Oasis of the Heart
A Dramatized Story from Bakim

In the vast desert of a world far from yours, there came a caravan. And the leader of this caravan, deeply thirsty, sees a man from the nearby village out on the sand, and he appears to be painting a canvas.

When they had exchanged pleasantries and realized that their true intent was friendship, and shared of the limited water ration, he began to inquire of the artist and his work.

"Yes, I am Jewish," the artist acknowledged, "from a nearby town."

"Huh! A Jewish artist? Not likely. I don't think. For since when have Jewish people put picture to canvas. Do not they have a rule against such?"

And the artist, laughing, said: "It is true that I am Jewish but of normal mind, I suppose, having long ago discovered a great mentor and a great teacher, who could stretch us beyond pages of rules and regulations and sacred writ of the rabbis and the pharisees, and began to teach us of the true essence of spirituality -- God the Father of us all, and we are all his children. So we must honor Him and love one another -- Jews, Samaritans, even the Romans who crushed us under their cruel heels. But God the Father would wish better for each of us in the hope we would find true salvation through love.

"This man had vision -- the vision of an artist, for he could see things far beyond to the celestial spiritual world that none other could see."

Intrigued, the visitor stepped around. "I must see, my friend, from your viewpoint, what it is on your canvas." And as he looked, he saw the most beautiful, colorful, inviting oasis he had ever seen -- crystal blue waters, beautiful green palms, so restful, so peaceful.

"Where do you get such a scene? I see nothing but sand. Nothing but sand for miles and miles.

The artist said: "Let us look beyond the obvious, my friend. We're all children of the Father. This world will provide for us, for what you see in front of you is not the true reality of the greater dimension of the Father's plan. I assure you, five miles hence there will be no desert. And people will live by the seaside. And they will fish. And they will trade. And they will be prosperous.

"You must look beyond a mere five miles of sand. You must look beyond what you can see with material eyes ... vision of a planet, a world, where this is not the rule but the exception in a world mostly of water -- water!

"But you see not water. You must look beyond what you see with material eyes. And this requires, my friend, living in faith. Living in faith of this vast creation, of this Fatherhood of God, of this brotherhood of all ... men and women.

The visitor was quite impressed. "A beautiful picture. I will be pleased to buy this picture from you, for I have never seen anything quite this beautiful. I can see that it comes from an inner vision."

"Quite true," said the artist. "It is an inner vision. For five miles hence, in the town by the sea, there is nothing this beautiful. But the beauty is deep within, within the heart, within the soul of man. Look not at the surface struggles, confusions and conflicts. Look within each soul.

"This world is only one of many worlds where the Father's creative expression of Himself lives out in multifarious ways in so many grand experiments of time and space and life, the spark of his Indwelling Spirit in each and every one. And I think this is the vision of a true artist, and this is what I strive to paint. Thank you, my friend, for this visit."

And the traveler wrapped the picture and took it with him across the desert. He never forgot this momentous encounter with an artist in the middle of the desert. And he often wondered why the artist walked out upon the desert to stand in the sun all day long with a small canteen of water to paint what could not be seen there with material eyes. Why would he not sit back safely in his tent, and paint the picture there in more comfort in the shade?

My friends, perhaps this will be food for thought for you. And we commend this enigmatic end to your thoughtful expression in days to come.

(Responding to questions about the story of the desert painter, following human discussion)

BAKIM: There are so many perspectives and impressions from the story, and all have been expressed well. And there are others as well. Creativity often comes from within. There are those who may stand with canvas beside a mountain lake and paint that mountain lake. And this is their artistic expression and it is well and good.

But there is much unseen with which artists create their art. As they reach inside to sorrow and despair, this is expressed. If they reach inside to know the inner goodness of love, this is expressed.

I must say that we have room in our celestial realm for even those expressions which sadden us, challenge us, and inspire us to greater service. For in some places on your world, the opportunity to see truth, beauty and goodness and express that in art is quite limited, and yet artistic expression can thrive amid squalor. We have no further to look than expressions of your photographs in the media and those brave works of photographers who seek to record these graphic images for you.

