1994-03-18-Determination

Session

Opening

Opening prayer

Daniel: "Greetings my friends. I am Daniel, your teacher and guide. As a member of the teaching staff under the direction of Machiventa Melchizedek I bring you my love and peace. We, Tomas and I, wish to welcome our visitors this evening, to extend our love into your domain. Let not the appearances of this type of communication bring forth fear or doubt. In the realm of the First Source and Center all things are possible. Have faith. Hold on that throughout the evolution of ascendent beings there is time for change, time for growth, time to let go of past concepts. The reality of this day is seated in the truth that the First Source and Center is the source of love and mercy, is the source of all that holds the universes intact. What is deemed necessary for ascendant mortals is carried on through the various Local Universes. Our Father/Brother Christ Michael is working to bring His bestowal planet into higher consciousness.

Lesson

Determination

This evening I will present, along with Tomas, a lesson regarding the understanding of determination. What does this word mean in your language barrier? Many use this term but they are not understanding its basic underlying meaning. Determination, determining, to be determined means that you are exercising free will choice. In this regard I ask you to think about the many ways in which you are a determined individual in the areas of your personal life, in the areas of your personal life through relationships, in the area of your physical life, and the area of your spiritual life.

Have you not made a certain commitment to a certain lifestyle? If you have adhered to a certain trend you will need now to look at this is in the broader context that what you do is something that you have determined. I asked you to look into this because often what you consider as just a part of life is something that just goes on day by day without you stopping to consider why a certain habit, a certain lifestyle continues. It because you have determined that this is the route you will go.

Let us look at an example in order for you to realize the effect of being a determined individual. Let us look at the habit of chewing one's fingernails. I am using a very simple example, yet I ask that you continue to use it in ways that are more significant and have more meaning for you.

One who has initially started chewing their fingernails makes a choice in doing so. Later on this becomes habitual. No thought is given to engaging in this activity. Under stress, high tension, or boredom the individual will seek solace and comfort in this habit. This habit at some point in time may be thought about by the individual as lacking, and therefor they may wish to change.

How many times have you heard an individual wishing to let (go) of habits say, it is impossible! I can't! The underlying question is not whether or not this habit can be broken, but whether or not the individual remains determined to perpetuate this activity or to terminate it. Free will choice lies at the bottom of whether or not this habit can be broken. This is a very simple example that can be viewed by you in deeper terms. The deepest term that I will now present on the opposite end of the scale is that of being spiritually determined.

God is self determined. It is all of the choice and will of the First Source and Center that has created and made possible all that is, ever was, and ever will be. As an ascending mortal you, also, can be self determined. This is the gift directly given to ascending mortals by the First Source and Center; that you have this choice in freedom, in utilizing your own mind set to determine the pathway you wish to follow. Those who freely determine that the First Source and Center is the goal of eternity will in all likelihood follow a path that will lead more directly to Paradise Isle. Those who have not understood free will are those who often do not understand the concept of allowing God to work through your lives. Saying that you wish that your will be that of following the First Source and Center is not giving up your freedom. Rather it is allowing that God who reaches down is received by you reaching up; that you can touch in and be a part of the plan of the aeons.

Self determination in allowing yourself to be a part of the divine plan will behoove you in ways beyond your imagination. It is not restricting to turn your will over to following God. It is more restricting to allow your misguided determination in life to take charge. For in wrong determining are you met with many roadblocks, many challenges, and many sorrow endings. Much unhappiness those who perpetuate the path of not taking responsibility for choices. Determination, that ability to choose freely is a wonderful gift that you can utilize to the fullest.

This week I will ask that you consider the times when you have made a definite commitment, a definite determination. Those who sit in silence with the First Source and Center on a daily basis will be supported in their choices. For how can you truly ask that you be guided and not be guided. If your motivation is that which bespeaks of the highest truth then the choices you make will be guided by the will above. When you have set upon a certain course, when you have committed yourself to a certain course, then be determined in this. Allow that free will choice that you have made to really bespeak and become reality.

As an example there are many in this room who are teachers in many areas. In this teaching, in this decision that you made to be a teacher of minds or teachers of souls you now embark upon the journey to be the best that you can be in that regard. You have made the determination. And now follow it through with vigor and enthusiasm, with joy, with love, and with mercy and tolerance. And now Tomas will bring in his message this evening."

Tomas: "Greetings loyal students, I am Tomas. I have listened with interest to my peer's dissertation regarding determination and have only to add that in the arena where you seek to find fellow fishers of men you may affect them by your determination.

