[tmtranscripts] "Under the Influence" (06-23-97.BUT)

[Gerdean]

DATE: June 23, 1997
LOCATION: Butler, PA, USA
T/R's: Gerdean and Hunnah

Stillness and Sharing 

TEACHER SESSION
The Reality of Living Love

A MELCHIZEDEK RECEIVER: I am a Melchizedek Receiver. I will not trouble you at this time with a name, but my designation should speak for itself. It has been my pleasure to be working in this area, not only with your group here but with several other groups and interested parties. There are groups forming that you are not aware of. There is tremendous interest in the Teaching Mission, even in remote individuals. I have been, you would say, assigned to this vicinity. I am stopping in today to acknowledge your being, your being as a group of devoted individuals in service to our Master [Son] Father Michael and Father Melchizedek.

You are becoming more cognizant of the ministry inherent in your desire to serve in and through this Mission of Michael's to bring peace, love, truth, beauty, goodness, light and life to Urantia, as are we. Your growth struggles are recorded and your victories are noted in the archives. I am overseer of several group teachers here including one Tomas and one Merium, both of whom are active and viable teachers of truth. My realm encompasses other groups but I am here this evening to commend you for your integrity and your developing growing comprehension of the truth of this Mission, indeed, the reality of living love. 

Tomas has consulted with me on behalf of his bases of operation and I offered to attend a session, not to engage in question and answer but to graduate you, in some respects, to acknowledge to you your growths. As you grow you are called upon, and as you have reflected and become willing, as you have been tested and found not wanting, you will be called upon to contribute in service to this noble effort of introducing Father's kingdom, His love, to those you meet.

I will offer this platform now to Tomas who has been an able teacher, a very creative and enterprising teacher, affectionate and patient. I commend him in his efforts with you, for although some of you concern yourselves over the results of his and your efforts, it is apparent to those of us on this side that your light of truth is glowing and becoming brighter.

We are also pleased to have Merium among you and as companion to Tomas. Her compassion knows no bounds, and we are very hopeful and encouraged by the team, and by your consecrated efforts to allow them to lift up the spiritual consciousness of those who have ears to hear.

Do not forget me. It will come to pass, as time goes by and as you become ready, [that] we will work more closely together. Perhaps we may even develop into a university. There will certainly be one established in this vicinity; it remains yet to be determined where and when. Continue with your efforts, sons and daughters. Your efforts are advancing your world. Thank you. Farewell.

MERIUM: In this pause, and if you don't mind, I would like to step upon this lily pad that has been waving -- and perhaps I am pushing in front of the group -- but I would like to greet you this evening with a few words of encouragement. And I might say that it always is distraction outside, in your own experience, and there's plenty to talk about and to see. I will just briefly ask you all to attend to your own little niche and then you will see collectively the unity of that experience and the powerful changes that it can bring.

Please remain steadfast and be not distracted by the sounds that you hear. Tend to this quietness that it may direct you forward to your daily fare and know that it is a portion that is meant for you and that you do not have to be burdened by solving the problems of those around you. Celebrate the season; enjoy this lovely summer weather. Thank you.

TOMAS: How wonderful to be in your embrace, all of you. It is invigorating to be with you this evening. We have expanded our horizons socially in the realms of the mortal life and the spiritual life, and with this expansion there is a greater embrace, a greater expansion of possibility. This possibility and potential on one hand is exciting and invigorating, but on the other hand, it can be frightening, it can be overwhelming.

"Under the Influence"

I would like to discuss, this evening, the aspect of influence, that you yourselves have been influenced and that you also influence. 

As you are influenced by the First Source and Center through your association with your Parent, you are in the best of associations, and as you extend yourself into your arena, into your family of loved ones, you can extend the Father's influence into your arena, influencing them by your love and your elevated spirits, your good cheer, your lightheartedness. This is as it should be.

However, influence is not always generated from Paradise. Indeed, influence comes from all manner of sources. All influences are not particularly beneficial. How many parents have discouraged their sons and daughters from certain associates for fear of their influence? influencing them to fall away from the path of their choosing, the wisdom of their guidance and direction?

