[tmtranscripts] TOMAS: Mercy

[ZooidODell at aol.com]

March 23, 1999
Butler PA 
Topic:  Mercy
Teacher:  Tomas
T/R:  Gerdean

GROUP:	Rachel, Gerdean, Joniel, Angus, Leah and Claireesa

URANTIA BOOK STUDY:  Again, from Paper 130, ON THE WAY TO ROME, #4, Discourse
on Reality:  "The meaning of life is its adaptability; the value of life is
its progressability - even to the heights of God-consciousness."

TOMAS:	Good evening, crew.  I am Tomas, your companion and friend.  It is good
to be here and good to hear you in such a rousing frame of mind.  Joniel, my
dear, it is nice to see you here again among your peers.  Welcome home.

JONIEL:	Thank you, Tomas.  It's good to be back.
TOMAS:	It is wise for you to remember your associates in your spirit
interests.  

Your most invigorating discourse this evening has led me to believe that I had
best jump in with a lesson, inasmuch as it is perceived there may be
questions.  At any rate, I will make haste to offer my commentary, and part of
my commentary is based on one of the prayers in the text that infers an
attitude of asking Our Eternal Parent to have mercy on us as we have mercy on
others.  Now that is an interesting concept.  Indeed, how merciful are you
with others?

I am asking you this because you know how dear mercy is to each of you.  We
indeed discussed mercy as of our last session, and you know how good it is to
realize The Father's mercy in so many things, circumstances, beings, places
and so forth.  I promised we would later take a look at how you have mercy on
others, and this seems to be an ideal place to jump in, for have you not been
discussing the less fortunate, or the questionable among you in your realm?

It is appropriate for you to maintain an attitude of mercy, for you are not in
any position to ascertain any background check on any of these individuals as
to their past, present or future worth as individuals or as ascending sons,
and so, have mercy.  

Your quaint village here is not unlike millions of others wherein the
intellectual and cultural, not to say economic, cream rises to the top and the
lumps of coal that have not yet been pressed into diamonds are let loose to
fall into the gutters and to be swept along the tide of life without good
orderly direction.  

Eternal Parent, have mercy on us, as we have mercy on others.  Were it not for
the good grace of Our Father, would we not, too, be lumps of coal, floating
along as a leaf on the flume of life?  But for that Spark of Life, that
activation of Universal Mind, we would be but a speck of dust yet uncreated,
and the Divine Mind has a plan, has a mighty plan, so large, so vast, so all-
encompassing, so true, beautiful and good, it is totally fruitless and futile
for us to attempt to gauge Father's determining factors as to the merits of
the worth of one outside of ourself, much less ourself.

On the other hand, it is affirmed in your text that the Master, when he was
here, often called for stern measures, high standards, great affirmations,
conduct becoming dignified sons and daughters of the living God.  His
pronouncements would seem to want for everyone to be Creator Sons!  How could
anyone possibly live up to the exhortations the Master gave forth regularly,
consistently?  

These affirmations and exhortations were often reminders only for himself.
When you find yourself extolling certain virtues, maintaining certain
standards and requiring certain qualities, be harsh on yourself.  Allow
yourself to be your first student.  Press yourself to gird up your loins of
your mind, indeed, to forge ahead and be the best you can be, and have mercy
on those who have yet to reach your level of attainment, awareness, growth,
challenge and responsibility.

I wish I were able to teach like the Master.  I wish I had his fluid, creative
mind that would enable me to strew parables as he did, for surely these
lessons that are so unlearned are so worthy of learning, and so simple they
are, a simple parable would be so convenient for me, but like you, I get
caught up in the mind, in the intellect, in the superconscious, in the
reasoning, for I am not yet spirit either, and we speculate, we ruminate.  

I cannot condemn you, you see.  All I can do is attempt to keep my focus on
what I am to do, and to me, not to argue with your lesson on adaptability, but
my focus, my purpose, is to become a conduit of divine love as much as
possible, and allow that divine love to work through me in such a way as to
fully allow me to be completely and naturally who The Father intends for me to
be.

Now I cannot try to be human.  I cannot expect you to try to be me.  It would
be foolish and futile of me to want you to think and be and respond and react
as I do, for you are different.  Your purpose is the same, but your
personality is different.  Father's plan for you is custom made for you.  When
I see you doing something peculiar, to me, it behooves me to have mercy on the
fact of my lack of understanding.

Eternal Parent, have mercy on us, as we have mercy on those around us, on our
children, on our neighbor, on those we cannot understand, on those we cannot
know of.

Well, I have had my say.  Have you any commentary or questions or feed-back or
what?

RACHEL:	I will comment that that was a very beautiful and eloquent lesson.
One I will take to heart, because we do so -- I in particular, I'm sure, many
of us -- just love that mercy that is so inherent in Father's love and perhaps
we forget, or I do, to bestow it, that same mercy, on other people I come in
contact with, so I think I'll make a conscious effort to keep mercy in my
mind.  I thank you, Tomas.  That was really lovely.