And if they bring you feelings of sorrow and pain and suffering, and you grow in depth of feeling and empathy for your brothers and sisters, and are inspired to act, and radiate love and caring and service, then these artistic expressions which show conflict and sadness and horror are well made.

By creating art from feelings that run the spectrum, you can learn to blend them into your philosophical framework and absorb them in a knowing greater-self that at once encompasses these feelings of sorrow and sadness and empathy with the knowledge, true knowledge, of faith and love and trust and ultimate redemption and salvation for every child of the Father. And so your art can express many things.

(In response to comments about the glories of nature)

See and feel and experience all of the thriving expressions of the Father's love .... small animals and lizards and prairie dogs and sunsets and amber lights of late afternoon ... and rain showers .... and the smell of the sage and the greenness of the plants ... and the moon and the stars, the clarity of the sky, and the rain clouds and the cacti, and all of these things painted by the Father.

This is the life of an artist, learning to appreciate these things and, too, in our ways, make creative expressions. Those who are happiest are those who occupy their minds, and fill their minds and hearts and spirts with creative outlets. And there is no room within that mind, then, for those spirit poisons which eventually make your mind and body and spirit sick.

You do not have to fight these things, only replace them with creative expressions of love and beauty and goodness, and this will be your life. This will be your expression. You will be wondrous teachers.

And we will find, in weeks ahead, as we explore additional senses, that we can define these senses and give them dimension, and explore the colors as we go into deeper visualization exercises, and explore other vibrational energies that will attune your personalities to a more productive resonance.

We look forward to these sharings and expressions.

(Responding to whether we should reach out to touch and hug those we would comfort, acknowledged to be a high artistic expression.)

Though each circumstance is different, I believe that in a vast majority of cases most would appreciate you reaching out to hold and caress and comfort them in times of despair. And if they are taken aback by your open feelings of care for them, so much the better. It jars them from their concepts of alienation which have made it very difficult for you to reach out to one another.

This time must change eventually, when you are no longer afraid to express yourself in loving ways and touching ways with your brothers and sisters. When you achieve this ability to share in a physical and strong mind-connectedness by looking with empathy in the eyes and sharing the feelings of this person, then you will make quantum leaps of progress.

In the current state of great divisiveness because of factors in your social fabric, this progress is limited. I encourage you to show your love, and radiate that love. It is certainly unusual, and it will certainly attract a great deal of attention. People will be drawn to you.

(Transmission on GOLDEN NUGGETS OF TRUTH at the Arkansas Teaching Mission Conference)

We would speak on truth. In Jesus' time, incarnated in supreme empathy with you, his children, you became brothers and sisters in the flesh. There was a great persistence of confusion and conflict in those times. Times have not changed in this respect. You each face confusions, face divisive expressions of truth.

Now, with the spirit of conviction, you are urged to find this truth from the wellspring of holy living waters that flows within each of you. And as water flows and as blood flows it is never ending but continuing, and so is truth. From within, growing, ever-expanding, it can be tested, it can be drunk fully, you can search to great ends to find this truth or you can be satisfied and live in love with a small portion.

What is right for you as a beloved free-willed creature and child of God is right with God as well. And is right with creator Michael and your brother Jesus, for your capacities in mortal flesh can never exceed the inherent. But this is only one small stage of your eternal purpose.

Imagine if you will the sojourner on your planet who goes into the beautiful awareness to see and feel God. And in the joys of this bountiful and plenteous creation revels in the trees, the sky, the mountains, the streams from where there is a great external energy that you can attune your mechanisms to feel quite intensely, more intensely than when you are bound within your structures.

One who will seek spirituality may walk in this beautiful land, may splash in this beautiful stream as the moving living waters flow upon your bare and open feet. And if by chance you are one of those who search truly for those nuggets of spiritual wisdom which will sustain you, which will make your living waters flow, for truth you may find within the stream with little searching, golden nuggets symbolizing wealth here, symbolizing the eternal truth that you seek.

