DATE: October 17, 2004
LOCATION: Rio Rancho NM TeaM
TEACHER: TOMAS
TOPIC: Loyalty
Q & A: Polemics of political perspective
Is a Department of Peace viable?
Are Bush's Ideologies viable?
Are more earth changes immanent?
A status report on our progess?

Music: Elena on piano: "Faith is the Victory"
T/R: Gerdean



TOMAS: Greetings, loyal students, friends, family, I am Tomas, your teacher.

Group: (Welcome. We've missed you.)

TOMAS: I have observed you, have missed our gathering, but have not been
without occupation, for, as all of you have similarly been involved/engaged,
life has abundant opportunities for experiential living, learning, loving and
leaving.

Let us discuss loyalty today, for awhile. The end result of loyalty being the
commitment to the Father, to that divine reality that you call God, to be the
faith, provide the faith, reveal the faith that your music befriended today. It
is necessary for you to develop courageous loyalty in order for you to stand by
your faith no matter what, and no matter whom, and the circumstances of each
instance at any given moment in time are always changing, always reformulating
as evolution rolls on and as revelation reveals the truth and then the beauty,
ultimately the goodness of all creation, for it is all a viable reality that
God oversees. The lure that you are given to become one with Him in eternity,
is the one loyalty that will result in your ability to hold fast to his garment
through all your experiences, through all that life has to offer.

What we discover through experiential wisdom is that many loyalties are
temporary and that the paradigm of any current mode of existence is but
scaffolding on the rungs of your ascent. Therefore many situations are but
fleeting instances and many institutions are but sandcastles, even many
cultures are but grains of sand that rise and fall with the winds of change.
Thus, all things return to dust except for that living legacy that you find in
the spirit that endures, lasts forever.

All of this is a process. All of the pages in the book of life are experiential
moments to be perceived one after the other. There is divine purpose to this
long, extended program of evolution, and while each experiential adventure
allows for the bredth and depth of your capacity, it is also true that as
advancing and conscious human beings, you are becoming more aware of your
immortal soul because of your consciousness of the divine infiltrating every
aspect of your being as we are discussing and learning to live and prove by our
very existence in our lives and exemplified in this configuration we refer to
affectionately as "the teaching mission",

And the evolutionary growth for you as a movement is no different than that
which is required of its individual followers, as any civilization is evolved
because of the times in which it emerges and for the social reasons for which
it rises and falls. For civilizations and cultures, as well as movements and
certainly, individuals, do rise and fall. They come into vogue and they become
passe. They reach their prime and they retire. There is ebb and flow in all
things. This is a part of the heartbeat of evolution.

And so, when there is change, social change in a group of people, it is because
of the growth and the development of the participants in that movement. This is
what makes it alive and vital. If there were not these changes, it would not be
a real and viable reality that you are involved in; it would be entirely
mechanistic and altogether lacking in adventure, such that lured you further
into the experience of somehow seeking to know God and by degrees, finding Him,
and ultimately, leveling the playing field such that your focus, commitment,
loyalty and devotion is to Him completely. For in Him you live and breathe and
have your very being.

This ultimate goal is an aspiration that is appreciated in increments, and I
want you to know, Beloved Students, how appreciative I am of the growth that
you have --all of you have experienced in the short time that you have been my
students . not necessarily because of me but because I have been aware of you
and affectionate toward you and invested in your, your growth has been more
meaningful to me and I want to thank you for giving so much to your own lives,
to your own individual integrity, as caring individuals, such that our group
has, itself, been able to grow by and as a reflection of your individual
growth. This group, which has only been meeting for a short time (all things
considered), is indeed a young community, but it is on the map and I could not
ask for or expect more of you than you are able to produce or elicit.

I look at the civilization of this configuration and see a lesson I myself have
learned that I will share with you. In my tenure with this mission, as a
teacher in this Teacher Corps, I was assigned at one time in my past to preside
over the Pittsburgh Teacher Base, which group had had prior teachers, but it
was my first assignment as an individual independent and not as personal
ministry or as an intern, as I was with Teacher Daniel. But in my enthusiasm to
develop a rapport with my students and pupils, I became enmeshed in the culture
that prevailed in that community and which had prevailed for many years. It was
ingrained behavior, and I accommodated the reality that existed by learning the
culture of the group I taught. Thus, I became conditioned.

