2006-04-02-Know Thyself, Political Sub-Culture

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Topic: Know Thyself, Political Sub-Culture

Group: Rio Rancho TeaM

Facilitators

Teacher: Tomas, Merium

TR: Gerdean

Session

Opening

MERIUM: May I come in? I am Merium. It's so soft and gentle in here, I feel I am going to wake the baby. What a lovely repose you have mastered. Speaking of the Master, he is here with us, and I'll tell you that he said it pleased him that you remembered to stop at the well on the way to gather your eggs ~ he who is the well. It gives him a chance to bless you in your comings and goings, to plant a kiss upon your brow, to encourage you on your way. On your way where? Wherever it is he sends you out to play, or wherever you by your own devising find adventurous.

I have my own feelings of adventurousness, as I am sure you all do as well. For each of us are temperamentally different, and what frightens one may not frighten another. What thrills and intrigues some may be dull to others. But like colors, don't you think, there are a lot of colors that can share the same canvas and not compete or conflict with each other. They don't have to vie for attention.

But before I fluff up your pillows, which hardly yet need fluffing, I have a friend and visitor here who would like to say Hello.

TOMAS: I am Tomas. Group: Hello, Tomas.

TOMAS: Hello, Renault. How good to see you.

Renault: Likewise.

TOMAS: And my chary couple, Thoroah and Gerdean. Blessings be upon you. I have been engaged in learning some new things, and have been enjoying the effects Merium has had on you and on the group here. I am going to come back and spend some time in this base again and keep Merium company as we have before worked together in the Butler camp and the Pittsburgh post.

Lesson

We'll talk today about LIFE. Life is entirely too big to be defined. Every creature has some understanding of life, dependent on its own consciousness of being, and even those who are not conscious of consciousness are still aware of life. Life is mechanical as well as spiritual. It is inclusive of a gamut of realities. It may be personal; it may remain impersonal. It may be instructional; it may be institutional. Life is divine and life is carnal, as well.

You may recognize the mechanics of life in your electro-chemical system, and you may recognize the divinity of life by observation of supreme reality reflected in some form of deity. Life, once you have it, can be yours for the taking. Until you have it, or have a consciousness of it, it is more likely to take you. This being a paradigm -- experiential paradigm that allows for experimentation. You will assuredly find variations of life that are unique and unfathomable. It is therefore not possible for mere mortals to intimately associate with and identify with every level and layer of life there is, may not have time or opportunity to understand, agree with, or support ~ except to appreciate that there are forms of life, including social pockets, cultural customs, aboriginal aberrations low and high ~ are all part of the grandeur of this thing called life that is so far above and beyond each of its individual parts. And no matter how all-consuming you may feel the life you live is, it is none-the-less and still only a part of the whole, which is beyond your comprehension.

The part that you are, the life that you are, is thus even more precious in its uniqueness. And no one can live your life as effectively as you can. Know thyself. And know thyself in terms of the fused consciousness. Capital T-h-y. Capital S-e-l-f. Know Thy Self. Know your quirks, your aspirations, your skills, your purpose, and then be it. So be it!

In so doing, you bring the canvas alive. You inspire the colors around you. And the canvas becomes a living reality -- just as when a writer writes, they point their pen toward the purpose at hand and the words around them dance, in such a way as to fall into place in order to convey the message, thereby bringing the point alive, thereby creating art in living. Living art. Along with living books.

Gerdean has interfered, asking about what I just said having to do with art, living art, as well as living books being depictions of life. Trying to contribute something having to do with one being truth and one being beauty -- allowing room for something to be representative of goodness. That might be a good lesson, or analogy, but I wasn't going there. Let's go back to where I was going.

Yes, there is life that is mechanistic and life that is inspired. And the life that combines the two of them is truly beyond being self-conscious about itself, and so in a way, Gerdean, yes you are right. If one represents truth and the other represents beauty, then goodness can harmonize them, pulling together the one-dimensional two points into a three-dimensional three-point configuration relationship, yes. Just remember that you don't always see the relationships of life but you will always appreciate that they are all connected. Even if they are not immediately related, they are all part of the oversoul.

You were talking earlier about politics -- Republican; middle of the road, or labor party; Democrat or Progressive, etc. That conversation was a local demonstration of this lesson about life and that it happens on many levels. And that certain patterns are repeated, either from Paradise or from the natural path. And on an evolving world, the natural path is not always the most efficient or effective path.