But you may find several beautiful gold nuggets in this stream and you may look at them and feel joyful at the beauty of the small amount of truth you have discovered. And you may rush into the town with your nuggets, to show these beautiful and valuable nuggets to all around with enthusiasm to share what you have learned. And these small nuggets of truth can represent the whole parcel of your spiritual growth.

Here on Urantia they are sufficient to make you a faith child of the Father. And you will accept these tenets of religion, this doctrine, this truth, these insights, these illuminations, these ideas, these small treasures. They are enough to sustain your eternal search for the peace of God's love inside.

Many humans will not be satisfied, however, with the nuggets in the stream. They will search for deeper truths and they will search the stream until they find from whence these living waters come, into the heart of the mountain to find the source, this vein of great spiritual wisdom that runs within --below the surface. In places that are dark perhaps and frightening to those who have a twisted view of the Father's true nature, are afraid to question, are afraid to pursue, are afraid to question the authority of the priesthood.

These searchers who would look beyond the few nuggets of truth to find the vein of truth ... they are also blessed children of the Father in their search. And they will find more gold, they will find more spiritual wisdom and they will serve a higher function, though equally regarded and equally loved as the one who cherishes and clutches the nugget.

But the Father indeed does smile upon those who will in their spiritual quest search deeper. Some will find a vein of gold which gives wealth. They are sufficiently satisfied in this wealth and they will build big churches upon this foundation. This gold of this truth becomes a doctrine solidified in brick and mortar and in the circle of believers who bring this church to life.

Still others among you will not be satisfied even with this level of truth. And they will seek to go deeper in the mine, still deeper into the unknown, disdaining their fears, finding courage in their faith in the Father and they will go to great depths of darkness to find the deeper, much deeper lode, mother lode of truths that they can find.

Wherever you carry your search, however deeply you search for truth, you are honored and you are loved. But know that the heavens do smile when you do move forward boldly and courageously in a search for deeper meanings and higher truth.

Truth, I would say to you, is ever-growing, for in mortal life you can glimpse and feel only a very few of what are considered the absolute truths. All in this sphere, all in time and space is a relative truth. All is relative and with the full knowledge that what you believe and what you do not believe and all that you consider is all relative comes the peace of mind in knowing that we are but explorers and discoverers finding the nuggets we can. We dare to move beyond our fears. The heavens rejoice that we have done so, and beyond these fears they will join us in this search deep into the mine of truth.

And as these truths become illuminated by the lights that we would help you cast in these dark areas, much more truth will be discerned and found on Urantia. Much greater levels of spiritual insight and beyond. That experiential feeling brings you closer to the Father.

In these times of enhanced energies, know that you have more help and guidance and inspiration than ever before should you choose to go deeply into the mine, disdaining all fear of darkness, the lack of knowledge; disdaining all judgment that your fellows would make upon you. For no judgment is valid that comes from human mouths and minds. You are free to use your free wills, your own expressions, your own deep desires to propel your quest for all the truth that you can handle, all the truth that you can find. Be not fearful. Do not set your truth on false foundation.

You will recall the lesson of Tarkas, my brother, who discussed keeping your truth living and growing as in the deep forests with their living plants, each growing, each symbolically representing a higher level of truth. But when you stop growing and learning you learn no more truth and gain no more insights. You gain no greater peace and comfort in knowing.

For if you cut down these beautiful living trees of truth, turn them into fence posts, saturate them with your poisonous chemicals so that even the small life can not live, you have turned the living truth into a dead fence post mounted in concrete. Stationary, unmoving to which you attach barbed wire to separate what you believe from what your brothers believe.

And in these fenced compartments we compartmentalize ourselves, we alienate ourselves and we live in a deep alienation. Too often this prevents us even from looking with sincerity and love deeply into the eyes of our fellows.

Herein all truth lies and once your truths have stopped growing you have limited your growth, for your perceptions with these mortal minds, these mortal eyes can only go so far and you are stuck with this low level of learning and insight. You have built fences to separate you from your fellows, to stop the living truth from growing.

Such could be rectified and yet humankind finds it embarrassing and threatening to change one's mind when greater truths are discovered. And when those truths have been set up in these fences that separate you, it is extremely difficult to tear up fence posts set in concrete to take hold of barbed wire and tear it away so that this openness of truth and understanding with your fellows comes forth in florid and beautiful pastures of plenty.

