[tmtranscripts] Friendship Through the Spirit (05-20-97.BUT)

[Gerdean]

DATE: May 20, 1997
LOCATION: Butler, PA, USA
T/R: Gerdean and Hunnah 

TEACHERS TOMAS & MERIUM
TOPICS: Friendship Through the Spirit

TOMAS: Good evening.

Group: Good evening.

TOMAS: I am Tomas. With me is my colleague Merium and a number of midwayers. We have finally tucked in the animal and have given space now for your higher nature. Allow your puppy-dog natures to rest, indeed, to dream happy dreams, while we ascend in aspiration to more elevated happy dreams of the spirit.

We appreciated your socialization this evening regarding friendships and take heed that your friendship in the spirit is deepening. It is able to deepen because of your connection in and through the spirit. It is the spirit that unites you, and in this union of souls you are beginning to develop a genuine affection for one another. This is the outworking of the primary relationship, that being friends with God, and with yourself; now you are able to seek genuine friendships with others.

It is said in the text that friendships are an end in themselves, that it is not necessary to do anything in friendship other than to enjoy the fact of the friendship. If you are to enjoy each other, it is imperative then that you see each other through the eyes of the spirit, for in the eyes of the flesh, there is always something to interfere with the soul satisfaction that genuine friendship provides.

There are, in your culture, many aberrant kinds of friendships -- not really friendships at all but a poor excuse for a friendship, and these include relationships that are cloaked in cynicism and bonded by gossip; alliances against a supposed foe or gender; commitments made for less than altruistic reasons.

Friendship, as a result of love born of the spirit, accepts and appreciates and allows and enjoys without stipulation, without judgment and with joy. Friendships indeed are important, and they are learned as you yourself learn the value of a friend. A friend is not there to "fix it" for you, to fill an empty space, but to share time and space together in delight.

Friendships may be had among the opposite sex - exclusive of marriage - and they may be had in same sex relationships such as was enjoyed by you this evening and by other treasured friendships, even the apostles. When you can be so fortunate as to bridge the gap and have a friendship with your own blood relation, as in siblings or parent and child, you are truly blessed, for you have learned how to transcend the roles assigned to you and assume instead a position of affection based on Reality.

It is difficult for one to have friends unless they are friendly. Indeed, one must be friendly in order to cultivate friendships. But genuine friendships are not cultivated normally in the course of a short period of time unless the spirit is an active participant, an obvious interceder on behalf of this sublime friendship. It is also difficult for those of you who have taken on the yoke of ambassadorship to develop friendships with those you would "save," with those that you would bring into the kingdom, for until one is in the kingdom, wherewith shall you base your friendship?

Temporal matters are a foundation for friendships, certainly, as evidenced by millions of existing friendships, but only as they are infused with the spirit are they friendships that withstand the test of time and space. A friendship is an end in itself. It is not necessary to try to save one who is your friend. It is not necessary to attempt to include a friend into your spiritual life, for they are there by the nature of the friendship itself.

Jesus has been called the Great Friend for you could discuss anything with Jesus and he would understand, he would comfort you and hear you out, and if you were open to his advice, he would counsel you well and lovingly. Let your friendships then be as with the Great Friend. Merium, would you like to add to this discourse?

MERIUM: You have been quite thorough this evening. Friendliness is an attitude. It is an ideal attitude, like an all-purpose tool. If you were to approach the assignment, you would do it better if you had a friendly demeanor. [Putting T/R at ease] Friendship is interpreted in time in different ways. It is more like wine; it takes on a special quality in time. 

There are many subjects written on friendship, many articles on friendship. We talk about the subject with you here though you could buy a book and follow and you would say, "That's not new! Why would they be talking about that?" but you must remember that in our friendship group, we are lightening the subject. We are lifting it up and allowing you to see the "new light."

In regard to friendship in time, there is an innocence and spontaneous delight as with a child as the child gets older. There is a pact of friendship with children as they get older and they rely very heavily on the support of friends. Friendships develop by degrees as you journey through your experience. And then there is the friendship that develops true "full-bodied," you might say, where there isn't any competition; it's as comfortable as a slipper sometimes, and yet it needs to be tenderly nourished like any special possession.