In other words, in the universe there is generally always room for improvement -- if not, at least a consistent program of maintenance that allows all the many, many parts to remain a part of the whole, functioning, bumbling, succeeding on every level at once -- sometimes harmoniously and sometimes not, depending upon the crux of the project at hand.

I don't mind, Merium. Here.

MERIUM: Are you asleep? Shall we open the windows? I hear the influence of nature around you and sense the climate influences (and other influences as well), so I would suggest we lighten up and fluff the pillows, perhaps allowing our consciousness to enliven in such a way as to either respond to Tomas' lesson or engage in some other repartee that would allow us to say we had a pleasant time instead of one of those dull lectures for which Tomas is so famous.

Dialogue

Thoroah: It wasn't hard. It wasn't dull.

MERIUM: Well, I'm certainly glad to hear you say so.

Renault: I'll speak up. Let you know I'm here.

MERIUM: Okay. What do you want to talk about, while you are speaking up?

Renault: You had started to say something about politics. What was it that you were going to say?

MERIUM: Oh, that was Tomas. Do you want to talk to Tomas again?

Renault: Well, just, did he complete his … what he was going to tell us about politics?

TOMAS: Yes, I did, actually. I was only using it as an example of a part of the whole, as if it were a civilization inside a civilization, or a system within a system.

Renault: Um-hum. Sub-culture.

TOMAS: Sub-culture, yes.

Renault: Politics is something we think about some of the time. It is not necessarily all-consuming in all of our lives. It does affect all our lives, but I don't think we actually -- we talk about it sometimes but then we move on.

TOMAS: What is politics to you? What does that mean when you say "we talk politics"?

Renault: Probably having to do with the situation of the world and what we hear about in the news, about happenings in the world, some sort of political news rather than any other category.

TOMAS: Based on government? Based on--

Renault: Yeah.

TOMAS: -- nation life.

Renault: Yeah. TOMAS: Or political parties. Political --

Renault: Ideas.

TOMAS: Ideologies. Renault: Gleanings. What's important. What they do with our money, our funds.

TOMAS: Money. Civilization.

Renault: Where the attention is prepped. Where it needs to be prepped.

TOMAS: Yes, well, I will plug your conversation then, having to do with Rabbi Lerner, who visited Santa Fe last evening and who you went to see and with whom you all here are familiar as a god-promoting progressive with political orientations. You have to be politic in order to effect cultural or social changes. Any of you who opt to influence the way another thinks, in order to promote the cause you believe most worthy, is a politician. You don't need a party to have politics.

"Parties" is such a misnomer anyway, because, well, "parties" is a misnomer in itself, perhaps based on human gregariousness … that any time people get together they are having a good time.

Renault: What strikes you funny?

Gerdean: His playing with definitions.

Renault: Party?

Gerdean: Yeah. As if to say, "they don't sound like they're having that much fun!"

Renault: Yeah. Really.

TOMAS: You really are talking about blocs. And perhaps 20 or 30 blocs might represent a limited local power, like a province or something.

Renault: Representation, yeah. One representative for so many thousand people.

TOMAS: Well that's certainly a system. That's the system of government that you live with.

Renault: We all agree to it.

TOMAS: Well, someone agreed to it originally and others are following suit. Not everyone is overtly engaged in upholding the system.

Renault: No.

TOMAS: Some are trying to tear it down. Some are trying to cement it. And some are trying to forge ahead to a greater stronghold. But the end goal is not clear. So far, you aren't all looking out for the best interests of the whole, you are still interested in the parts.

Renault: Um-hum.

TOMAS: But "such is life!" Yes, you were talking also about leadership. How certain blocs can effect the necessary clout, particularly when economics has had all the clout all along and this likely goes back to the days of Dalamatia, and the disruption of the civilization that was intended, that was established but went awry.

It's just out of balance, that's all. It can be brought into balance if the other essential areas are able to stand up in their own right and be who they are. Know ThySelf. Stand for ThySelf and what ThySelf represents. You need not cow tow to the dominant reality, you who think, you who are conscious of consciousness, you who pray as a personal experience and not as a power play or manipulation.

I feel myself becoming impassioned. I feel myself becoming political. I can take off my shoe and bang it on the podium here to indicate how strongly I feel about what I feel.

When I have remembered to stop by the well on the way to gather the eggs, I am going out with the right attitude.