Influence is very subtle and humans are very adventurous. They are constantly on the look-out for diversion and stimulation. Various personalities are excited by various influences, distractions, even ideals and romantic notions, and you look for these. You look for influences, for many times you are rewarded, but the realm of influence can also be undermining. You have sufficiently united as a community that you have within you, as a community, the strength to withstand lesser influences.

I will draw an analogy from Gerdean's history, with your permission and hers. [Long pause] She will not give it and I honor that. I will find another way to convey what I would like to convey. The point is that when you want to be liked, when you want to be able to be part of the community, when you want to belong, feel a part of, feel embraced, when you do not want to feel lonely or alone, you will often accept a lesser influence. There is much more to be said here. I will allow Merium to contribute.

MERIUM: Thank you. I think I can bring something forth on this business of feeling unfulfilled. You can become saturated with the human call for satisfaction, entertainment and need to be accountable and having contributed; for whatever reason, the pattern is evident. We are dealing with a different level of understanding here, and as we speak to you this evening, I am speaking to you in a manner that I feel that you understand, and it is understood that when these human false appetites and signals of habit of the flesh come forth, wailing and wrangling after you, it is definitely time to feed the true baby. 

The baby needs a bottle. And the baby I'm referring to here is this part of you that needs to be acknowledged, because when you are saturated with the sound of sensual clamoring and it makes you uncomfortable and you even hear your own words joining into the chorus, you will become more adept at pulling away and dealing with the symptoms, as such, by turning in to that mature part of yourself that knows where it's true meat is drawn upon and where true provision, entertainment and fulfillment come from.

It is time to really dig in and make sure that you are taking the cue in knowing when you are sounding like an echo of this cacophony of clatter that goes on in your world. And before you know it, you do drop down to the lesser way and repeat your old patterns. This is not an easy route. This is the call of the mature, and I don't want to tiptoe around about it, but when you hear your old sound (and you are going to become very, very good at recognizing it), you will know that it's time to immediately halt. Feel the tether of light upon you, and allow that which is true to you, that which is the digestible Mother's Milk, so to speak, come to you, fulfill you, and bring you in line, and as soon as you allow this to happen it will strengthen you immediately, you will feel more comfortable and you will no longer express the desire to return to the old sound.

These opportunities will be many, will come at you every moment of the day. When someone comes up to you and speaks the old dialog, you will say, "Ah, I recognize that sound, but she doesn't live here anymore. There is a new being that is in residence." Do not expect your friends to recognize the change.

Hannah, who has been reluctant to read the little book God Calling, caught one line recently and it said "they do not understand your language," so why would you worry yourself trying to pour this new language upon someone who is not interested in participating in it? You will become more and more comfortable with not trying to convince anyone that you have found the chosen way. You will not feel inclined as before to prove to them that you have improved or that you understand or you are more enlightened.

You have entered a new realm and a new level of living and I want you to not, please, accept these words as criticism, but I am stating them because you will, after this evening, become stronger in your ability to draw the line and not continue a conversation that you normally would have. It will be a graceful moment and you will be able to ease back into your new poise and this will take place without offending anyone. Tomas?

TOMAS: Thank you, Merium. I appreciate how you set forth that these things can be done with such ease, for truly they can and will be done with great ease, but there are moments of resistance. There are temptations, so to speak. The visitor you had earlier, the mortal visitor, indicated that on her diet, she feared being influenced by those who would lure her into fattening up and she would be undermining her high purpose by allowing the influence of those who feel and express that they know what is good for her.

The resistance to such well-meaning but subtle and undermining influence is an effort, if only to acknowledge that the undermining influence is at hand. But like all good habits that are time-consuming at first, when they have become a part of your pattern for perfection, you will indeed wear it well and easily, in effortless effort, and so I call to your attention this evening the word "influence" and how in your desire to belong and even in your desire to serve, you will sometimes allow lesser influences to come into you and to steal away your purpose, for your purpose need be to sense and hunger for the influence of the First Source and Center.

