[tmtranscripts] 03-31-01 Spokane Teacher Base

[ZooidODell at aol.com]

DATE: Saturday, March 31, 2001
LOCATION: Spokane, Washington
TEACHER: PAULO
TOPIC: Movements; Ego
T/R: Gerdean

PAULO: Good afternoon, sports fans.  I am Paulo here to play a game of skill 
or chance, ping-pong perhaps, wherein we may be amused and entertained and 
practice our craft, our skill and dexterity, and isn't this exactly what life 
is about in one way or another? Becoming adept in the art of living such that 
a life is an extended athletic event encased in a prayerful estate?

We had quite a few pieces of paper flying around with one question or another 
on it and I seem to have lost the folder.  My transmitter is ineffectual, as 
I have her brain locked up and I can't get her to help me find where I put 
the file, but I am sure these questions that are posed are ones that can wait 
their turn.  Oh, yes!  There was one about, "We can talk to Paulo about it 
when a group in its locomotion begins to move into an erroneous direction."  
Is that something you want me to undertake? Or was that for your own 
amusement?

THOROAH:  I think it's an interesting study, the context being a group of us 
trying to work together.  We're looking at the movement around the planet of 
everyone sort of coming together, and the analogy was that as the group comes 
together and gains this locomotion, that hopefully it's moving in the right 
direction, and Paulo would know something about that.  So we were at first 
concerned that something like that could happen, going the wrong direction, 
but that wasn't exactly what that was alluding to.

PAULO: You are thinking about the impact of sociology and bringing it into 
focus by looking at what you call "movements" for you yourselves are 
involved, on a heart level, in what you call the Teaching Mission which is a 
movement.  You also are mindful of the "Urantia movement" and while once that 
bespoke one thing, these many years after its inception on Urantia, it has 
split off many times such that it is now a conglomeration of various 
movements that stem from the original revelation, and in these off-shoots of 
philosophic thought and, yes, compromise for the greater assimilation by yet 
other movements and more philosophic groupings, so many appreciations of what 
has value have their day in the sun and contribute to the over-all flow of 
knowledge. In the course of time these movements are like the zooids that 
come together in like-mindedness, cluster together and form a body which has 
locomotion.  

And therein the question arises as to what would happen if one of these 
movements were to be found heading in an erroneous direction.  Well, this 
happens all the time!  This happens in every movement, depending upon who is 
assessing the direction.  If it is truly without redeeming value, it will be 
found to be worthless and dissolve, wafting off into nowhere-ville like a 
lost chord of music which has no direction, merely echoes off the wall of 
time and eternity.  But some will be fruitful and multiply and replenish the 
earth with great ideas and stimuli, even the kind of stimuli that will give 
rise to new movements.  These are always fraught with politics because of 
your propensity to make much of what you think about, who you associate with, 
and what for.  You can see how everything is connected if you stand back and 
take a look., Even though you may not be in the immediate influence of a 
movement, it is in the mix in some way such that it is an integral part of 
the tapestry of movements that allow the living organism of evolving life to 
take place.

Let me set aside any condemnation of any given movements, or any overt 
accolades, and gather instead a new strata of information, a new dimension to 
contribute to the discourse.  Therefore, we can expand our discourse in the 
next question which you have brought before me today.

THOROAH: Yes, Paulo.  I'm interested in something I read recently about the 
ego, which in my perception indicated that the ego is not an entity nor a 
spirit but it is more of a function that takes pictures or records the events 
of our consciousness and assists us in interpreting what goes on around us.  
The lesson, to me, was that our ego is basically the framework through which 
we view things, offering us the evidence upon which we base our decisions.  
It isn't so much that our ego wants to run our lives as much as it is the ego 
which most affects our lives, because if our ego sees things a certain way, 
be it right or wrong, we respond to its perceptions.  So it would seem that 
the more we hold the Father Fragment light up to the ego, the better the ego 
can see, and thus give us a better picture of life and sounder reasons upon 
which to base our decisions.  Those are some of the things that I read that I 
perceive, and I was wondering if you might want to add to this aspect of our 
lives, this ego thing, and enlighten us as to how better to perceive it and 
to manage it.

PAULO: I will be glad to discourse with you in regard to this topic that is 
close to you, and which indeed does give insight into the study of movements 
by a recognition and study of the influences of the egos involved.  

Let's have one of those cute things –  the E-G-O.  One movement I am familiar 
with likes to reference EGO as the state of mind and being that Edges God 
Out.  Edging God Out (EGO) is the origin of that arrogant and obnoxious 
interjection of artificial reality that gives birth to movements like 
Skinheads or Nazis, racist groups or sexist groups that do not consider the 
deity aspects of life but rather base their interpretations of right and 
wrong on the skeleton that is left after they have Edged God Out.  

And on the other hand, EGO gives rise to Exalting God's Order, Enjoying 
Godlike Organization, but the Father Fragment is a part of the identification 
of the new-found appreciation for ego as that essential spiritual skeleton 
enhanced by an ego which is able to function and find balance in its movement 
and thus egos are important in any given movement and its development.  There 
must be leadership in order for these movements to take place.  The Teaching 
Mission has enjoyed the autonomy of the cult which appoints authority in the 
realm of the Creator or the Prince or his teaching staff, thus these 
non-corporeal authority figures allow for the movement to enjoy a rather 
ego-less existence, but it is comprised of individuals who have varying 
degrees of effective egos which are finding themselves flowering under the 
tutelage of these invisible mentors such that manifest Enhanced Godlike (you 
don't have enough "o" words in your language) Odor! 