And so, when I arrived at these shores of the Rio Rancho platform, I was well
familiar with the merits and demerits of that civility which prevails in
Urantia/American polite society. It is no wonder that Jesus admonished that his
apostles and devotees not become overly engaged in meaningless social
intercourse. Whereas one's society is the platform on which one functions, the
search for truth has to lead beyond the existing paradigm in order for truth to
enter therein.

And so while we have derived much from the socializing process, and while it
also provides immeasurable opportunities for socializing one's belief, it also
is and remains true that overmuch socializing detracts from the business of the
spirit and the engagement with the spirit that will enhance the process of
attaining prayer and worship, which connects you to the divine power that will
enable you to live that consecrated life that is loyal only to Him and divine
reality far circumventing and superceding the mere pleasantries of social
intercourse.

This truth has become evident in the last two years with our configuration
here. If you all will make a note of it, we will have a new level, a new
plateau of operation on which to operate and accomplishment through living
experience, which we may celebrate, yes.

Dear ones, are there questions?

Esmeralda: Well, Tomas, several of the questions that I had arising from a
conversation I had yesterday you have answered. You have made me feel that our
group has not been abandoned, and that we are not a totally selfish "all about
self" group, which I didn't think we were. So you've answered some of the
questions that I needed to know. One of the subjects was about, are the topics
of discussion where we needed to ask for guidance on our present world
situation. And I think all of us are concerned about it and all of us seem to
have our own opinions and our own beliefs, but it has been said that we are
wrong. Could you help us in any way on that?

TOMAS: I would like to help you on that; however, whether I can or not is more
on your shoulders than on mine. Nevertheless, I will discuss it. This has to do
with your perceiving what you want to perceive, seeing what it is you want to
see, hearing what it is you want to hear, whether I or someone else has said
it, or not. The mind is a mysterious commodity. It is able to deny that which
stares you in the face; it is able to remain loyal to precepts that are
destroying you; it is able to embrace toxins that are killing you, and does all
the time, because of your will, but even more because of your conditioning.

Remember I spoke to you earlier about institutions and civilizations. The same
thing can be said for ideologies, even ideals. And this situation that you are
witnessing and indeed experiencing, as a nation, as citizens of this nation of
what would appear to be fairly equally distributed Republicans and Democrats,
running neck and neck for the position of leadership of this country, with days
to go before the votes are cast and results will then be forthcoming from that
day. It is no wonder that your community is conflicted about the candidates,
because there is division in the ideologies that support the candidates.

I will go so far as to say that with them split so closely, or at least as it
is revealed in the press, the paradigm appears very much like the yin and yang,
the male and female, the black and white, so far opposite are the approaches.
But if you look closely, you will see that each represents one half of the
other half of the predominant posture of the present mental outlook of the
people they are vying to represent. Thus, you are fighting over an ideology
over which we teachers have no control. It is not within our realm of
influence. It is a strictly political field, and yet it represents the energy
values that you are all immersed in, those of you who are paying attention to
the political climate. The greater percentage of citizens do not pay that much
attention to politics, at least not a sufficient amount as to do anything about
it. For that reason, I am not telling you who to vote for.

Esmeralda: I really didn't think you would, Tomas.

TOMAS: Free will being as it is, also counts for your vote. I have no authority
to tell you who to vote for; however, if you tell me what your loyalty is, I
will acknowledge it; I will recognize it; and, if it has value, I will support
it. I am not in the business of mud-slinging; therefore, I will not be a
detractor of the opponent you denounce. I will not play politics according to
the rules of the game as it is played in your political arena as mortals of the
realm, but I am certainly cognizant of the impact they have on you, and that
you who have strong opinions one way or the other are embroiled in that
dynamic. Since it is a part of your legacy, since you are citizens of this
realm, is not inappropriate.

Esmeralda: Did you want me to, or others to . what did you want, Tomas? Me to
do? What to tell you? The things that I believe in, or why I believe as I
believe?

TOMAS: I know, more or less, how you believe.

Esmeralda: Thank you. I thought you probably would.

