[tmtranscripts] 03-03-01 SPOKANE TEACHER BASE

[ZooidODell at aol.com]

DATE:  March 3, 2001
LOCATION:  Spokane, Washington
T/R's:  Gerdean and Ginny
TEACHERS &  TOPICS:
    PAULO: self respect of the human animal 
    NEBADONIA cheers and comforts

PAULO: I am Paulo.  I am coming in with my shield and literary sword de 
plume.  

The interim envisioning is that I steal into your thicket, this thicket that 
you create in your gathering this afternoon, the flock of birds that you are, 
in this grove of tall pine where we recently were the observers of a certain 
trembling of the very fissures of Urantia! – the ethers of which tremulated 
into the invisible spheres -- of course! -- visiting upon us a molecular rain 
of a most unusual order -- the tremor, your earthquake. 
    
And, as you say,...  happening on Ash Wednesday, and likening it to a similar 
Indian earthquake on what was a supreme holy day, has parable overtones -  if 
we were going to "read" the language of the land/the landscape, as it were - 
on which we sit in our thicket - at this time of year, when the thaw is upon 
us.  I equate this glen to the time in planetary history in which you are and 
we are in our epochal work today.

We are coming out from a deep freeze into the light, the thaw, the sunshine, 
having been encased in this dreadful rigidity and darkness. The planet 
emerges. The cosmic light that is lit in your eyes - your global awareness - 
is that of the groundhog. Not having seen its shadow, it will greet the new 
season like the bear emerging from his cave, his den, hungry, lumbering 
awkwardly, making big noises in 
search of food.    

It's a primitive time on Urantia, a young planet emerging from barely 
semi-civilized savagery to greet the morning sun.   From the protection of 
your thicket, looking at your neighbors emerging, wobbling from lack of 
exercise, like long-legged fawn or calves just birthed, we've been enjoying 
observing your world, watching it emerge indeed. Welcome!  We are joyous that 
we can all join together in our circle of friends here in this meeting room, 
all of us together, and all of us together is a resounding crowd indeed.

Well, I know you've all been at it, stimulating each other and observing the 
inner workings of other insights and other elements of our emerging identity 
as intergalactic species of one sort or another and so I am enchanted to be 
engaged with you in this way and all of us are eager to participate in your 
probings of greater consciousness, greater awareness, even a sublime 
self-respect.  Well.  Where shall we begin?  (long pause)

SIVAD: I suppose there's been too long of a silence.  It's time for me to 
step out further.  I would say, Paulo, first of all, thank you.  I appreciate 
the recognition of the value of our language, but even moreso, in recognition 
of that, I appreciate your assistance in the proper use of our metaphoric 
style, especially if we might perhaps injure our evolving intimacy with what 
... You know whereof I speak, and I just want to express my gratitude.  

And I would ask -- you who are likewise with us, functioning as cosmic 
diplomats, cultivating carefully and with great and tender affection, human 
relations, consolidating together and perhaps at moments putting them at risk 
to enhance our evolving divinity, stirring and stirring until they are one -- 
are you not with us in these moments of risk?  We know so many we cannot even 
measure the investment which is critically miscalculated as we commit 
ourselves, through the courage of our Father, to probe more deeply into His 
truth.

PAULO: Well, it's like this.  It's so intimate as to be almost unbearably 
personal, as if in a relationship with Father we are as one with the lover, 
and on this honeymoon of pleasures and delights of getting to know each 
other, of probing into new nooks and crannies, investigating dark corners 
where shadows are alluring and scintillating but not frightening, an on-going 
tryst of appreciation so great for the beloved that only in greater adoration 
a result.  

Indeed this is the discovery of the divine.  The resistance is what marks 
time.  So if you can appreciate that metaphor and apply it to your everyday 
earthly existence, in your intimate comings and goings with the Divine Friend 
inside yourself, you have this marvelous opportunity to know how wonderful 
you are as a result of being His, of being in a compatibility so refined as 
to offer no virtual difference between that which is One and that which is 
"the other".  