TOMAS:	I'm glad you enjoyed my words.  I am glad you seem to have taken them
to heart.  I have a full appreciation -- no, it is not a full appreciation; I
cannot appreciate it completely because I am not from Urantia.  I am not inate
of Urantia, but I observe your dealings with your fellows here.  I assure you
you have no idea of the depth and breadth of mercy that is needed here.
Perhaps you do.  

The fall-out, the disease, the disharmony of it all can do nothing from the
Divine Mind but induce a sense of overwhelming mercy, and you look around and
you see this fall-out, this residual, this pile of coal, and a survival
technique for your mental peace, perhaps, your yearning for surcease and
understanding, resorts to all manner of denial -- disbelief, cynicism,
sarcasm, grandiosity, do-gooder-ism, all kinds of things.  Mercy is what is
necessary.

You cannot give too much mercy, like you cannot love an infant too much.  In
time, perhaps, an infant who is not loved correctly will become spoiled, but
love bestowed freely and completely, healthily, wholly and naturally, cannot
possibly spoil a child.  Wholesome, healthy love is always appropriate.  Just
like wholesome, healthy mercy is always good.  

Your planet needs a great deal of mercy.  Yor planet is filled with people who
are like crippled children, and, in potential, they are able to run and jump
as high as you, but before you begin to feel superior, or question their
survivability in the spiritual sense, or even in the social sense, look at
yourselves and see your own deformity.  I don't suggest you do this to beat
yourself up, but to put it in perspective that you, also, are deserving of
mercy.  Whether you come from a planet like Urantia or not, all children are
deserving of mercy.

Mercy is like the rain.  It cleanses.  It's vital.  It's necessary.  It's
wholesome.  It's healing.  You thrive on it.  Have mercy on the ignorant, on
the degenerate, on the poor, on the maimed, on the perverse, on the
sentimental, on the simple-minded.  Have mercy.

Now.  There are others who have a different agenda, who have another purpose,
who have a sculptured agenda/destiny that involves a cause, a matter, an
issue, and for them mercy may not be appro-priate.  For them, mercy may be in
the way.  For them, they get their orders from On High in a different way.  I
trust that Our Eternal Parents are in charge.  I know there are other orders
of beings.  I don't have to understand all orders of beings.  I only have to
understand my relationship with my Parent in order for me to know that I'm
doing what I need to do, and that's all any of us ought to be worried about.  

Who do we answer to?  How are we the best we can be?  What is our relationship
with our Indwelling Spirit?  What is God telling us?  God does not tell you to
not be merciful.  It may be irrelevant under circumstances, but in my
circumstance as a teacher, and as a stimulator of your spiritual growth and
the nurturance of your soul, it is my business to understand and plant seeds
harvesting mercy.

ANGUS:	Tomas, I think of mercy, as the way you were describing it, it reminded
me of going to school and the teaching in itself is mercy in action.

TOMAS:	Well, thank you, son.  

ANGUS:	Because of the philosophy of teachers.  The reason we need mercy is
because we're still ignorant enough not to do it best and, understanding that,
the teacher has enough mercy to just keep leading us on and on.

TOMAS:	And I have sufficient mercy to yearn to enable you to reach your
greater potential.  Even when ignorance is a relative thing, when you learn to
find joy in spiritual insight, and when you learn to become an effective
fisher of men, these things become so thrilling that the mercy I would have
for you, changes from one of ignorance to one of appreciation, and you can
begin to appre-ciate also and have mercy on your teacher, for you know what is
involved as you mature and as you learn.  In time, we become co-teachers and
we are blessed with an even greater degree of and appreciation for the many
facets of mercy.

ANGUS:	You mentioned that you know there are other orders of beings -- and I'm
not going to ask you to be definite here, but I do have a question.  It's part
of the revelation.  It's my understanding that Caligastia has been disposed
of, or the issue has been adjudicated, but there's still this residue and if
-- well, a possibility that some of his cohorts may still be active.  Do you
have any knowledge on that?

TOMAS:	I have a great deal of knowledge on that, inasmuch as it has been a
primary concern in the Universe of Nebadon.  I am apprised of the adjudication
and of the dissolution of the personalities of those involved in the rebellion
who would not recant their principle upon which your world and several others
were isolated and retarded.  In truth there were many who did accept mercy and
are being rehabilitated, but the power structure that devastated this corner
of Satania has fallen and is no more.

The power structure itself is gone, and so -- you hear me now -- there is no
power to contend with.  The only thing we are contending with is cause and
effect and a lot of bad habits.

ANGUS:	Residual of the rebellion.

