[tmtranscripts] Michael 12.20.04 - II

[JERRY LANE]

Dear Folks,    Here is the rest of Michael's message and answers from last 
Monday.  I hope you all had a wonder-filled Christmas and are looking 
forward to a bright new 2005.  Love, jerry - Nytrayn at msn.com.

Michael 12.20.04

Marin TM Group

Dear Michael and Mother Spirit,    Merry Christmas!  And for You especially, 
Michael, Happy Birthday!  Though it seems, Michael, that Your real birthday 
was sometime in August of the year, perhaps it is very appropriate that a 
large part of the world - people of all religions and beliefs - celebrate 
Your birth and Your coming to us at this time of year, which is the end of 
one year and the beginning of another.  For this, it seems, is one of your 
greatest gifts to us, this message that after we go through a kind of 
personal winter of death and hibernation, there comes then a glorious spring 
of rebirth.  We look forward to meeting You face to face some day in that 
glorious spring.  Amen.

Michael:  Good evening, My children, this is Michael.  I thank you for your 
heartfelt welcome and your celebration.  What a joy it is for Me to feel the 
peoples of Urantia using this occasion to renew their relationships with 
each other.  This is a wonderful occasion indeed when folks allow themselves 
to suspend their disbelief in things of a spiritual nature, let their hair 
down, so to speak, and greet each other as the true brothers and sisters of 
God’s family that they really are.

This allows a certain profound truth of human being to be perceived and 
joyfully exchanged.  It warms the heart and thrills the soul and whispers 
ever so lovelingly, “This is what is possible. This is real” - this simple 
and profound joy of just being together.  Taking time to simply enjoy each 
others’ company is really at the heart of the season.

Don’t worry or concern yourselves, My children, with all of the so-called 
material trappings.  They can fade away and, in fact, between real friends, 
and parents and children, they really do fade away for much of this season.  
They’re merely gaudy, but often heart-felt tokens of affection - hollow 
enough without the affection, and yet rich beyond expression with affection. 
  So see if you can glimpse through all the hustle and bustle of shopping, 
all the feelings, sometimes, of duty that people take on as a requirement, 
see through all of this the struggle of one heart trying to communicate its 
love for another.  For even that search for the perfect gift is mainly to 
see the delight of surprise in another’s eyes on Christmas morning.

There is some well-meaning worry that Christ will be lost in Christmas.  But 
I assure you I am beating in every heart.  I am there to be felt and 
experienced.  This is truly a holiday, a holy day, if sometimes only a very 
slight vacation from the economic necessities of life.  But even the hard 
facts of food and shelter and warmth, when these are shared with a joyful 
thanksgiving for life itself, can be indeed a holy occasion.  So don’t worry 
or fret about how your neighbor may be celebrating this time.  Feel your own 
heart beating with My love and share My joy freely.  Don’t assume to know 
what is in another’s heart, but give generously of your own, even, or I 
might say - especially - in your perceptions.

This complete acceptance, one of another, is the true spirit of My birthday. 
  For it was to deliver this message to all My realms that I was born on 
Urantia.  It was to announce the loving fatherhood of God and the joyful 
brotherhood and sisterhood of all races on all My worlds that I so dearly 
loved and enjoyed the life I spent with you.  So much joy, so much happiness 
did I know.  For, after a while, once I too was able to grow and find a 
deeper communion with our Father, then I could see Him in everyone, even my 
most bitter enemies.  So what you celebrate and are capable of enjoying so 
deeply at this holiday season, remember, My children, I was able to perceive 
constantly.

Quite regularly - just as I have invited you to do - I found it helpful to 
commune with our Father.  This was very much a part of, and not in any way 
separate from, My perception of all my brothers and sisters in the flesh as 
My children.  So take heart in this season.  Let My Spirit of Truth shine 
like a beacon in your heart and reveal a year-long reality to those about 
you, for this can be something that endures beyond the season.  There will 
always be ups and downs in your ability to experience this so directly.  It 
is, for so many, still more an ideal than a reality.  But here, My children, 
is where the ideal and real are one in faith.  There is no separation here 
in My sight - to see your brothers and sisters as real spirit beings, 
precious beyond measure in My eyes.  These are living beings, who, with our 
Father, are growing souls of eternal potential.  These are the precious 
beings surrounding you.

