[tmtranscripts] 10-28-00 Spokane TeaM (1)

[ZooidODell at aol.com]

TEACHER: Paulo
TOPIC: Rebellion
T/R: Gerdean

PAULO:   Good afternoon, good friends.  This is Paulo.  I am glad you are 
here to companion me.  I have every confidence, however, that you will be 
mindful of my words for I am going to discuss elements of rebellion and what 
one of you would not be at least curious to know something about such a quirk 
of the psyche, the internal mechanism of the mind that might be considered 
trouble making, scandal-mongering, disruptive or romantically heroic, and 
indeed rebellion has been and can be all of the above.

I feel peculiar here, in some ways, for I have seen the lessons that have 
been presented by my fellow Teachers.  Ham recently spoke on "harmony".  Most 
of the lessons are designed to help you understand your divine nature, your 
kinship with divinity, the affirmative aspects of soul growth, and adapting 
to your ministry.  Harmony is such a lesson, in that, it gives you the sense 
that all is well.  In God's universe, all is well.  There is harmony, peace, 
productivity, industry, affection, contentment, all the affirmative and 
positive attitudes.

Let's look at harmony in terms of the autumn leaves that you are all familiar 
with.  Look out upon the autumn leaves and see the harmony of nature, even 
while you have evergreens next to the many, many colors of the deciduous 
leaves that will fall, leaving the stately pines to stand as sentinels 
throughout the winter, while the oak and maple, birch and elm, go through 
their seasonal adjustments, their dormancy.  

Do you think the elm would accuse the oak of rebellion? Or the oak would say 
the pine was rebelling because they were a different color? Because the 
leaves were not the same as pine needles? Or the leaves that turn gold are in 
opposition to those that turn red? No. They are harmonious.  They all do what 
they do best and they harmonize.  Look out across the hillside and the 
valleys and see how perfectly blended nature is, all of them doing what they 
do best and remaining true to their inherent purpose.  Remember the "unity in 
diversity" that is depicted as "harmony" as we proceed throughout our lessons 
on rebellion.

The toddler, as it begins to develop its own identity, will learn early on 
the word "no" and this is a form of rebellion.  Do you want to eat strained 
carrots?  " No!  (Btthhhh)"  This is a statement of purpose: "I am not here 
to eat strained carrots!"  And in learning to share, he will say, "Mine!" and 
refuse to acquiesce to learn the harmony inherent in a gracious social 
situation.  This is what Lucifer did.  He took a look at this young universe 
and said, "Mine!"  

When you have situations in your social life (and I'm speaking very 
personally here), and you rise up in your heart and soul and say, "No, I 
don't want strained carrots!" you are rebelling against what someone else has 
offered; you are declining input.  And this, in its elemental form, is 
rebellion.  Anytime you disagree, you are, in a sense, rebelling.  Rebellion 
is a natural part, then, of developing selfhood, individuality, creativity, 
and the inherent uniqueness that is yours.  If you don't hold fast to that 
which is you, you will not develop to your capacity.

The goal, though, is like the trees envisioned in the idyllic image of the 
harmony of autumn leaves.  The challenge is how to be yourself and blend 
naturally and inherently with that which is completely different that stands 
right next to you.  The problem is that everyone is afraid to be themselves.  
They want to be like everyone else; they want everyone else to be like them.  
In sameness, there is safety.  

Sociologically you discover that when you are growing up in your world your 
parents want you to date the same socio-economic, intellectual, racial 
composition as your own clan, and if religion is a factor, it is important 
that you share your beliefs.  These make for harmonious conditions, or at 
least they make for conditions that eliminate the need to bridge the gap 
between the differences, and it is considered that young people starting out 
need all the help they can get so if they are marrying into a situation that 
allows for inherent harmonies, they stand a better chance of surviving the 
rigors of marriage and home life.

The success of the institution then becomes somewhat dependent upon the 
harmonious attitudes of the two having a purpose: home life, family, the 
basis of civilization, and the sameness, the safety, the routines and rules 
of conduct that oversee the life style that affects the civilization, and 
anyone branching away from these fundamental elements is regarded as 
rebellious; and this is true, they are rebelling from the status quo.  

And look at Jesus.  He has been called a rebel.  And in the altruistic sense 
indeed he was, for he fought against the stultifying effects of religious 
tradition.  He objected to those attitudes that depicted the Universal Father 
as destructive or punitive, angry, jealous or distanced.  In fact, anyone who 
has a passionate feeling about a cause of any kind, and who supports his or 
her belief with fervor, while supportive on the one hand, is rebelling 
against the opposite stance on the other hand.  