What else? Any questions?

Thoroah: I thought of the idea three-party system. You have the Beauty party, the Truth party, and the Goodness party.

TOMAS: That sounds like a plan. Can you be a party to all the parties at once?

Thoroah: You certain can! That's the whole deal! Hopefully they'd all fit together real well.

TOMAS: They might even come alive! Well, I feel better now. Shall I give you back to Merium?

Renault: Thank you,

Tomas. Thoroah: Thanks a lot.

Renault: Love having you.

MERIUM: I've always enjoyed working with Uncle Tomas. He's very easy to work with, you know. Most of us are!

Renault: Um-hum

MERIUM: It interests me how it is that some of you actually grow from this experience, while some fall out and away. It is interesting to me to see that happen, and yet I suppose it is part of what Tomas was talking about that what may be interesting for some is dull for others.

When you know you don't have to make everyone think the way you do, act the way you do, or believe the way you do, you have such a sense of freedom, of not having to worry about that anymore. You can just be yourself! So be it!

It certainly would eliminate a lot of judgment, wouldn't it?

Group: Yes.

MERIUM: And "control issues"? Authority issues.

Renault: Be who you want to be. Your highest and best.

MERIUM: Be who you are. Oh, I saw a question come up. What if you are gay?

Renault: Be who you are.

MERIUM: Well, that word "gay" is about as peculiar as the word "party." Group: (Chuckles)

MERIUM: Only as you are engaged in the machinations of gayness or partydom do you experience the party, the joy of it, the gay, the happiness of it. You have to be in it to know whether it's you or not. And once you find out whether it is or not, it's too late, because by then you know who you are.

There are, of course, a lot of people who aren't who they are, or who don't behave as they are but how they should.

Renault: Some people are confused about how to behave. They think they're "being haved."

MERIUM: Well, it comes back to that thing about how people judge. Renault: Um-hum. One another.

MERIUM: Instead of just being who they are. They worry about what other people are doing, and how they are manifesting. It's totally unnecessary.

Thoroah: Isn't that mostly inspired by a lack of self-confidence or a lack of knowing thyself, in the long run, though?

MERIUM: Well, certainly. It's a limitation on all the things that you could know, given more exposure to other values. And a greater appreciation of the fact that each one is unique, instead of each one is the same.

But as "What About Bob" was saying, when you don't think for yourself, you think the way everyone else does, or the way somebody else wants you to think. And thus most people are walking around doing most of their thinking unconsciously.

Thoroah: So there is a subliminal level of thinking going on, so that if we're inspirational enough in our daily living that we can like tap their senses a little bit into that subliminal thinking level, so that….

MERIUM: Oh, of course. And the subtler and more natural the better. Not to say subtle as in "devious" or "underhanded" but it does not have to be blunt or objectionable.

Renault: I.e., planting the seed.

MERIUM: Or even fertilizing or aerating seeds that you know are there because they were just revealed to you in the course of natural living. Encouraging the positive is as viable a method of behavior modification as condemning.

Renault: Um-hum. Better. Better.

MERIUM: Yes, even better.

Now, you know what they say about those who "love 'em and leave 'em" … who will say they love you and turn around tomorrow and break your heart. Those of you who know something about love, about true love, about divine love, ought to have a solid base from which to operate, ought to have a real conviction in your soul as to the love you know, and one of the ways that the door opens between you and humanity is, one at a time, to have an instant in which your divine love, your genuine ThySelf love shines upon your fellow and they see it. They respond to it. You can see it in the light in their eyes that they reverberated to the truth, beauty and/or goodness that you showed them. This is no mere seduction. This is the development of cosmic consciousness. Sometimes called Christ Consciousness.

Closing

I think I'm losing the connection here. Perhaps it is time to sign off for the afternoon.

Renault: It's been some pretty powerful stuff.

Thoroah: Thank you.

MERIUM: Well, it has certainly been our pleasure, you know.

Renault: And we appreciate the fact that even though we were late, you kept the appointment. Thank you.

MERIUM: We certainly had it on our calendar.

Renault: And we didn't want to disappoint you.

MERIUM: Well, we amuse ourselves in other ways when you are distracted, but it's always nice to follow through with plans when we can, understanding that the best laid plans sometimes--

Renault: Go astray.

MERIUM: -- go astray, yes. Bye-bye!

Renault: Bye! Thanks you very much.

Thoroah: Next time!