And so, truth is living and growing in your sphere, in your time, in your existence. You can only gain a measure of truth to ensure your growth in the kingdom. Continue to add nuggets, continue to look for the vein of gold of true and deep understanding; seek and ye shall find. Be ye perfect even as God is perfect. This is your quest.

It is troubling that many upon your sphere still despair of knowing what their true purpose is. And yet it appears so plain, to learn and grow in love, to find God, to know God, and to be like God. For God is the all, the one, the everything. It is the First Source and Center of all. Do not short-circuit your growth. Do not stop your progress. Do not stop learning and growing, for that is your purpose here.

QUESTION: Before, you had said that art and healing were related. If I understand it, our bodies vibrate with a certain pitch that can be seen as colors and can be heard. When our bodies are not healthy, the colors are out of line and the pitch is also out of line. Art relates to healing in this way: when we see truth and beauty, it helps to realign our vibrational forces likewise into truth and beauty. Is that correct?

BAKIM: This is somewhat true. The healing activity is greatly enhanced when stress and anxiety, as well as other emotions such as anger and resentment, have been expunged. The concentration on beautiful art, artistic expression, or actually the creation of this art, frees the mind from these debilitating influences and occupies it in the creation and appreciation of beauty. In this light, these bad emotions simply are evaporated, and in that way healing and art are quite interrelated.

I should say at this point the techniques by which we seek to teach you in groups such as this, as you know, are somewhat laborious and slow. Effective, yes, but there is so much knowledge to be gleaned in these fields of energetic medicine, it could be called, and the other terms of so-called alternative medicine. There is so much that we do encourage you to go beyond the tidbits and somewhat oversimplified views that I'm able to express to you. You can gain so much more knowledge through the books and other writings which are now being produced.

Do not worry that these books are created by humans. And do not worry that there could be some errors and misconceptions within. These are easily filtered through your Spirit of Truth as to what rings true with you. This will be a barometer for making these choices and you should trust this internal knowing in order to discover what is really true. Most of these books are inspired and are collaborative efforts by quite talented humans who have been able to open the door and communicate with these celestial sources. As you may know, art has been created partially through these methods throughout the centuries, but it is much more intensified today.

I would encourage you to read and study, selecting these things that ring true to you. And do not worry about errors or misconceptions. They are mostly unimportant unless they lead you away from the Father. There is error in all things, but we do not concentrate on these things, but rather the truth that can be gleaned therein.

There is so much coming forth; more will be coming forth in the years ahead. You should select disciplines and philosophies that are appealing to you. Explore them, build your talents, and your expertise in these areas so that you may discuss them fully and intelligently.

It is our fond hope that the whole field of alternative medicine will become part of an all-encompassing practice of medicine which greatly multiplies the limited and narrow abilities that your doctors now have through their techniques of surgery and drugs that mask symptoms. There is a great deal more to healing, so much more than we can communicate in these lessons. But your summation was quite accurate, having to do with the harmonies that you discussed. In coming years, in the immediate years, you will find many exciting things coming from the fountain of your inspired humans. You have tuned into celestial connections. We look forward to it with great anticipation.

QUESTION: The last time we were together you recommended that we find beauty in the things around us. There is a quote, "only the poet finds the poetry in the everyday". When you look at something and for the first time see it as beautiful, are the artisans present? Do they augment that realization, or do we do that on our own because of our increased enlightenment?

BAKIM: We have helped to some degree on a somewhat temporal basis to remind you that you have great inherent powers within that have barely been tapped. You have only used a small percentage of your mind power; this is only part of the picture. Beyond this, you have rather extraordinary powers within that have been so long dormant that they have been virtually lost, though not completely. Those powers are within each of you.

The rebellion was so detrimental from so many standpoints and contributed to the poisoning and pollution of your world, which also once held great healing properties. The overall design was that you coalesce with this beautiful world that had been seeded by the Life Carriers and had been developing as it should with refinements of your life forces from the infinitesimal to the greatest ocean. All of these things were in conjunction with the Father's divine plan.