There are at least two options here, as I see it. We can take a brief recess to stretch and focus on the lessons or on the appearance of our guest, our celestial guest; we can have question and answer; or Merium can suggest another alternative.

Q&A: on the challenge of lesser behavior

Hunnah: This is Hunnah. 

TOMAS: Good evening, Hunnah.

Hunnah: I have been weighing the conversation from the last few months and this analysis of living in the world, and I have found it very heavy going. One moment we are lifted in truth, we are filled, and the next moment we are expected to chew over a worldly challenge of lesser behavior, and I find this quite bewildering. 

I was listening to a tape recently and it was talking about the different levels of material, mental and spiritual, and I have been, I felt, bonded with the development of spirit. But so much of our energy and time has been involved in mental explanation and mental definitions and endless lamenting of the physical woes of the established personality that we are arising from. And I would like to know if I have said enough that will give you an opportunity to put your finger on what I'm reaching for.

I have felt that dealing with all these sundry symptoms and preferences or likes and dislikes have been defeating the purpose. I guess that's what I wanted to say. I have felt that way. If the situation [a construction project] here at my home is too distracting for you, this can be discussed at another time. We have had some time to ourselves and we perhaps should have taken advantage of it sooner. Thank you.

TOMAS: Thank you, Hunnah, for voicing your concerns. When we have lessons that could be construed as ponderous or mental, it is not for you to carry this atmosphere with you night and day, but it is an opportunity to bring your focus to a point to give it some consideration in hopes of giving you some understanding of who you are and how you are; who others are and why they are; and why you respond or react, and they, too. This is not meant to be a ponderous lesson that you carry daily, hourly, moment by moment, for the spirit is light and the path is joyous.

However, the realm of the mind is that area wherein comprehension can be known. You can know in the spirit, yes, and act in the spirit, yes, but not all of your perceptions are accurate because of your conditioning. It is not possible for you to go completely beyond your mortal conditioning, nor is it my desire to spend an eternity discussing your conditioning, but there are certain facets of understanding I am calling to your attention for your realization that are in fact bringing you intellectual peace and enlightenment.

The ascension entails your decision-making process, and decisions are a mental function. I have been attempting to introduce you to your mental realms in conjunction with your spiritual reality, and the behaviors that lie in those realms . how your behaviors affect those around you. There are some, Hunnah, who are far more carefree and imbued with a spiritual way of life. There are also, however, some who are wonderfully pensive and thoughtful. There are many, many different personalities, which personalities approach life differently.

I know, Hunnah, that you like it to be light and carefree and you loathe the studious and ponderous aspect, but in pondering that moment when, for example, you stand looking at an influence that is coming at you, and you recall this lesson on influence and realize that what is happening is that you are being influenced, and so now, how will you handle the influence that's coming toward you? Will you succumb to that influence? Will you rise above that influence? Will you embrace that influence? Will you educate that influence? Will you ignore that influence?

That is the point of these lessons. It is not for you to study seriously the influences upon your life or as you go down the street, but these things that have reality will joggle your mind when you least expect it and it will come to your awareness that, "Aha! This is what he was talking about! This is an influence that is leading me downhill, and if I resist it, I can be strong and return my focus and, indeed, the focus of the entire community, back to that which is more elevated" and more, indeed, to your spiritual liking. Do you see?

Hunnah: Urn-hum. Well, I felt like - I guess I had empathy with a friend who said that she had a week away from the old way, enjoyed the new way and the lack of pressure, and now she is back in the turbulent waters of her turbulent routine, and I can appreciate that because today I was trying to impose some sensible choices for myself and I hung in there until around 4:00 and it's just - it wasn't doing battle, particularly, but it was really . the intention of, you know, "stifle your desires"? That type of thing? And I found it very, trying. Not very trying, but I was aware of it, and so now I have empathy with people who are trying to admit that they are trying to discipline themselves. But it can be quite draining, especially if they do not have an awareness of this greatness that they harbor.