By standing for your beliefs, truths, and opinions you have set in motion some reality which has cause and effect. Your determination fostered by your motivation to follow His leading in all things has brought vigor and life to your moment of social actuation. Your actuation of your determination now ripples into your immediate arena, and your fellows will be impacted by the determination you have made. Many intellectual determinations cannot be moved. However, many spiritual and soulful misconceptions of reality can be augmented or altered progressively by your method of presenting your determination.

Your words and your attitude present, therefore, the Spirit of Truth for that individual to respond to or recoil from. Your fishing venture will sometimes catch fish and sometimes reveal an empty net. And yet in your determination to follow the Master and plant His seeds of truth and cosmic awareness, in those who are merely waiting in anticipation of their own reality being awakened [this] is effected. By your determination to live the will of our Father, our Creator, by allowing our Creator to live in and through you, in your dealings you are manifesting the same determination as the Master; in aspiring to be Godlike, as Daniel has said, in loving, merciful ministry to your brothers and sisters who await your determined call for their soul. I have no further additional remarks to your fine presentation."

Dialogue

Daniel: "Questions are now in order."

Law

C1: "Daniel, Tomas, I am delighted to be here and in your presence to hear your words. I do have a question regarding something that we were reading in our study group where it mentioned the laws of spiritual growth. I am wondering if there is such a thing as actual laws. Could you comment or give me any further understanding of that?

Thank you."

Tomas: "Whereas there is the letter of the law and the spirit of the law, there are laws of the universe. These are set down and are manifested through trial and error. Yes, there are material laws, spiritual laws, yet there is no fine nor punishment for breaking such law. Rather as you are children of the Most Highs you are afforded the opportunity to learn through your own experience and identify those laws which have become part of your morontial realization of your freedoms and limitations. I do not know if this has addressed your question."

C1: "It has given me a greater understanding but I was trying to look through the concordance, trying to find what these laws were, to see if I was actually living in accordance with these laws."

DANIEL: As you grow in your physical life on this plane, as you experience life, and as you grow from infancy through adulthood you have found that there are certain laws that you have discovered on your own. For instance you have learned that you do not touch a hot stove without being burnt. In other words consequences have helped you to learn laws of social discourse, how to relate to other individuals. You have learned that manner and courtesy take and receive higher response and are more successful than is profanity, than is total disregard for another's feelings or lack of tact. This you have learned.

And so, you see, the soul is learning those universal laws as you progress. As you experience each step of the way you learn and know then what is the highest course to take. You see, the highest course, that righteous path is the one that bring forth more growth. That becomes, then, the law. That is what you adhere to. That is what you will follow for that is what calls and beckons the soul back to the Source. It is not within our realm to give a list of dos and or don'ts. You know instinctively, you know intuitively and feelingly, and you also know intellectually. When a law has been broken it reverberates through your whole being, body, mind and spirit. You know also the opposite, when a law has been followed, for joy, peace, security, and love are part of your feeling, part of your domain at any given point. Does this help?

Clarissa: Very much. Thank you very much.

Paula: Daniel, I would like to follow up on a little bit of conversation about that. Would it be because the spirit realm has that kind of freedom? I am mindful of the notion of we don't know where it comes -- anyway the freedom and creativity that as we walk in ways that keep us at one with our God and all of those things that make us whole as selves, that those spiritual laws are tailor made for ourselves. Certainly they are universal to each of us but they are also uniquely fashioned for us. And I heard you say actuating. And as we find those spiritual laws for our own being and actuate them, we become a larger part of the whole body so that they eventually will transform and bring about this correcting time that we are in.

DANIEL: Indeed, each personality is unique. Each pathway back to Paradise Isle is unique. Indeed is there a universal dialogue, if you will, but each measure for an individual of knowing that which is real is unique.

Paula: Then would one of the differences between material law and spiritual law be the fact that the material law can be codified, but, again, because of this freedom that is given us and also the quality of spirit, that it really cannot be codified. We know, but it is not codified?

DANIEL: To a greater degree, yes, however, there are certain spiritual attributes, if you will, or knowings, understanding that you intuitively have knowledge of. Indeed, abstraction is very much a part of what you speak of. Yet there are instances when the situation is very clear, is very concrete. And yet it is very much immersed with spiritual reality.