TOMAS:	Yes, and I assure you they are far-reaching, very deep-seated, but you
are not alone.  You are not alone in the reclamation.  You have heard this
many times.  You are beginning to see the effects of the re-encircuitment.
You are definitely aware of the -- oh, shall we call it 'signs of the times'
-- wherein the values of your world are changing.  Some people think it's
because of the millennia; some people think its because of The Urantia Book's
arrival; all of these are factors.  It is where you are today.  You are
conscious of where you are today and it is a very exciting time to live today
on Urantia in your corner of the universe, but there are no power structures.
They have ceased to be.

ANGUS:	So in effect, they only live on in the minds of mortals.

TOMAS:	Actually, to be truthful, they don't even, because in the technical
sense, your planet is vaguely aware of a Devil, a Satan, but they had no
knowledge of Caligastia and Dalagastia or that early civilization.  They have
only perverted records discussing the war in heaven and the prince's staff,
and so a vague idea exists but it is so shadowy as to be a mere haunted sense
of having woke up from a bad dream, a bad dream that they have had for so many
nights in a row they have come to believe it to be true.  

But it is not ingrained in them as a reality, for it lacks reality, you see.
It lacks Father.  Father is light.  Father is love and truth, beauty and
goodness.  And so as the day emerges, as the Son rises, we will see the
shadowy, black world of the dream, the bad dream, fade into memory.  That is
all we're doing now, is letting the sun shine on the dark shadows of a bad
dream.

ANGUS:	Thank you.

TOMAS:	Perhaps I have blundered upon my parable in spite of myself.  If you
could but look around and see these personalities as little ones who have had
a bad dream, who have woken up and there is no one there to comfort them.
They are afraid.  Their hair is sticking out.  Their pajamas are crooked.  And
they have been sobbing, and so they eyes are red; perhaps their face is
contorted.  These odd looking creatures are your mission.  Have mercy.  Are
there any other questions?

CLAIREESA:	Yes, dear Tomas, I'm wondering if being non-judgmental is what's
entailed in being merciful.  Is it just non-judgment and love equals mercy?

TOMAS:	Mercy is a manifestation of love.  It's a divine manifestation of love.
We can talk about love.  In your human sense, you know parental love (mother
love, father love); you know spousal love (loyalty, devotion); you know
romantic love (Valentine's Day); you know love of job, church, neighborhood,
car, pizza, football -- these are elements of the human understanding of love.
Yea.  Rah.  Whoopie.

And mercy is a divine manifestation of love.  Mercy really is not easy.  You
have to have a great deal of connection to The Father to manifest appropriate
mercy.  If you want to try to be merciful and you're not feeling loving, it's
really quite laborious.  You can't really have mercy without love.  And so
perhaps you could say that mercy was God's kiss, that shows his love.

Even, to take this analogy farther, even if the Father were to take his child
on his lap and discuss with him a behavior modification situation, which some
fathers might regard as judgment, might even entail a degree of reprimand or
chastisement, not to say punish-ment, there is certainly a degree of judgment
required.  One must judge the merits of the misdeed or the counsel in the face
of all things considered, and this can still be done in love and in mercy.
Father can still plant a kiss on the brow of his son whom he has brought to
tears in understanding of his error, and the son will be glad of the Father's
kiss, even as he sits in tears feeling very small for having erred and
displeased the father whom he loves so much.

Judgment is a devastating weapon in the hands of immature beings.  It takes
eternities to develop good skills in judgment.  It is why we encourage you to
assess and not judge, for as I am inclined to say, judgment connotes
condemnation or correction inherent.  Assessment connotes perusal for
appropriate action.  

I believe, children, it is getting late in your time.  Are there any needs to
be addressed before we go?

RACHEL:	None here, I guess.

TOMAS:	Then I will indicate a need on my part, and that is a need to embrace
Claireesa, daughter, whom I have so much enjoyed in my realm of influence.
How wonderful you are, daughter, and how beauteous is your countenance among
your friends here.  We welcome you with open arms any time your agenda should
call you into this realm, and we give you our whole support as you return to
your base of operations and your field of influence.  Be sweet, and give
Abraham my best.

CLAIREESA:	That I will do.  Thank you so much, Tomas.  It's been so warm and
loving getting to know you a little bit better.  Transcripts sometimes leave
you a little cold as to the feeling of a teacher's personality and I treasure
this opportunity to have been here for this time.

TOMAS:	I treasure your opportunity to let them know I am not as gaunt and
ponderous as my reputation.

CLAIREESA:	Oh, you're adorable.
RACHEL:	We love you.
CLAIREESA:	You are so adorable.

TOMAS:	We love you, as well.  And now, again, we will have mercy and turn you
loose.

CLAIREESA:	Bless you.
TOMAS:	Faithful flock, farewell.
GROUP:	Farewell, Tomas.