What a season this is!  Each of the worlds religions or systems of beliefs 
has this magical moment within it, this recognition of the miracle of birth, 
the beginning of something of infinite potential in a small human child, 
becoming, seemingly out of nothing, the pure creativity of an absolutely 
unique personality with self-awareness, growing into this real, ideal 
spiritual awareness that all the past is but the beginning of the next 
moment.  So now at this season especially we worship the miracle of our 
Father’s creativity in each and every single child born.  For look! - 
another little nodule of God Himself has come into being and someday, ages 
and ages, eons upon eons from now, this child of God will have traversed a 
universe to stand face to face with his or her Creator and be embraced on 
the threshold to eternity.

As it is My joy and delight for you to see Me and feel Me in your heart as 
your Father, so too see Me as a little child looking about in unknowing, 
incomprehensible wonder and awe, just as you once did.  And so I bid you, My 
children, Happy Birthday also.  I ask you, please, share this one with Me.

Celebrate your life with Me.  See the little child you once were, taking 
those first awkward, uncertain steps into the future.  Our Father has a big 
universe out there, My sons and daughters.  You will always be a little bit 
like children in the face of that.  And in the awesome face of that, it does 
us so well to share our lives with each other.  We learn - in some wonderful 
way - it makes all that universe manageable - as if it were made for each of 
us alone.  So join with Me in thanking our Father for this life we can 
share.

Do you have any questions you wish to share with Me, or just any comments?  
I am always happy to be here for you.

Student:  Dear Michael, I would like to get more insight on what it means to 
make a decision…ah, as like when You were - after Your baptism - You made 
decisions of record which, I would assume, would be the Personalized Thought 
Adjuster.  Could You help us make firmer decisions with our Thought 
Adjusters?

Michael:  Yes, V, it may be helpful to consider what the fragment of God, 
that shares your life with you, does in this way.  The record that is being 
kept of your life, including decisions you make, is, from a human 
standpoint, seemingly automatic.  I say seemingly because nothing that God 
does is automatic.   Everything flows from His perfect will and is 
absolutely realized - what you would perceive as - instantaneously.  A 
record is being kept of your life for both Him and you.  And this is your 
soul, this is your eternal possession and wealth.

Your Father Fragment, along with other spiritual influences such as Myself 
and your Mother Nebadonia, your guardian seraphim, and now other celestial 
personalities that you are tuning into; all of these impinge upon you by 
personally trying to help you achieve - for it is an achievement - those 
decisions by which you are free to choose who you will become.  You can best 
perceive this by something I touched on this evening  - the reality of the 
ideal.  Devote the time and the effort to exercise your spiritual sense of 
values in making these decisions.  You only need to record these decisions, 
for yourself, in terms of openness as to what these decisions incur, and the 
willpower or determination it takes to exercise these decisions as you go 
forward.

This memory/recording is for you alone - to help you remember these 
decisions, and how these decisions affect you and others.  The other record 
being made is strictly for your soul, and this is God’s will and perfect 
ability with respect to this part of your life.  Think of some of the 
suggestions We have offered in the past on how to tune into your soul, one 
of which, I suggested many weeks ago, was to relive moments of your life as 
purely as they happened to you originally.  In this way you can revisit past 
decisions in the pristine innocence with which you made them the very first 
time.  For here you will be touching your Father Fragment’s record.  Does 
this help answer your question, My son?

Student:  Yes, it does, Michael.  Thanks once again for the eternally 
beneficial lesson.

Michael:  You are very welcome.  And be in My peace.

Student:  Michael, my mind drifts a lot while You or Mother are speaking.  
I’d like to learn how to pay attention and be in the present moment.  I can 
be here a little bit but it still drifts a lot.  I would like to stop that 
if it’s at all possible.

Michael:  Yes, C, this is a bit of a paradoxical puzzle, for how can you be 
aware of when you are not being aware - especially when any attempt you 
make, in terms of a process or some kind of exercise you are doing in your 
mind, only becomes another diversion leading you away from what is 
happening?  So don’t try any kind of exercise to focus on what is being 
said, but rather, as when you are practicing receiving a celestial friend, 
feel for an enhancement of the words themselves.