TOMAS: Might I add, too, when we speak of law and man's law verses God's law, there is that opportunity, challenge to opt on over the other. In certain circumstances it is not pleasing to the soul to break God's law to accommodate man's law. And yet, oft times in your society that is the wiser decision.

Truth

Paula: Thank you Tomas. I wonder if that -- I was thinking as you were speaking and even before -- the difference maybe between law and truth. I'm sensing -- I am not able to articulate -- I'm sensing that there is that difference which very much to me resounds in what you said in terms of the wisdom of sometimes needing to go with the material law against the spiritual law. Is there that relationship between truth and law and the difference between those two might be those times?

DANIEL: What we are working into is philosophical debate and wording. However, let us backtrack to previous lessons regarding the term, truth. Truth is the highest knowledge/information/wisdom that is understood by an individual at any given moment. In this regard, then, while there is the one overall truth, there is lesser and lesser degrees of that truth that are understood by individuals on the various levels that they are on. So in that sense you would say that truth is relative to an individual at a given moment, yet there is this overall truth. This overall truth would be also the law of the universe. For that is what the universe is, but the truth as it is understood. Rather than to quibble or to put it in the context that we have been speaking about, it would be easier to give an example.

Individual cultures have certain ideas and certain moral ideas and mores that become, in fact, law. This law is understood by the people as the highest level of authority, that which must be followed. That law in the reality of God given truth many not be real truth. Do you see?

Paula: Yes, Daniel. And I didn't mean to get us into a quibble or semantics -- I am just so concerned with the whole social arena of legalizing and the word, law; and how that is being contrived to actually limit one's self determination, and hence their spiritual development that it was important for me to find a way to differentiate that. And I appreciate what you articulated because it was very helpful. Thank you.

DANIEL: Indeed. My friends, whenever you are in doubt about that which is the right path for you to follow I know that you can all tell me in unison now what to do.

Group: Seek the stillness and time with the Indwelling Spirit, etc., etc.

DANIEL: Very well stated!

Health

PamElla: Daniel and Tomas, I appreciated your lesson and it has stimulated a number of different questions for me. I think what I want to ask at this point is how pervasive determination is in the entire circumstances of our lives. I am thinking at the moment about physical health. I know that this is in some ways running down an avenue that I have already had discussion about with you, Daniel, in private a long time ago, but I am thinking that maybe with almost two years that have gone by and the growing that I have done, my understanding might be different. At that time I was very concerned that I was creating all the circumstances in all my illness and therefore creating a lot of guilt. And I know that the guilt was not at all healthy for me and it was necessary to break that guilt. And it was such a relief for you to tell me that I, indeed, had physical problems and that my autoimmune system was weak.

But now as I am thinking again about determination and listening to some of what Carrie was sharing before the meeting I am thinking about the role of determination in our health and where I first went was in attitude, and that being as a response, being kind of down, being tired, being somewhat depressed can be a choice; that we can respond in a different way. And then I was thinking about the physical aspects of it and I was wondering if therefore a lot of our illness is in fact -- to what extent are our illnesses in fact our choosing? I have certainly been beleaguered, I guess is the word I am thinking (and now I am wanting to look that up in the dictionary) by bad health again recently. And I am focusing on that and what to do about it in the physical realm. I, of course, spend time daily in the quiet. I am wondering again to what extent I am choosing to have that in my life?? That was very long and roundabout, but thank you.

DANIEL: This question is one that would need to be dealt with specifically. However, I will choose to give a broader answer that more may benefit.

There are within the human body a whole myriad of systems working together. And there are instances in nature where there is a breakdown in the body which can be termed a hereditary disorder or a congenital defect. And there are these instances where the breakdown is very physical in nature and therefore one cannot say that the person in this situation is desiring and determining to have this disease.

However, even the person in this situation must realize that there is a responsibility toward their health that they must be accountable for in order to maintain and in order to keep the body functioning at an optimal level. If, for instance, a person is born with or develops a disease and knowingly does that which is detrimental to their health, then most assuredly, they are determining to have ill health. Those who have a health problem but do what is necessary in all areas of help, that is nutrition, diet, mental attitude and seeking the assistance of the Life Carriers, then, most assuredly these people are on a right path. Let me qualify that having to direct attention to a Life Carrier specifically is not necessary, but rather turning over toward any kind of spiritual healing is what would be the normal vocabulary of the realm. And so this person, then, is determining, is willing that their health be improved.