I do not feel that I need to embellish this subject in particular except to say that you have acquired new friends, invisible friends who have come to be with you here this evening, friends that you cannot share ... relationships that you are unable to share with people in your social realm because they would not understand or it would be confusing for them. Children have friends that grown-ups and family cannot see, yet they may honor the child's ease of its reality and the friendships they are enjoying. 

This subject is varied and I don't really have anything I want to say about this right now, Tomas.

TOMAS: Thank you, Merium, for your contribution. It is good to hear you through Hunnah again.

MERIUM: This is regarding the support system that you have, whether it's physical, mental or emotional -- the human sense versus the new reality. Recently Hunnah was faced with some information that was making reference to her body, and at the human level she was very discouraged, and then in a moment she realized that she was not really depending on that part of herself. In the new way, her dependency upon a physical aspect was no longer the same, for she knew of a greater reality and a greater truth about herself.

I don't know if this will transcribe well, but you all have an opportunity to have a similar experience, and hopefully it will not be one that is disagreeable, but your trust and your values are not where they were and you will be finding this more and more, whether it's an empty purse or if it's mental information that you felt you needed to have and you found out you have all that is necessary.

This is a subject I am touching on because I would like you all to be sensitive to your, as has been said, to your divine inheritance, your discovery of a greater aspect of yourself.

TOMAS: Let me pick it up from there, then, for although your friendships here are developed and are an end in themselves, they are only as complete as is possible in the relationship that lies between you. There are times when your friend, your closest human friend, cannot sympathize with one of your belief systems or cannot feel sympathetic to one of your opinions, cannot commiserate with an emotional point of view. There are moments even in the most intimate and dear of friendships that there is a sense of separation, for it falls short of the intimacy that will take place as you ascend and as you attain greater perfection.

In those moments when you would reach for a friend and you understand that your close friend will not be able to understand you or commiserate with you on the point over which you wish to hover, herein is the time for you to appreciate the quality relationship with the Father, for there are times when your feelings, your prayers, lie too deep for words, cannot be conveyed, cannot be reciprocated. 

Do not feel abandoned by your mortal associates when they cannot attain that pinnacle of support for you. Do not feel that they have disappointed you by not being as perfect as you would have them be. But rather rejoice in the knowledge that the Father has heard you, has commiserated, and has understood. Understand you are not alone. Rejoice also in the associations that He has provided for you, that He has provided for you to develop. Those personalities that cross your path, that you through your friendliness of spirit attitude drew unto yourself in the nature of a good-spirited friend.

The phrase "love-saturated soul" rises to the top like cream. A love-saturated soul reaches out into the greater consciousness as a beacon, attracting those who would see that light, not seeing with the physical eye but with the spiritual eye. They will be drawn to you. And so let your spirit light so shine as to attract those who would be your friends in and through the spirit. This is the foundation of the brotherhood of men and women kingdom builders. This is the family of man under God and with God. Quietly let your spirit lights shine and also be responsive to the reflection of the Father's light in his myriad children, that you might form more friendships. My friends, how are you?

Iyana: Okay. I'm feeling much better. My body was acting up for a while, but now I feel as though I'm back to myself.

TOMAS: Iyana, you are yourself, indeed.

Iyana: Years ago I read that a friend is one who knows all about you and still loves you, and I always thought that was a very good definition.

TOMAS: It is an ideal, of a certainty.

Iyana: I have a question, please. It says that we are not to give advice.

TOMAS: Yes.

Iyana: However, is it all right to make a suggestion?

TOMAS: If they ask.

Iyana: If they don't ask for it, then you're just going to be a listener?

TOMAS: That's correct.

Iyana: Okay. Another question. A righteous man. When I used to read about righteous men in the Bible, it always seemed to me that they were men who were straight and stiff as pokers, who would not bend. Now -- I could never understand that. To me that seemed narrow-minded -- now today, is it all right to think a righteous man is a man who has good morals and who understands?

TOMAS: A righteous man is a man who has spiritual poise. 

Iyana: Um-hum.

Hunnah: Spiritual discernment? Perhaps someone who would respond instead of react?

TOMAS: Perhaps. Perhaps a righteous man would act.

Hunnah: That sounds like an evening's discussion.