If you catch yourself doing anything to listen better, just relax that 
effort to get a qualitative enhancement of the words themselves.  In other 
words, don’t strain to listen to what is being said, just hear it so that 
the words become more meaningful.  And you do this by relaxing, by not 
trying anything that only becomes a diversionary over-complication.  Just 
hear the words and let their meaning bounce around inside your mind where 
they will precipitate all kinds of suggestions and meanings of things that 
happened in your past; but let these suggestions happen as if they are all 
around the words coming in.

Just continue to hear the words coming in and don’t worry about other ideas 
you may have in association.  It’s a constant moment by moment focusing on 
the living words, and treasuring this moment happening right now - more than 
all the memories that the words precipitate.  It’s a constant moment by 
moment letting go of yourself in order to take in something other than you.  
And this takes a self-confidence in yourself, to be able to let go of 
yourself like this.  So as things come up within you, responding to what is 
coming in, just let them float away; just keep hearing the other.  Does this 
help you understand the internal dynamics of the situation?

Student:  Yes, much better.  Don’t be distracted by being distracted.

Michael:  Exactly.

Student:  Sometimes I feel like I’m standing maybe a step or two back 
watching myself being distracted, and trying to pay attention, as opposed to 
being just plain present.   But I think just allowing it to happen is what’s 
going to work, but it seems too simple sometimes.

Michael:  Well, the simple things are sometimes the most difficult for their 
very subtlety, but I think you are grasping the principle involved here.  
And again, it reflects your values.  You have to value more what you are 
trying to hear, rather than these other perceptions of yourself listening.  
This is an ability that you can slowly learn, because no one is just 
automatically blessed with this ability.  It is a spiritual triumph to be 
able to set yourself aside.  You just focus on another - whether it be 
Myself or another human being.

As you know there are some, I would say, argumentative souls who cannot hear 
at all but are only concerned with they are going to say next.  They are 
usually not aware they are depriving themselves of all that is not 
themselves.  So by contrast to these individuals, you are blessed indeed, C, 
in being so aware of the dynamics involved in truly wanting this contact 
with another.  Are there any other questions this evening that you have, C?

Student:  No, I can understand that explanation, and thank You very much; 
thank You for the spiritual principles involved.  It’s just a matter of 
practice and practice more.

Michael:  Yes, and I think the discussion you had earlier this evening about 
spiritual values will help you a lot.  (Referring to a session with Welmek 
about contacting your celestial teacher)

Student:  Yes, that part made a lot of sense to me, I can understand that 
one.

Michael:  This helps a lot when you simply value this happening - now, in My 
case, My communicating to you - for even this ability will help you so much 
with your friends - just to be able to suspend all the things you want to 
say to them.  For there is nothing more truly spiritually helpful, as a gift 
to another person, than to really listen, to really hear them, to really 
make it possible for them to share themselves with you.  And be in My peace.

Student:  Thank You, Michael, thank You.

Student:  Yes, Michael, as I reread the transcripts and find little nuggets 
to meditate upon, or to ponder over, and I mentioned this to the group last 
week, there was one thing that was said, I think it was by You, was that at 
times I am inexplicably stubborn, and if You may, I would like for You to 
elaborate that idea or character traits more deeply.  And then I read 
another transcript from Mother about feeling Her peace, and Your peace, and 
diving into this ocean of serenity and love, and having the ability to hug 
another human being without doing the motivation or intention of 
specifically doing so, because that is our nature.  That’s where I desire to 
come to be.  In a sense to get beyond intention, but to be - without 
thinking about it.  In a sense not thinking about my life, or my situation, 
or my drama.  So if you can talk about that…

Michael:  Yes, D, the first part of your question, referring to this 
stubbornness; as I recall, this came about in portraying a situation in 
which We invited you to be open – to relate to another person - neither 
filtering what a person is and what they are saying to you, nor projecting a 
certain attitude towards them - shall we say an attitude of indifference 
where you are letting them know, however consciously or unconsciously, that 
perhaps you don’t value too much what they are saying?  That can be one 
attitude; or an attitude of superiority, or an attitude of inferiority.  
These are just examples of how people can signal others as to how they want 
to be taken or understood.