Reneau: Tomas, those of us that value the ideal of something like a Department
of Peace, to help lead our national government -- to some people that seems
like just such a childlike concept that it has nothing to do with modern
reality. I would like to know, to be encouraged, that those people on this
planet that are -- let's say working hard for peace . advocating that,
vocalizing that -- are being helped along, so that more and more people support
that kind of thinking. Do you think that will- Is that a reality to come any
time soon? Or is that something for way out in the far futures.

TOMAS: No, certainly not, for recall the Garden was established to represent
the needs of that time. And the initial Dalamatian civilization was also set up
to incorporate those values that need to be encouraged. Peace is something that
needs to be encouraged, particularly in an aggressive area, and when you have
those who are incessantly antagonistic toward peace, those who see peace as
having more merit than war (and this often reflects financially).

Elena: You were talking about scaffolding, whether it was nations or whatever .
each institution or ideal, building on from one to another, and the
requirements for change. Whether it's the State government administration right
now that's going through a lot of change and the mechanics of change forcing
some things to be done in ways that you would not have them to be done, but
somehow it seems to require chaos or lack of method, lack of forethought,
insensitivity, trauma, all of these things as part of change, if you think
about that, and then look at some of the people -- Republicans, I mean, maybe.
Is there validity in Bush being how he is in order to get to our next level of
development? I don't think so.

TOMAS: Of course!

Elena: Oh.

TOMAS: Of course he has value. He has as much value as the other candidate.
Their points of view are both very viable and very representative of this time
in your civilization's advancement -- just as in a marriage, both the male and
the female have a viable position. But the unfortunate thing is that the
mindset of this day and age for you, as an evolving race, is incessantly
antagonistic. It has learned so little of active cooperation, much less
coordination. This idea is so antithetical to anything outside its own
perspective, and this poison is infecting all of you.

Even though you had this less-than-divine virus before, you are now living as
if in an epidemic. Everyone is infected with this virus, this virus of fear,
distress, hostility, anxiety and some of it, of course, is exacerbated by the
fact of terror. There is a definite perspective that Mr. Bush represents -- the
one which speaks of tough love, that cannot tolerate idleness and rebellion
against uprightness and civility. He represents a civilization, an ideal, and
his ambition is extending it globally, as if in his eyes (and this is supported
by a great many people) he is being called upon to be the hero and savior of
the world. Since no one else is acting, he will act.

This is "messianic zeal" and many religionists recognize messianic zeal when
they see it. And while there are 48% (loosely speaking) who are distrustful and
disrespectful of such an approach, on the other hand there are those who follow
it blindly and say, "Hail to the chief!" Thus, it depends on what side of the
fence you are sitting as to which side has the greater reality. The other side
has its perspective as well. But to think that one side is all right and the
other is all wrong, is another one of those evils based on ignorance and on
loyalty to lesser realities than the divine connection that begins and ends
with you in your personal relationship with your indwelling God Fragment, which
will go far beyond the political play being enacted.

Those of you who choose to be involved, and who take your passion into that
arena, will not be reprimanded for your actions, because the maintenance of
civilization requires servants to the cause. The fact that there are different
perspectives on how to go about this cause creates, inevitably, the situation
that you, Esmeralda, experienced yesterday, with one side opposed to the
others'beliefs and, in their passion, extending it even to the prejudicial
opinion that those who hold the belief have no value either, and this is error,
of course. Both sides have merit and both sides are a balanced representation
of the times in which you live, as well as the nature of your human condition
at this time in your evolution.

Thus, the more you understand about the human condition, added to the
perspective of all of creation from the vantage point of the divine, the more
you can see the way the world operates, why it behaves the way it does, how it
is playing out the requirements of evolution to civilize a barbaric
mentality.

Whether it is engaged in actual war is something that will be seen for
centuries to come, for even after men stop killing each other with weapons,
they will continue to beat upon each other's shoulders with ideas, beset by
their ideals. And thus the human condition continues to forge a new and higher
civilization, based upon a new and higher perspective, based upon advancement
of spirit reality in the individual and then, as it shows, in its society.