TOMAS: I have been counseled that that is so.

Hunnah: Because over the years that has been one of my fascinations, that word, and a prayerful request was to have "righteous judgment" and I always felt that if I had any righteous judgment it was because I had been lifted into a state of higher consciousness, and then that would clarify whatever was going on for me, that I would be drawn into "righteous judgment." Anyway, I look forward to hearing a discourse on that subject.

TOMAS: And one day you shall have it. I would like to tongue-in-cheek remark that since I have known you, Hunnah, you have been intrigued by one sort of judgment or another and so it will require some depth of character on my part to deliver such a lesson and I will wait until such time as your righteousness has superceded your judgment.

Hunnah: Hmmm. That's something to think about.

Iyana: Could I make a comment? I've missed not being here to the transmissions. As you know, I come when I can. At least I've been doing my homework and looking through my past transcripts. I was re-reading Ham 1992 and they're the same lessons that we get today. Now, five years, doing the same lessons. I know that you don't have any time on your side, but that seemed a long time for us. But we are, very gradually, beginning to understand these things and I would like to know, is this what you mean by giving us repetitions? That finally they will sink in and we will live by them?

TOMAS: Let me project a scenario -- that you are still finding this process a form of entertainment.

Iyana: Oh, no!

TOMAS: Eventually the entertaining aspects of it will subside. You will go through a process, then, of becoming impatient with it. You will remove yourself from it. And then you will discover your reality has been enlarged. And you will return with an attitude of investment. I am not necessarily saying "you" personally, Iyana.

Iyana: But that is true.

TOMAS: But this is true. For many. If not for all.

Iyana: I can read them again and again because it just seems that you miss something the first time, or the second time and the third time.

TOMAS: I would like to acknowledge our able ambassador Ham and testify that his succinct wisdom has entertained the morontial realms of his students more effectively and over a longer period of time than I. I look up to Teacher Ham and I am still learning from him today and I am somewhat more advanced than you, and so these truths that are emitted, if they have value (which they do), you will grow in them each day. Although your growth may be unconscious, if you are willing to develop in the spirit, you will develop at an accelerated rate because of your willingness.

There are reasons for you to be here, and reasons that you come back. Some day you will see why you have chosen to learn in this Teaching Mission. The reason will be clear. At this point, we are still working on elementary lessons. 

I will express a vision (poor word) that Gerdean had recently as she woke. In the nether regions of her mind she could see herself clearly as a 5-year-old child. She had been hearing the words to a song (music of "Little Brown Church" with words adapted), a hymn. I cannot recall the words, but it had to do with the house in the Wildwood [off of Wildwood, Elizabeth's house on the hill], and it referenced a favorite spot of our teachers. And this song was going on in her mind and she interpreted that it was the Teacher, the God Fragment, urging her to wake up and do morning stillness meditations and she had a 5-year-old snit and told God to leave her off -- exactly like a 5-year-old would do. And I tell you true, my children, you are in so many ways these 5-year-old children, having a snit and telling God to go away, that you are going to do it your way. And yet in your conscious mind and in your superconscious mind you are striving, you are working, you are rejoicing, you are attaining, but that small child about you each is still a willful child. It takes a long time for that willful child to grow up to spiritual adulthood.

My friends, and in many ways my children, I am here to hold your hand and sing songs and to tell stories and to plant seeds while you grow up, for I cannot make you grow up quicker than you can grow by your own growth process.

Iyana: Would that be a sort of a message telling us that we should be more sincere? more serious about this? That we should give it our all instead of lackadaisical?

TOMAS: Iyana, how can I tell you what you have to do?

Iyana: Well, I probably know that's what I'm supposed to do or I wouldn't say it.

TOMAS: I would point out to you the word "dedication" --

Iyana: Yes.

TOMAS: - and if you feel truly dedicated, I believe you cannot do much more, but dedication is rather whole-hearted, if I understand your dictionary.

Iyana: We are also to do it with sincerity.

TOMAS: Indeed, you are to be sincere, especially in your relationship with Our Father. It is an earmark of truth when we hear sincerity in each other. It is soothing, it is comforting, and it is trust inducing to hear sincerity. It is real.

