. It is not easy or interesting to convey static, factual information. That is not even true communication, and it does not entertain human kindness to barrage your fellows with a static overload of data.

But when these truths are made real for you in your own personal life, and when you have seen these truths become values, which you have applied in your life and in your dealings with your fellows, your reality grows concurrently and you are then in a position to easily withdraw your fortune of information for the spending on your friend.

Iyana: In other words, the more you read and re-read all the truths, and read about other people's experiences, the ones who write these truths and so forth -- the more you read these truths, the more it becomes impressed in the mind?

TOMAS: It certainly activates the mind, and any truth bears repetition until it is well learned. It is very easy for the sluggish animal mind to resist learning and to slough off valuable truths unless and until they are part and parcel of their modus operandi of life. And so, simply reading is not necessarily making you a better ambassador of truth, but it is making you well read, you see. You may then be able to relate to individuals when you hear the subject come up about that which you have read, but how do you share your understanding of this information with others?

Iyana: "Practice what you preach". Is that the expression?

TOMAS: There are other expressions, also. One that comes to my mind is "walk the talk."

Student: Talk the talk?

TOMAS: "Walk the talk, as in that phrase about walking in someone's moccasins. If you are going to espouse a truth, how well do you know that truth? Is it something you have read somewhere and therefore it is the truth of another? Or is it a truth that you have assimilated into your own personal religious experience and you now have authority to purvey that information? It is the difference, you see, between an academic application of information and an experiential manifestation of information.



Iyana: Thank you. 

TOMAS: Yes.

Elizabeth: Well, Gerdean and I both chose the character trait of compassion of Christ Michael and we both were interested in thinking about it and wish you would say a couple of words on that subject for us please.

TOMAS: My daughter I would be second-guessing if I were to expound at any length on why it would be that two of you in your group opted to prefer a certain character trait of the Masters, for among the others of you, it well may be said that two more prefer his generosity, while two others prefer his friendliness, and so without a thorough survey of the results of your discourse, it would be meaningless.

Elizabeth: Well, I was really interested in your comments about the compassion of Christ Michael, what you yourself felt about it when you first encountered the story of his compassion. How it affected you and what you were struck by yourself -- Tomas, our teacher.

TOMAS: Dear one, I almost feel as if I need to get approval from my peers to make the remark that I would instinctively respond.

Elizabeth: That's fine. That's fine.

Hunnah: Perhaps that could be expressed at another time.

Elizabeth: We could certainly bring up the subject to our friends in the group and we probably enjoy hearing from them if they want to talk about their reactions to the compassion of Christ Michael.

TOMAS: I want to say I am not intending to be esoteric here. Part of my stance is in deference to the emotional condition of my transmitter/receiver, and I do not want to tell tales on her either, so I will again beg off for this evening, although, as you understand, compassion is one of the noblest of fruits and I do hope to address this with you in depth at some time in the future.



Elizabeth: Thank you. 

TOMAS: Thank you.

Elizabeth: In our world we find that it is very difficult for us to contemplate those of us less fortunate, so we tend to -- at least I tend to separate myself from those unpleasant things as much as possible, but that is hardly the way of being compassionate, so I feel a certain ambivalence about that.

TOMAS: I have asked you to drink this week of the cup of human kindness. It is not to say that your compassion needs to expand abundantly overnight, but kindness is something that can be administered (in your language) even to dumb animals, and if you were to regard one another, in part, as dumb animals and be kind to these lop-eared, big-pawed critters of your brothers and sisters in the flesh, you would see it differently.

Student: The conference that we were just at ... That was a major thing--

TOMAS: Yes.

Student: ... the compassion of Michael (indistinguishable).

TOMAS: Yes. As he hung on the cross, as you understand, his compassion was made evident in his plea to the Father that his persecutors be forgiven for they acted in ignorance. How compassionate of him to love those who had destroyed him! That, of course, is a dramatic but pertinent example of the Master's compassion.

It is perhaps even more poignant when you consider the noble offspring of the Paradise Trinity in his communication with his apostles in intimate converse. As you here sit with one another imagine if Jesus were to be here among you, with you at your table, quietly observing as you vie for position in the Kingdom, as you neglect to wash each other's feet. How he must then see you and your crassness, as well as your dismay in not being ministered to, with overwhelming compassion for the full brunt of the human condition.

It is difficult, my loyal students, to have eyes to see and ears to hear, for the pain of insight can be staggering, but for the well.

What else?

We all would appreciate a good night's rest. The festivities of late have been tumultuous. It is some of that turbulence that I referenced weeks ago that we are now experiencing -- the bumpy flight over those air pockets, and although it is entirely safe, it is somewhat disconcerting. Such is the way of growth.

My precious friends, your honoring of Michael has been registered On High. Would, with you, that the Master would pass by and speak with us, but I regret that I am not operating in a strong vessel this evening. Believe me, however, when I testify that the Spirit of Truth in each of you will recognize that Michael, indeed, Jesus, has been with us today, and this evening, and indeed now.

Student: Thank you.

TOMAS: As I make my departure from your realm and send you off to your diversions and your rest (with your assignment to ponder the cup of human kindness), I would ask for you, on behalf of Lord Michael, to wait and hold yourselves Still, in abeyance of His touch. He would visit with you one and all in a personal way. Allow yourselves, dear ones, a few moments and I will not disturb you in your communications. I will see you next week. Farewell.

(Stillness with the Master)
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