And this is on going on all seven super universes, at all times, in varying
stages of growth. Yours is complicated by the default and rebellion, but all
the worlds go through something very similar to this in one way or another. All
of you are doing just as you should be doing - representing the values that
contribute to the overall destiny of an evolving world. That you can do this in
love for each other, that you are not killing each other in your conversations,
is in fact a testimony to the reality of God that is indwelling you. Even as
you browbeat each other about your ideologies, you maintain a certain respect
for one another, at least as a child of God or as someone having, more or less,
a right to be here.

I can certainly understand why Jesus did not become embroiled in the political
machinations of his day and age. He would never have gotten anything
accomplished in terms of what he came here to do and to teach! And this will be
a good lesson when you have all learned it through your own experience, then we
will be able to effect more growth in those realms of faith which will enlarge
your your capacity to have faith, and manifest it in such a way as to develop
that in you which will be immortal and eternal, and not merely a tool for the
evolving material universe.

Yes, we are very interested in the evolution of the material world. But we are
far more interested in the evolution of your soul. And though the political
arena seems to overpower you on occasion, and infiltrate your mind more than it
needs, we also allow for the fact that the spirit persists and prevails within
you, even when it is cast aside for the evolving participation you offer life
in your passion and your choices to give your attention to the realities of the
world in which you live, over and above your relationship with God.

Yes, that is a fine line. There are advantages to involving God consciously in
all you do, and this is something that Mr. Bush and his followers are
professing. This gives them a fervor on which they are capitalizing which gives
their movement the appearance of having religious zeal, even divine sanction.
When the segment in the Urantia Papers discusses "Why do the Heathen Rage?" you
can see why those who have ideologies unlike your own are looked at as evil
imposters; they know what they want. They put their sights on it and go for it.
The nebulous idea of peace is difficult to fight for, for the concept itself is
an oxymoron or a dichotomy.

Reneau: Because you cannot have peace without war.

TOMAS: You do not acquire peace through war.

Reneau: Right.

TOMAS: But such dedication is needed, without being warlike. Also remember that
not all groups are as politically invested as this one seems to be, as well as
several others that seem to have taken on the characteristics of the candidate
they support. {Group giggle} This has created division even among the Teaching
Mission groups. This is proof positive that the prevailing reality will usurp
you from the path of pursuing the divine, providing instead justifiable
diversion into the realms of the mortal human condition. And how can we say you
are wrong to go there, when we know full well, that is where the experiential
learning is?

Our hope, however, for you would be that when you enter into the arena, you are
teaching friendship with God in such a way as to incorporate the loving
elements of all of humanity, and not merely those of your political persuasion.
Being a religionist transcends being a politician, even while politicians
persist, and religionists may or may not be political for a party but reserve
their loyalty to the one supreme God who reigns over all, the greater
government of the universe. In other words, one of these days we will have a
chance to get back to our spiritual lessons. {Group chuckle}

Myra: So we should give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's.

TOMAS: Well, the thing is, my dear, everything is God's. Even Caesar. But this
must be held in appropriate perspective, for you can be a better servant of
Caesar in an appropriate regard for humanity's welfare if you continue to allow
God to rule in your heart. You can be a better neighbor, a better public
servant, a better spouse, a better tax payer, a better contributor to a better
society and a greater civilization if God is at the ultimate helm. But not
through the political structure, no. Rather, through the hearts of its
denizens.

In this way, Mr. Bush has been aggressive. And although might does not
necessarily make right, it is what is. And what you are seeing is a reflection
of the consciousness of humanity at this time. You are often too close to the
forest to see the trees, to see that you are one of the trees, standing there
in the forest - dense as a post sometimes! - but loyal, nonetheless, to that
reality which surrounds you. This is part of that which we have come to try to
help you see you clear of. Not to avoid the political arena, but to be more
adept within it in terms of what can be done for advancing civilization.

Are there questions other than politics?

Reneau: On the news lately, there has been a number of volcanoes and things
that are churning and burning and bubbling, in Mexico and up in Washington, in
that fiery circle there. Are we on the verge of a natural disaster, similar to
the hurricanes that ran through Florida in the south? We've been warned,
earlier in the Teaching Mission, of "earth changes". I'm wondering if these
volcanoes are immanent and earth changes?