And so rebellion is a natural part, a very natural part, of the evolutionary 
construct.  It is both positive and negative.  "And so what is the point 
then, Paulo," you say, "of wanting to discuss such a thing as stopping 
rebellion before it starts?"  There are things about rebellion that deserve 
greater understanding, but those of you who are tender-hearted and like not 
to look at confrontational situations or arbitrariness will not see the value 
of rebellion nor will you be able to uphold value in the face of immature 
rebellion.  

Am I too early?  Am I too early to discuss this with you?  Are you too 
immature to grasp the concept that rebellion against the Father's will is 
detrimental?  How can you see what is for or against the Father's will?  How 
can you, with your limited vision, perceive what His will is and what it 
isn't and how it can be reflected in the lives of your fellows?  Even Jesus, 
on the cross, acquiesced, and in saying, "Father, forgive them, they know not 
what they do," took away the onerous of their rebellion against the Father.  

And so the value of such a lesson such as Ham's on harmony is immediately 
apparent.  How can I learn stand next to my brother who is completely 
different, completely different, and blend in such that we create a brilliant 
and harmonious land-scape; artistry in our diversity?  We need to take a look 
at the farther view.  Always will I be impressing upon you to take the 
farther view, for it is in the short-term viewpoint that you become myopic.  

What are you rebelling against?  And what are you rebelling for?  Accept that 
you rebel, as a natural part of your deciding who you are and what your 
opinions are in this world, in this existence.  Do you say, "Oh, I never 
rebel against anything!" and regard that as a virtue?   Or do you disdain 
others who take exception to your opinion and regard them as innately 
rebellious, as if they had a chip on their shoulder, or had something to 
prove, and thus, do you have an attitude about those who have an attitude?  

When you find a group of people who all have an attitude, you have a 
political faction.  The opposite side of the coin presents another faction, 
those who are rebelling against your opinion.  And I will remind you that 
"might is not necessarily right, but it is what is."  If you want things to 
change, if you want more spiritual values to prevail, you yourself will need 
to rebel against passive acquiescence; you will have to stick your neck out.  
But again, what are you rebelling against?  What are you fighting for?  

Have you counted the cost?  Have you looked to your motives?  Are you 
motivated by anger?  By fear?  Or by love?  Love of what?  Fear of what?  If 
you are able to do what Jesus did, and even more, then you must begin to 
accept that what you see is what you know and stand by that and not pretend 
to be a birch when you are an oak, not try to hide among the pine when you 
are maple, not disdain the trees that don't bring fruit that you understand.  
Syrup is as much a fruit as an apple.  

I tell you there is not one of you that is not a rebel.  If you are alive, if 
you have an opinion, if you have a response to a feeling, you have the 
potential of being rebellious, and this is not necessarily bad.  But unless 
you acknowledge these truths about yourself and everyone else, you will not 
have the foundation upon which to accept the individual rights to have 
attitudes and to follow through with behaviors that reflect their attitudes.  

Look to yourself this week and make a note of how many times you rebel.  How 
many times does your gut wrench, or your heart flutter, or your mind scream?  
Even while you maintain your cultured demeanor. Know thyself.  Know all of 
you.  Not just that which you want to see, but that which IS.  When you have 
the honesty to appraise yourself, you will have a better understanding of how 
effective or ineffective your rebelliousness is.  And then, perhaps, we can 
discuss how insidious it can be, as well as how beneficial it can be.  

I will split hairs with you.  I will acknowledge your terms, your conditions, 
your definitions.  I will haggle and intellectualize.  I will not stand on a 
pedestal and assume I have all the answers, even though I am a teacher.  All 
of you are teachers.  All of you, by your attitudes, are teaching something.  
I want you to know yourself.  I want you to know what you are teaching.  I 
want you to be able to look at yourself as clearly as someone else looks at 
you, and see, by your behavior, how you think, how you present your thoughts 
in action, how it is possible to look right through a person and see them -- 
even when they say they are one thing and yet by their behavior they are 
indicating they are another.  This is the kind of insight Jesus had, my 
friends.  He was not naive.  He was not gullible.  When he turned his other 
cheek it was not because he was a wus!

We are developing a new social order based on our conscious recognition of 
sonship.  This is going to be an invigorated society.  It is based on 
reality, and that, in this realm, includes the material existence, the mental 
construct, and the spiritual ideal.  These are your raw materials that you 
use to create your integrated personality.  Let's find out about you, as you 
find out about yourself.  Are there any questions?