But if you are open to all that is possible with another person, and you 
really take in their whole personality, you will find that there are, then, 
parts of you which respond, and it is these which may be inexplicably, and 
yet very stubbornly, you.  I say stubbornly because they might be negative 
reactions of anger, fear, indifference, or callousness that you would just 
as soon dissociate and say, “No, that’s not me!”  But these are part of you. 
  It is by allowing these to reach your consciousness, where you can feel 
them and decide what to do about them, that you change them from an 
unconscious reaction which may be causing all kinds of estrangement  between 
you and others.  It is only by recognizing  that these are part of you, 
maybe left over from past experiences which may or may not have anything to 
do with the present situation; it is only by owning rather than disowning 
these parts of yourself that you can grow.  That, I believe, was what was 
meant by an inexplicable but still stubborn part of you.

As for your second question, I would suggest here that you may have in mind 
an ideal which is only an illusion.  It may not actually be, or lead to, the 
kind of behavior you really want to be involved in.  There is in many 
philosophies and ways of living the ideal of being so totally One with what 
is right - in a profound spiritual way - that there is no thought required: 
we are so One with God and His will that we can act without thinking or 
reflection.  But consider for awhile how much in tune with God’s will - in 
the sense of doing what is right for all parties concerned in any 
conceivable situation – this would have to be.

I can share with you the difficulty I had, Myself, as a human being, knowing 
what this was moment to moment.  You see what I mean when I say this is, for 
most human beings, maybe all human beings, a kind of impossible or 
illusionary ideal – to just relax and be perfectly in accord with God’s will 
with no reflection or thinking.  This could lead to the gravest of mistakes. 
  For this is the exact mindset associated with so much profound evil in the 
world.  There are so many acting, not out of your intention of goodness, but 
out of a refusal to think or reflect on what they are doing, causing so much 
suffering in a very immediate way to those around them.

In this way of understanding, the thinking and reflecting we do before we 
act - of being open to our human inability to know the full repercussions of 
our actions; this care and consideration - that we may not know what is 
perfect to do - this becomes a gift of spirit to our fellow human beings who 
have to put up with us and our behavior.  So I would suggest that while it 
is righteous to constantly feel for what is the right thing to do, so long 
as you are human this will take a lot of consciousness and care.

It ties in with what we looked at first - how to be open.  How do you do 
this?  How do you be open to another person and be conscious and accept 
those spontaneous aspects of yourself which come to the surface when you are 
open and you do not know what will happen next?  Does this answer your 
question?

Student:  A lot to consider… In regards to the first question, I have felt 
the negative reactions to something I’m experiencing in the present.  And I 
have no idea why I feel what I’m feeling towards this human being, or 
towards the situation.  And most of the time I allow, instead of denying it, 
what You alluded to a couple of weeks ago about denial.  I try to deal with 
it.  I try to learn from it - why I am being bothered so, and then write it 
in my journal.  So I do that, and I am aware of how something in the past 
can be triggered by something in the present, even though the past has 
nothing to do with the present - a totally different situation.  So I am 
keenly aware of that.

And secondly, if someone is prepared to hurt another human being, or be evil 
towards another, then I believe it’s not of the will of God; that is not His 
vision.  My thoughts - as to how I can respond to that: I feel if someone 
has love in their heart, there can be no evil.  Evil doesn’t exist if one 
has love in their heart.

Michael:  Yes, D, you understand fully about this first part we talked 
about, and how this was partly Mother’s message too - about what is meant by 
“bad karma” -  how people can continue to do damage to others in the present 
because they refuse to own their own reactions - which may be coming from 
something in the past which has nothing to do with the person they are 
presently engaged with.

My example in the second case was that individuals, who are blind to their 
own motivations and refuse to think about or reflect on what they doing, but 
try for this ideal of - just doing things - being One with their intentions 
- cause a great deal of damage, even though they feel within themselves they 
are coming from a good place.  True enough, if you are standing outside 
their situation you can say: Well, they are just being cynical.  They are 
just doing that because they think everybody acts that way; or, this is just 
the way it is.  And yes, they do not really have God’s will in their 
consciousness because their actions are causing great pain to others.