TOMAS: Indeed, our entire purpose is to reveal to them that they reveal to themselves that the Father may reveal within them their own great font of life. It is tiresome, my dear, I agree. It is the work of the field, for how much better it is when we sing songs of joy and praise and love and harmony. But the influence of the rebellion has permeated your world deeply. It is filled with fear, with anxiety, with greed, with all manner of unfortunate attitudes, beliefs and attributes. It is the role of Correcting Time to bring it back into alignment with The Father.

Those of us who understand the joy of the Father can well look at those who do not know Him as being, in your words, "a pain in the neck," but that is a judgment that is not ours to make. If we have sought to serve, that is part of the service. If we indeed love, and realize how much we are loved, then the natural, spontaneous result of that true divine love is that we love others. And that involves going down deep into the trenches, even into realms and arenas where people do not even like themselves, in order that we may show them how it is that they are loved by the infinite and personal God of us all.

Hunnah: Thank you. I was also thinking, as much as I don't like to be challenged and to be led back into an old way, that I also pull others down. I have led them further into their faulty ways, but have mis-identified it. And in this conversation this evening this has been drawn to my attention, and I appreciate that. It's a surprise contribution for me and it will give me something to think about. Thank you.

TOMAS: Thank you, Hunnah, for acknowledging that these sessions are growth-promoting, thought-provoking, and soul-stimulating. Indeed, there are lessons -- perhaps I have already given some --that help you deal, then, with the fact that you also influence others and oft times influence them, as you say, by pulling them down. This is part of the human condition.

It is part of why we are urging you to learn how to communicate with each other, how to trust each other, how to listen to each other, for it is possible for you to have a scheduled opportunity to allow your utterances to be expressed in such a way as you may express them without influencing others detrimentally. It is a matter of learning how to define your communications, and before you lament the disciplined and scholarly and structured approach that would seem to have, I call to your attention, rather, the pattern of perfection which provides all of your happiness and all of your needs. Your brothers and sisters are eager and willing to be of service to you if they know how, as are you.

There are ways and we can learn ways if you have patience. It does help me when you acknowledge that you are growing and learning in spite of your own resistance. This is a human condition, one with which we are all intimately familiar.

Hunnah: Just briefly, I am reminded of a line of scripture, "choose this day whom you shall serve, man or God", and perhaps this refresher will strengthen that ability to make a better choice.

TOMAS: Indeed. We are not overlooking here, I realize, that God is also in man.
Hunnah: I meant that in knowing who you are dealing with.
TOMAS: Yes. I understood that. I appreciate it.
Hunnah: Honoring them.
TOMAS: Yes.

Anne: You mentioned something about workers in the field? Working in the field?
TOMAS: Yes.
Anne: Are these groups to prepare us to work in the field?

TOMAS: Yes. You have worked alone in the field without even knowing you were in a field or what were you to do there. As you become more aware of your true self and your spiritual destiny, as you begin to learn to trust and have faith in the Father and in those of your siblings who also seek to become close to the Father and serve Him, you have gained family, you have gained spirit community. And so then, as you go out into your arena, you have the understanding that others are encountering the same things you are encountering, and the same inability to know what to do about the situation, and the same joys of success. And so as you return, as a community of believers and kingdom builders, you can discuss among yourselves your work in the field, your concerns for those you encounter, either specifically or in general; you can discuss with each other your reactions, much as we have been doing. This is to encourage you in your outreach efforts and in your in-reach efforts to find the Father and to be of service in the field. Is that answering?

Anne: Yes, it is. Thank you. I did have another question. 
TOMAS: Yes.

Anne: Well, you sort of answered it. Is was ... how would we know what field we were to be working in?

TOMAS: I must smile at your literal-mindedness. The field is that arena out there that is filled with individuals who have yet to know their personal relationship with our Father. It can be in any temporal field, any economic field, it can be in the field of law or the field of packing, or in the field of education, or in the field of picking cotton. Any field is the field of the Lord. Are you understanding?

Anne: Yes, I am. Thank you.

TOMAS: Leah.
Leah: Yes.