Had it not been disrupted by rebellion you would find quite a different world today, almost beyond imagination. Your Planetary Prince would still be here and would have guided the destinies of this world in keeping with the Father's plan. For so many years, even before your Material Son and Daughter compounded the problems by their default, your world continued to flounder and suffer because of all of these disruptions.

It was designed that the nature elements with which you were so graciously endowed with by the Father ... including the beautiful clear, crystal waters ... had a cleansing, healing power and were designed to nurture vast quantities of aqua life.

The sun, of course, had great healing, lighting properties. The earth itself. Yet, over the years, through these grim problems, many of these things have been polluted, poisoned, and their healing properties have been greatly diluted. These are all the unfortunate legacy of your troubled history.

But the Father has been stirred by this great suffering and your prayers answered. Michael moved in to reclaim these lost worlds of which you are now a part of the reclamation. These powers can eventually be regained. Your own inner powers of telepathy, intuitive knowledge, even a degree of reflectivity and the purity and power of the natural world around you. All of these things can be reclaimed as this world is cleansed and corrected.

I know that you are somewhat disappointed that this will take so long. But it did not happen suddenly and will not be corrected except by great effort for a long period of time. But this somewhat relates to Tarkas' lesson on faith, for you must try to develop the faith that this will happen. Take the broader picture that even though you may not be of human flesh when all of this cleansing comes to fruition, nonetheless, you will be here to experience this great beginning. You have many wonderful things to look forward to.

BAKIM provided the following message to be read at a Teaching Mission conference in Arkansas:

BAKIM: Your celestial artisans are much in cohesion with your teachers in prescribing and instructing for a closer relationship with God. From our perspective, we engage in experiential meditation and spiritual upreach through which you tap into creative patterns that are inspired by celestial truths. Your strongest potentials for creativity are inspired to greater effort, and through them we seek to guide your creative hand to higher purpose.

In your usage of physical materials, colors, senses and ideas, each of you creates uniquely, and all are blessed with the creative gift for it is expressed in many ways. All mortal tasks can be done with creativity, inspiration and guidance, and indeed always have been. Truly all can rise to the level of what we refer to as art. This ability will be enhanced by your enhanced awareness of the passing world day by day, moment by moment, vision by vision, feeling by feeling. Live in the moment. Each moment can be rich in the eyes and minds and hands of the poet. We urge you to ask for a fine and discerning sense of awareness which will give inspiration to your creative thoughts and, in turn, inspire the act itself. Live your very lives as an artistic expression. It will require practice, for nothing of lasting value is gained without effort.

This is done in many ways. Use your voices, your sense of melodies and harmonies, the dramatizations of a good story, the expressiveness of a single scene, captured, immortalized and distilled to the essence of the perception of truth that it offers. All of your senses, your imaginations and wisdom from experience can be used in creating artistic expressions, impressions for your fellows, and satisfying cathartic experience that will serve to expunge, or soak up, spirit poisons that daily threaten to retard your search for truth, beauty and goodness.

How can one fill oneself with the troubling poisons of self-doubt and fear, and sit in languor in the presence of concerted and inspired creative thought? Your creativity is highly encouraged. To fulfill one's mortal purpose, one must tap into the creative talents which have been bestowed. The wise will use those talents in the furtherance of divine truths, not bury them in fear that somehow they will be taken away.

Exercises which we commonly use are visualizations, which help our students picture within that which they would express, and storytelling, in which we tweak your minds to seek and find deeper truths and additional perspectives which aid in your search for spiritual realities.

Our teaching is individualized as are the lessons of your other teachers. We seek not to change the world; we seek to change you, and enhance the creative spark with which the Father has imbued us all.

QUESTION: What would you have us tell our brothers and sisters at the conference?

Love is art. And art is love. Sharing and giving art, created from the heart, is so very, very smart. It's quite a start .... To sharing love with each and every one as well. Your finest art will eventually become expressions of love, in all its manifestations and nuances. Radiating love all around you each day is already artful expression. Learn to do it well and you will be blessed with wells of creative inspiration.