Iyana: I was reading about Jesus going up to the mountain. For six weeks! And communing with the Father. And I mentioned to Hunnah. I was flabbergasted to think that he was there for six weeks and here we can barely do our half-hour.

TOMAS: I will alleviate your angst somewhat, for although it is true that Jesus did go apart often, as you would do well to go apart often to commune with the Father, in many of his absences on the mountaintop, he was involved in administrative matters of the universe.

Iyana: Yes.

TOMAS: That chore does not fall upon your shoulders. Your realm, however, is as important to you as his is to him, and it would do you well to go apart with the Father to discuss the affairs of your realm.

Iyana: Thank you. 

TOMAS: You are blessed.

Hunnah: Part of me is thinking I should keep my mouth shut and allow Merium something to say, but I enjoy the banter so much that - that's my shortcoming. Of late I have been aware of being in almost a state of limbo. Our work ethic, I guess, impinges upon my understanding of being about the Father's business and allowing oneself to be in a state of rest. I heard a teacher talk one time about coming into the Sabbath, meaning that it was a time of rest, where you weren't ferreting around for information or looking for stimulus or looking for another teaching or ... being restless, I guess. Is this state of rest compatible to being dedicated? Do the best you can? I know that's sort of a large --

TOMAS: Caesar would have you hurry, for it is more profitable for him if you hurry, and so render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's, but render to the Father that which is His. And are you not His? Is your profession not His? Is healing not a part of the Infinite Spirit? Does not the Most High rule in the kingdoms of men?

This limbo that you say you are experiencing, infers that you had been in a full-bodied place and now you are at a half-mast place and you long for the full-bodied communion you had while on sabbatical. I am glad to hear you acknowledge that you feel changed, having now returned to the work place, for it tells me that you are feeling the lack that was once filled by your soul's devotion.

Do not succumb, Hunnah, to the whirlwind of Caesar. Look at the maelstrom of the medical milieu these days and hold yourself back from becoming caught up in that breakneck pace. It cannot keep up with the many ills. The many ills are exacerbated because of the condition of Urantia today, and you here are learning how to be the eye at the center of the hurricane. Find your strength in the Lord. Indeed anchor yourself in the God of all. It is vital that you remain firm in your purpose. It is understood that you will waiver, but, again, you are encouraged to be strong. Has that answered?

Hunnah: I guess. I'll have to think about it. I just think that I am in a place of growth and I can't judge it.

TOMAS: Well said.

Iyana: Leah is going to go away next week. She hasn't said a word.

TOMAS: I have heard her. Would you care to speak aloud, daughter?

Leah: Yes. May I make a comment?

TOMAS: Yes.

Leah: I heard Hunnah ask about rest and dedication, if they really went together, are they compatible. And I heard in my mind that somehow you need dedication to rest to allow yourself to recover, and I think that rest with the Father is referred to in the Urantia Book as recharging your spiritual batteries in worship. I don't know if that's exactly correct, but I believe it...

Iyana: I thought it was, too. 

LEAH: I just thought I would say that, if that's all right. 

TOMAS: That is all right, and I thank you for your input. And let me also state, having been prompted by my able assistant/sister Leah, that the old way was to afford the Father time and honor on Sunday, and in the new way, it is a matter of honoring him all the time. Do not wait for Sunday to pay homage to the Father. Take Him with you wherever you go. It is not always possible for you to get away to meet Him on the mountaintop, and so take him with you as you can into your experiential valleys. Stop in traffic, stop in the linen closet, stop in the ladies room, stop in the produce department, and spend a quality, real moment in brief thanksgiving and worship, allowing yourself to become centered and renewed in that brief moment in time.

Iyana: When Ham spoke, he said eventually we will think of the Father all of the time.

TOMAS: Indeed. Indeed.

Iyana: Imagine thinking of Him all the time! You wouldn't be worrying about anything at all, you'd just be up in heaven; you'd just be blissfully aware how wonderful life is.

TOMAS: You would be concerned for those who languish in darkness.

Iyana: Hmmm. 

TOMAS: As He is.