So yes, in many ways, that which you purport is true.  The ego is not a 
personality or a spirit but a composite framework of thought, perception, 
conditioning and the like which provides a hologram through which you may 
represent your essential godlike origin, even as it is in the process of 
Enlarging Glorified Objectives.  It's very easy to see the blowhard ego of 
old whose popularity was often profitable but also relatively short-lived, 
for unless egos are stoked like a coal furnace, they burn out and some egos 
require so much fuel to keep themselves flaming, they alienate all of their 
associates, and so the fire fizzles and sputters and goes out.  

All of you have a framework to operate from and with.  All of you thus have 
egos.  And by your fruits you shall be known as to how your ego stacks up in 
comparison to others. It's virtually impossible to get anything accomplished 
without an ego.  Even with God doing everything for you, it is still 
necessary for you to go through the footwork, the paces.  You have to get 
dressed and brush your teeth.  You have to step out of the house.  By and 
large nirvana does not come to your door like Avon calling and make itself at 
home in your heart without a commotion.  Your ego, your configuration, your 
structuring, your conditioning, your background, your beliefs, etc, etc, are 
disinclined to be disrupted to make way for new paradigms.  All of you want 
to give your stamp of approval on all the changes that come down the pike 
that are going to affect you, and this is very time consuming but it is also 
a very natural and healthy part of normal healthy egos.

Getting back now to Movements.  Movements come into being when several people 
think a similar thought (like-minded) and the energy of the group 
configuration gives rise to stimuli that might lend itself to movement, to a 
sense of advancement, to an accomplishment.  If this is a sport, an event, an 
organization, a religion, a fad, a technological advance, it impacts on all 
those it touches and if it has effective leadership will impact even more 
people and in the results, which are set out in the beginning, in the by-laws 
of the movement, in its statement of purpose, essential goal orientation is 
met, and this is satisfying to the creature.  

What kind of ego do you suppose Jesus had?  Imagine how it would have felt to 
be his companion in the days of his sojourn here.  Can you imagine hanging 
around the shop with him, talking about the things that young men talk about? 
 Can you imagine him being your elder brother, helping you to settle disputes 
that you're having with your siblings and helping him decide upon appropriate 
discipline for those who have allowed their egos to act inappropriately such 
that they have gotten out of bounds of gracious group behavior?  Can you 
imagine being a traveling companion of Jesus like Ganid?   

His identity was sufficiently strong as to give forth a powerful presence, 
even though he was a humble man.  He had self-respect.  He was able to think 
and plan, stimulate and resolve.  These are healthy qualities of a human 
being (son of god / son of man).  His life gave rise to Christianity which 
became and remains a major movement on Urantia and it has fragmented into 
hundreds of movements which comprise the Christ-based belief systems that 
your planet enjoys.  Even so, there are other major spiritual movements that 
have arisen as a result of a need and have been sufficiently sanctioned by 
the divine right of free will to be a comfort and courage to many devotees.  
The planet is aswarm with movements.  That which makes them right or wrong is 
in your mind.  And how is your mind constructed, as far as your ego?  Are you 
Edging God Out?  Or are you Exemplifying God's Order?  Expressing Godlike 
Objectives?  

There are also some people who just rub you the wrong way.  This does not 
mean that their ego is faulty or that yours is faulty.  It means that you are 
imperfect, and perhaps there are unconscious reasons for you to be attentive 
to those influences which you find distasteful or evoke concern, even 
suspicion.  Most movements are not formed as a fight against something but a 
statement for something.  Find therefore that which you can be for, and enjoy 
the company of those like minds that constitute your kindred spirit and 
supporters of that which you hold dear.

Yes there are egos that you would be happy to identify with, that are a 
pleasure to be around, that reflect fruits of the spirit, that indicate a 
well-balanced personality, that indicate the marriage between the human and 
the divine such that the individual presents a sense of warmth and 
intelligence, compassion, capability, humor and strength that would nurture 
you by its presence, one that would allow for other energies and values 
besides itself to prevail.  In short, giving God an opportunity to express 
itself in conjunction with the human right to express itself, and to 
incorporate the value of all present in this community of egos.

If you are having difficulty preparing your ego for effective presentation, 
get with your personal teacher whose great delight it is to help you work on 
those personality matters that have been short-changed, curtailed, retarded 
or aborted by the vicissitudes of life, that element of ego that has curled 
up in a self-defensive ball of wounds, frustrations, angers, self-pities, 
etc., that render it ineffectual.  If you will work with your spirit guide, 
it will help you reveal to yourself your personality such that you will be 
able to present it in accordance with your handle on ego.

It's a word that needs redefined, perhaps, and we've done that in our 
discourse today, but you will understand if we mention it again as time goes 
by.   I'm only going to encourage you to allow yourself to be developed, be 
all that you can be.  This is the enhancement of identity.  It's what will 
give you the vehicle in which to portray spirit value, God's will, higher 
purpose, political resolution, creative up-reach, and so forth.  Give 
yourself permission to allow yourself to be all that you can be, and give 
yourself - as Jesus would - liberty, spiritual liberty.  Set your captive ego 
free to cavort among the angels and realize the joys of sonship.

Well now we have our Eggs Gathered Onto a little pile and can leave them to 
be hatched by others.  I am Exiting, Going Out.  See you next week.

THOROAH:  Thank you, Paulo.