TOMAS: Of course they are, in that your planet has not yet stabilized, and they
will continue to be immanent. I am not saying that there are more now as "signs
of the times" because God is angry and .

Reneau: No, of course not.

TOMAS: . Armageddon is immanent. I am not saying that. But again, since people
see what they want to see, it is very easy to take these natural disasters and
configure them to somehow support the ideology that you support.

Reneau: Well, .

TOMAS: The tendency is when you see a disaster happen, a part of your mind
says, "They had it coming!"

Reneau: No.

TOMAS: This is not necessarily true for you as an individual, Reneau, but it is
often true of the collective unconscious, because it is interested in surviving
and it has no time for sympathy or compassion. Anything interested strictly in
survival has no time for sentiment or religion. And so, such an attitude would
be credible. But it tends also to lend itself to the theory that God has
sanctioned such a thing. Therefore, not only did they have it coming, God
willed it on them because they were evil people, and so God willed that the
entire race be eradicated.

This is how God got such a terrible reputation of bringing plagues upon the
people. This is a demonstration of man's mind perceiving what it wants to
perceive and making it the predominant consciousness, whether it is error or
not. And the people go on thinking this way and believing this way for
centuries, until someone begins to question and another cycle starts afresh.

We are at the beginning of a new cycle, a new dispensation. I am not going to
say it happened on Thursday, August the 31st, 1987 or something to that effect,
as you humans love to do, for we are not married to that calendar in this
cosmos. But that, again, is another example of the frustrations we deal with in
our students who continually bring the greater reality down to something they
can manage. In this way they think they have mastered the universe, and their
own place within it, rather than allowing themselves to surrender to the power
of the universe in such a way that they can be utilized fully, consciously, and
supremely by the divine hand itself.

That is the way this world will change, and not by political elections.

This is why I am here with you, sons and daughters of the living God. To remind
you of your reality in the ultimate sense, that you will embrace that reality
as the One worthy of your highest loyalty, and thus put into perspective all
these lesser loyalties that comprise your existence -- the temporary, albeit
valuable, loyalties of the temporal life. Families, civilizations, cultures,
economic systems, political parties - all of these are temporary in the
advancing of the greater reality, which is the more thrilling and enduring of
them all. Let us be on our way.

Elena: Tomas, you mentioned, in your opening discussion, where you were talking
about loyalty, and then of taking this group to a new level. Can you give us an
idea of what you have. how you would like to have that happen? Or. what you
see?

TOMAS: I have worked with you to some extent during this transition period, to
learn to work within yourself, to access your own divine Source, and the
extensions of that Source which seek to serve your comprehension of the
connection you enjoy with the greater universe, and not merely the segment of
sentient reality you have held as a frame of reference from the outset of your
mortal existence. In other words, if you can begin to see yourself as a citizen
of the universe, rather than as merely a citizen of this planet, your
perspective will be enhanced and your soul capacity will grow accordingly. And
going back even farther, to your (piano) selection, my dear, your Faith will be
a greater victory, and your relationship with your Adjuster will be even more
triumphant.

This is my goal for you and each of you, that you walk more fully in
consciousness of the divine Presence beside you and within you. In this aura of
reality, you cannot fail. You will always know what to say, how to be the most
adept, acute and incisive when that is required, the most merciful,
compassionate and sympathetic when that is required, and the resultant effect
is serenity, peace and tranquillity within your own heart, mind, and soul.

This is my work with you. This is what we mean when we say we want you to be
all that you can be. For you can be so much more than your political party
would tell you that you are. You are so much more than your family insists that
you are. You are so much more than you yourself realize. And this is our quest,
our commission, our assignment, and our goal, that all of us be revealed as the
triumph of perfection that we each are, in and of our self at this moment in
time, in and through the grace of God -- that invisible, omniscient,
omnipresent all-purpose God that loves us all - all of his sons and daughters
throughout the vast universes of time and space.

Elena: Thank you, Tomas.

TOMAS: I look forward to our next gathering, knowing that it will come about
not because of a regimen which all of you follow so disciplinedly, but because
your heart yearns for the fertilization that you receive in this field of the
Lord which we are provided by our coming together in the desire to know God and
to be of service to our fellows through doing His will. I await your signal.
Adieu.