Hunnah: This doesn't have to be in the transcript, particularly, but I was listening to a gentleman who was encouraging people to come into a balanced and healthy way of living, and one of the recommendations was to turn off the news one day a week. And I was thinking just now about allowing one of the human habits to go by the wayside and wither, if it's in our way, and we don't really know which habit it is because it's probably not the one that we'd pick; it would be the one that presents itself to us.

TOMAS: A number of teachers have recommended that you not watch the news at all!

Hunnah: Well, that's the goal. To wean away the toxic effect of the news. And to ... but because we are so enamored with it, that they have you give it up one day for a week, and then week two you give it up two days, and it would be interesting to hear the conversation that people would be having once they got down to - they said, by all means, know what's going on, but --

Iyana: You can just read the newspaper. You don't have to listen to the television.

TOMAS: You may begin by observing the excitable nature of the presentation. It is hype -- an emotional hype -- and emotions are exhausting, and so you become addicted to this hype which exhausts you.

Iyana: You know, Tomas, it's just as if you were sitting here at the table! I know that you're coming through Gerdean, but it's just as if you were here. Isn't it wonderful?

Hunnah: Problems don't change. We all live in a situation (well, most of us do) where the wheat and the tares are, and it's back to friendship. There are different levels of understanding. When you're living with someone whose appetites are not the same as yours, it's a challenge.

TOMAS: That is the state of mankind.

Hunnah: It's a full circle here, our conversation, but that's the art, I guess, that we are developing.

TOMAS: I will refer you again to the quality of letting your light so shine. It may not be seen in your back yard, but it may be seen miles away, and then you have given off your light. Indeed, your lights do shine often into the cosmos, even unto Havona.

Hunnah: That sounds so - 

Iyana: Isn't that wonderful?

Hunnah: That sounds so incomprehensible. But thank you. That sounds like a fairy tale.

Leah: I have a question. 

TOMAS: Yes, Leah.

Leah: I was wondering. When you were giving the lesson, before, you were talking about, I'm not sure of the word you used, - attempting to be an ambassador, and then you draw people to you, but sometimes the people become dependent upon you. Obviously because you allow it --

TOMAS: One moment. That is not true. It is not that you allow it. It is that they have seen your light and they hunger for it and they feel that they can sustain themselves through you. You have allowed nothing but that your light should shine. Their devotion is misdirected. Re-direct their devotion to the Source, and do not assume it as adulation for yourself.

Iyana: That's interesting. 

Hunnah: That's helpful.

Leah: Yes. I was speaking more in the material realms. I was just ... The word "adulation" has got me at a loss here. I understand what the word means, but I'm just saying that...

TOMAS: I am sorry I interrupted your train of thought.

Leah: The words are difficult but, you talked of friendship, and obviously ambassadors should be friendly, and...

TOMAS: May I? 

Leah: Yes.

TOMAS: An ambassador is not necessarily friendly, for he is not seeking friends so much as Reality, and not so much for himself as for they. Once they have been brought into the kingdom, then a friendship is possible. He is not selling something; why should he be friendly? If he is a love-saturated soul, he is allowing the Father to speak through him and say those things that the spirit would say. This is not the same as being friendly. Obviously he is loving, or the Father would not be able to speak through him. But friendliness is an offshoot, a side effect of a love-saturated soul, and so he is not seeking friends so much as he is seeking, yes, converts.

Leah: I think I misrepresented myself somehow.

TOMAS: Not necessarily. I am intrigued and I keep interrupting your train of thought, but on the other hand, this is an exchange.

Leah (Laughing): Okay. An example, okay? Of the Red Cross. And there are people in distress, and you have a friendly attitude. And you also want to go maybe a little bit further and help out where you can, and then if you were friendly to people, especially the downhearted, I don't see it so much as seeking a friend as sharing something with someone.

TOMAS: Yes. I agree.

Leah: I don't think I presented that -- I give up.

Hunnah: When you are friendly within yourself, then that part sort of takes care of itself. And when you deliver the service, there is something about your demeanor that allows a person to be comfortable. When you used the example of Red Cross, we're talking about what civilized man does for each other, and enlightened man serves two ways: enlightened man serves at the physical level while he carries his Life, which is a form of God. An attitude goes out that is something extra and it uplifts those whom he helps. Enough said. I don't know. I'm talking for the sake of talk. I don't know.