TOMAS: Am I aware of Jay-Orzh?
Leah: I believe so. I feel this pinkness.

TOMAS: I wonder if Jay-Orzh would like to speak through you and say hello to us this evening. Would you be willing to allow her to make that attempt? 

Leah: Yes.

TOMAS: We will focus our attention on her ability to access your language center and stimulate you to speak for her. Jay-Orzh, come forth. Say hello.

JAY-ORZH: This is Jay-Orzh. I am delighted to have this opportunity to extend my greetings to this group this evening.

Hunnah: Welcome. 

JAY-ORZH: Thank you.

TOMAS: How wonderful for you to make a visit, Jay-Orzh. Your voice is music to our ears in the environment, both to the ears of the human and the divine.

JAY-ORZH: The human is reluctant.

TOMAS: Then you must encourage her to yield to your influence, to respond to the influence of the circuitry.

There is no pressure here, Leah. You are not being tested. We are simply glad to hear our fellow and glad for your willingness to allow her her gracious presence.

Hunnah: Speak anyway. Tell us how pleased you are to be here.

JAY-ORZH: I am, indeed, pleased to be here.

Hunnah: Is there something you would like to tell Leah?

JAY-ORZH: Leah, you do not have to figure it out. Just allow it. 

Hunnah: Do you have a message for us? Or are you surprised to be here?

JAY-ORZH: Given the resistance, I am fully surprised. Leah wants this. Like all things new, she is reluctant to venture forth.

TOMAS: It will soon be like the highway and she will be as at home on-line with the teachers as she is at home on the highway, as confident of being guided and protected here as there.

JAY-ORZH: Perhaps these other words she desires to hear in order to venture forth. I am pleased to have been with all of you and I look forward to speaking to you again.

TOMAS: Thank you, Jay-Orzj, and thank you, Leah, for your courage and your faith.

Hunnah: Jay-Orzh smiles like Merium. Her cheeks went way up in the air.

TOMAS: It feels good to be working with spirit. It brings your best morontia self forward and therein is the happiness, the wondrous joy.

My friends, I am going to bow out. I am not going to stay any more. Is Merium still here?

Hunnah: Yes, Merium is still here.

TOMAS: Merium, I would like for you to, as they say in surgery, "close for me." (Group giggle)

MERIUM: Well, I'm going to possibly put something in each of your hands. You will have a souvenir to take home that will act as a talisman for you as you go out into your daily life. Be aware of your hands this week. Look at them. Watch their obedience. Cream them. File your nails. Kiss them. Thank them. They reach into the periphery of man's experience and they are here to serve you and others.

You have the Father's hands and it is your opportunity to do and bring good will with them. You are free to caress yourself, to pat yourself on the back with these hands, to peel an orange. Today Hunnah had an opportunity to speak of gratitude and to remind someone that in spite of illness, gratitude was to be called back into the fold and put back into action. It primes the pump and it pulls you away from the distractions that are not worthy of your time and attention.

So I want you to let your hands show you how busy and how expressive they can be. When they come together, not in a stiff manner of intent, tense like prayer, but when they rest together, remember that they are partners, and that they are capable of following directions. They are a fine example of how your whole body shall be someday. They will express the will of the Father and as you feel fit, you may add to this observation by sending it into your arms, your shoulders. You can make this a very creative experience for yourself and you can do it in private, but this week it will be the hands, and we will dedicate this week to the hands that serve, hands that applaud.

Look at the hands of others. Today Hunnah was looking at the hands of a two-year-old. How very perfect they are! She sees the hands that are gnarled and that do not move well any more, but they work, and she will encourage her patients to carry this exercise that would be a good one to share with friends. It would make a wonderful conversation. There are many ways to take a conversation that is not going well and uplift it. And the person that you're talking to may be surprised or may just glide right into this new direction that you are pulling them to.

Enjoy your adventure this week. Thank you for coming. Thank you for allowing this network of celebration to take place. We cannot tell you enough how important it truly is. Good-night.

Group: Good night.









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