But if they would only pay the price of thinking about what they are doing, 
reflecting on what they are doing, entertaining the possibility that they 
may not know what is right; this becomes a gift to their fellow human 
beings.  Entertaining the possibility – always - that you are not yet 
perfect, you do not perfectly know God’s will - especially when it comes to 
your interaction with other people - this is actually a consideration and a 
gift of spirit.  It enables you to more fully accept the responsibility of 
what you are doing.

Student:  Then why is this person, who I’ve never met, and do not remember 
her name - she’s from India - who all day, spends her whole day loving and 
hugging people; and that’s all she does?  And everyone feels so loved by 
her?

Michael:  It seems you are describing a situation where this woman is acting 
in true accord with the real effect she is having on others.  As to how she 
came to be this way, perhaps she is being open to the feedback from what she 
is doing.  This, to Me, seems an example of deep, profound humility.  This 
is what We call an extraordinarily humble person who feels herself to be 
tiny, almost miniscule, in the face of the enormity of God’s love, and so is 
acting in an almost paradoxical way by letting this great power of love flow 
through her.  In any case, I can only see her as being open and receptive to 
the effect she’s having on others, rather than simply acting blindly out of 
some inner notion which may or may not accord with reality.

Student:  It’s like a very, very high statement of self-forgetfulness.

Michael:  Yes.  For her this is probably a growth of maturity - that she 
herself had to go through an initial phase of thinking very much about what 
she was doing.  She may have had an enormous period of self-reflection and 
self-awareness before she could achieve this state of being selfless.

Student:  I guess what I was getting at was the idea of getting beyond 
intentions - in a sense of every human being as a child of God - without 
having this censor within myself - of who is worthy to hug - who I feel 
compelled to hug or love.  I guess it’s my own…looking at my own resistances 
or my own…as I said - inexplicable stubbornness to not give love to one 
person, but love to another - for whatever reason.  So I need to get beyond 
my own blindness or stubbornness and see, in time, God in each and every 
person.  And be honest with myself about what I feel.

Michael:  Yes, My son, this is what I am suggesting you do.  Own these 
aspects of yourself, which you say you are struggling to do.  This may take 
a lot of thought for there is no way to just automatically go from here to 
there.  But your being aware of these limitations to your love is itself a 
very loving thing to do.  So continue with this.  Continue to own all these 
aspects of yourself that arise.  This is how you become what I call open.  
This is how you become aware so someday you can suspend this filter of who 
should be loved and who should not.  So carry on.  Continue to strive for 
sincerity.

Student:  In a sense…I just thought about when I’m not open to that - to 
love, I’m denying myself.

Michael:  Where you yourself are standing in your own way as this kind of a 
filter, you are denying yourself that aspect We have called God’s continuous 
creation.  You are coming from the past and past judgments, and missing 
something new and unique in this person now standing before you.  That’s why 
I referred to it as an ability that you slowly learn - first by being 
conscious of what you are doing and it’s effect on others.  For this is the 
very thing those who cause great pain and suffering in the world refuse to 
do.  So this is a loving thing you can do for each other - to acknowledge 
you are not yet perfect.

Student:  Whatever perfection is…

Michael:  Well, you have much to consider, My son.

Student:  But I do see how, sometimes when a feeling does come up, 
especially in my household - where I’m not happy about something - how the 
people in the household feel it, and they want to run away from it because 
it is so powerful, the energy of it.  So I thank You.

Michael:  You are welcome, My son.  As you just now realized: it’s also a 
gift to others for us to sometimes - contain ourselves.  And be in My peace.

This has been quite a Christmas Eve this evening.  Every religion has, at 
it’s core, this worship, this thankfulness for God becoming human - our 
Father creating, in this enormous universe, a unique personality like no 
other, a gift to this new person of himself or herself, and a gift to the 
rest of us of another brother or sister.  So let us celebrate with joy and 
thanksgiving that each of us, every single one, is such a child of God.

Be in My peace, My children.  Good Evening