TOMAS: Beverly is friendly. Hunnah is a friend.

Hunnah: Oh. Now that's ... You could say that about anybody at the table here. It puts it in a different light. Thank you.

Oh! Our worldly associations don't know about these names, so if Mary Kay goes down to the local activity and does charitable work, she's known as Mary Kay, but she releases the Iyana aspect of herself into the work.

TOMAS: Let us suggest that Iyana goes into the environment and acts like Mary Kay so that they can relate.

Hunnah: Oh. All right.

TOMAS: In this case, Iyana the daughter of God, is acting in conjunction with the Conjoint Actor, the Infinite Spirit, and she is presenting Our Father to her arena as Mary Kay so that they know, so that Iyana can present the Father's fruits to His children.

Iyana: I had an experience with this woman. I'd never met her before, but she started to tell me all about her problems and I had similar problems so I gave her advice, or I suggested that she do what I did, and to me that isn't giving advice; that's just being helpful . because I'd been through that experience.

TOMAS: You had shared your experience.

Iyana: Yes. And it was helpful to her because she hadn't seen it that way.

TOMAS: You spoke from your authority.

Iyana: Yes.

TOMAS: Yes.

Iyana: But that is why we look back on our lives and realize we have been through these things, as other people are going through. We can show compassion to them and give them understanding so that they will feel better with their problem.

TOMAS: Yes. One moment, please.

Iyana: I want to thank you, Tomas, that I was able to be here tonight and to discuss things with you and to have you show me ways that I can do things.

TOMAS: It is most fortunate that we are brought into fellowship regularly, yes. It is a gift, this friendship that we share.

Iyana: Hunnah calls this Dear Abby.

TOMAS: There are many who disdain the Teaching Mission because often it appears to be relegated to Dear Abby or group therapy or less than the ideal that the Teachers proposed in the beginning.

Iyana: No-no-no. Her "dear Abby" meant that the problems were so minute. Like they would write to Abby. Not what you were giving.

Hunnah: I agree with both of you. This is definitely something that bothers some of the people that are in the group, but this reminds me of a song from "My Fair Lady" - "Don't talk of love, show me!" -- and we're talking about "show me how!" I don't want to talk about it anymore; I want to live it! And that is what holds me close. Talk is just too cheap.

TOMAS: Indeed.

Iyana: I have respect for the Teaching Mission and we were just being a little facetious.

Hunnah: And thank you for your patience.

TOMAS: Merium is asking to come through this vehicle. One moment.

MERIUM: Hello again. I just wanted to come back on-line for the exercise. I am eager to put in my contribution as you well know and I don't want to lose connection with this T/R in light of my association with Hunnah. It is a well known practice in other communities that the teachers are prone to pop up anywhere, but in-as-much as you are dependent largely on Gerdean for teacher contact, and now Hunnah to some extent and a smattering here and there (hello Jay-Orzj), I operate thus, but I encourage you all to learn as you can and if you can.

Tomas made a remark earlier about when your light so shines that people come to you and you allow them to cling to you and the analogy is too close to go unnoticed, for he said that you must refer them to the Father, to the Source, and not to continue to come to you, and so those who might, might say that Gerdean, and perhaps Hunnah now, are self-deluded and self-seekers of glory, for the students come to the teachers that they provide.

And again I will offer up the same advisement, and that is that you need to go to the Source, to the Source which resides within you, within your own capacity for discernment and for absorption of reality and truth. You have within you that truth, beauty and goodness, which is of the Father. As you share your understanding of your intimate relationship with the Father, you are practicing those things that you merely listen to when you hear Tomas or I speak.

However, we are here to be your friends and to be helpful as you yourselves come together to be friends and to be helpful to each other. And so we keep this in perspective. It is the Father that we ALL turn to for the ultimate lessons and the ultimate prize.

Well, how wonderful again to visit with you and to see you here in this delightful group. I look forward to our next gathering. It is always a great pleasure for me to be able to contribute to this developing community. So long.

Group: Thank you for coming.

TOMAS: I cannot top that, and so I will allow Merium's words to be the cherry on top of our discourse this evening. I will see you when I see you. Stay in touch. Farewell.

Group: Thank you. Good night.
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