This could be regarded as self respect.  But the real key with that is in the 
humility factor.  It's very possible for an elegant and charismatic presence 
- human and divine, embodied in one personality, perhaps similar to Christ 
Michael, perhaps similar to yourself on a good day, perhaps similar to those 
you would wish to live up to and wish to emulate in many ways, those you 
admire, those whose mannerisms you have learned wisely to respect - their 
style may be such that you aren't able to see any indication of any humility. 
 

Indeed, in particular, insofar as your vantage point is concerned, you may 
feel quite meek and humbled by being in their presence.  This may be the 
President of the United States, it may be your girlfriend's father, it may be 
the executioner, it may be any number of personalities who have reason to 
impress you with their power or authority or quality that is something you 
honor.  It's not good for you to honor them too much.  It's not good for you 
to beg them to reveal to you their humility, because this feeds a sense of 
(their) skill that is something quite apart from genuine reality.  Genuine 
reality cannot be counterfeit because it is identifiable, it is something 
which your own soul responds to, delights in, is not threatened by.  

It's set out in Corinthians all the things that Love Is and that love is not. 
 Go look at that scripture with the word Self-Respect and give it a study.  
It's a good study, self-respect.  It's the culmination of the course in 
character of the fruits of the spirit that Tomas taught.  It is the enjoyment 
of self-mastery.  It is the dignity that ennobles the children of God, that 
lifts them in their civility, even in being themselves, to be something above 
and beyond the bear or the groundhog.  

Many of your neighbors are so similar to the two-legged creatures and 
four-legged creatures of the woods that do have a sense of fear.  Those of us 
who care to amuse ourselves in such a fashion.  And I myself am an 
acquaintance of the midwayers and they frequently take me to behold certain 
hijinks of the animal kingdom and refresh my imagination by equating certain 
animalistic behaviors to certain human friends of theirs, and we gain glee 
and affection and insight from this exercise.  

Perhaps you would say that we are amused at your expense but it doesn't cost 
you anything!  Wouldn't you do the same if you were in a day care center, 
observing your toddler and his playmates in their antics?  Indeed, you would 
observe how they stick their finger into places and put things in their 
mouths.  I divert but it's jut all a part of this merry thicket. What else?

THOROAH:    Well, that blacked out my momentary feelings of unwarranted 
self-respect.  Thank you.

PAULO: There's no reason you can't have monkey-like antics in your behaviors 
indicating your agility and impishness in enjoying life, indeed jumping from 
one branch to another as you do, and also having an ability to exchange 
information, even share abstract concepts and mutual worship.  This superb 
self-respect is how you feel about yourself in your experience.  

A groundhog may not have a sense of self-respect such as you understand 
self-respect but you surely do know when a dog friend of yours is having a 
good day.  His tongue hangs out, his entire behind is shaking, his ears are 
perked up, he's grinning from ear to ear; he feels like the world is his dog 
bowl. You can surely appreciate the self-respect element that goes with such 
a feeling.  Part of who you are is, for now at least, the human part, the 
material part, and that is not to be sneezed at.

GINNY:  Well, there are many qualities about animals that are to be admired.  
For instance, before earthquakes, some animals get really weird, so their 
sensitivity to impending disaster is kind of admirable.  So I think maybe we 
have a tendency to reject our animal nature - period! - and don't make any 
efforts to refine some of the more sensitive parts of that.

PAULO: It's still embarrassing for you to acknowledge that you're animal, you 
see.  It's just not ... kosher, not tidy, not complimentary.  I think that 
trend is changing.

THOROAH:  I just heard a thought the other day that I really liked.  
Something to think about as we go about our day.  "I am a human becoming.  
Help me to become," and from your analogy, that really rings true.

PAULO:  It does in particular when you elevate your understanding of what a 
human is to incorporate such things as dignity, charm, graciousness, 
god-consciousness, elegance, refinement and so forth.

(to be continued)