And so one can most assuredly, then, be determining ill health or determining better health. Responsibility is a key factor, but one must consider that even the most responsible person is part of a planet that is environmentally unstable with many environmental pollutants and with many viruses and bacteria that are natural and those that are caused by human neglect, etc. Given this it is important that you work toward maintaining health, utilizing all that is given to you that will help manifest better health. Attitude, as you mentioned, is a great part and has much to do with a person's health. Does this help?

PamElla: Yes, Daniel. That did help me very much. It relieved that sudden sense of guilt that I had created it all again. I don't always do things perfectly, but I have decided I am working in the right direction. Thank you.

Free will

Isaac: Hello Daniel and Tomas, this is Isaac. I thought I understood your lesson, Daniel, on determination at one point to say something along the lines of -- on this planet we are not as fully aware of free will choice as we might be or we will be. And what I thought (if this isn't what you intended, I am not sure) but the thought that came to me was that much of our thinking is what I would call deterministic rather than determined. We think in terms of society and genetics and the emphasis on free will, in my judgment, is minimal. It is almost a concept that science can't explain or deal with. So those were thoughts. I thought perhaps you were saying to us we actually have more ability to create our future -- I know the Urantia Book teaches this, and you are in agreement with that -- that we can do a lot more to create our future and affect ourselves and our world than perhaps we give ourselves credit for. Is that in agreement with what you were intending, if not explicitly what you said?

DANIEL: Exactly! The point of my lesson was, in fact, to help you realize that when you say -- I am determined to do something.., that you recall what the word 'determine' really means. It is a free will choice! If you are determined to know the First Source and Center, if you are determined to follow the First Source and Center then you are making that choice. That choice will, indeed, open up new worlds to you! If you were determined to follow some satanic cult then you would be determining a life that would be far different from that of following the First Source and Center.

These choices are indeed choices that you are making that is determining your mindset. When you seek the company of those who put forth high ideals then you self perpetuate those ideals. They are always in the forefront of your mind. If you seek the company of those who put forth hate and the like, then you perpetuate that. You are determining, then, by your actions you course of life. You are making those will choices. indeed!

Isaac: Thank you.

Leetah: Daniel and Tomas I did want to introduce Angie Martin who has been a Urantia Book reader by herself in Vernal, Utah. She has moved to Pocatello and she is here tonight with us."

TOMAS: We are pleased.

DANIEL: Indeed, Angie, this group welcomes you with open arms. Be not afraid. Allow God's will and love to surround you this evening with the love that is emitting from those in this room that are visible to you, and the many that are out of your vision range. We send you love from the universes.

Leetah : I really appreciated your continuation of the question that Carrie asked. For me the mores, the laws, of the organize church had produced a tremendous amount of false guilt, that even today I really have to deal with. So it is hard for me to separate those laws from the laws you say we know intuitively. When we break God's cosmic spiritual law there is a separation. But it is so hard for me to separate the broken law that separates me from God and the broken laws that separate me from people or organizations or something. I am not sure I am making this clear. I am still not sure because of my feelings that it is spiritual laws I have broken or moral laws I have broken or neither. Maybe I haven't done anything wrong! But I feel guilt! I am not sure I always know, yet I really appreciated you with your comments. I don't know if there is anything more to say or not. I appreciate the knowledge that you give us and I try very hard (I'm thinking in terms of the first graders) to help them to realize that they are responsible, they are determining, they make their choices in the classroom. And I do appreciate very much what you said.

DANIEL: My friend, whenever one is very, very uncomfortable with themselves in any given situation there is cause to consider motive, attitude, and the situation. Whether or not the situation is erroneous or only a part of your erroneous thinking at the time is immaterial. What is important is the fact that you are feeling uncomfortable. When this is happening you must decide if the reason you are uncomfortable is something that you can change within your own being or within any given situation that can bring forth a greater and higher purpose. When this is the case you will undoubtedly feel better. What is important at these times is to remember that the First Source and Center has already forgiven. It is up to you to forgive in order for forgiveness to be complete. Remember to love yourself even in your weaknesses. Make better and more determined commitment to strive to know the will of the Father, that you can live a life that bespeaks how and what you think and feel.

With that, my friends, Tomas and I will take our leave. Be ye determined individuals. Be ye determined to take the time to know the Father, that through the time spent with the Indwelling Spirit you can be the determined individual that follow the will of the Father/Mother Spirit of us all.

Closing

Go this week in the love that surrounds you, in peace that can fill you when your sights are determined in His will. Good evening.

TOMAS: Farewell.