2000-12-17-Muddy Clothes and All

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Topic: Muddy Clothes and All

Group: Costa Rica TeaM

Facilitators

Teacher: Alana, Legion, Devina

TR: S. Butterfield

Session

Opening

D : I want to express my appreciation to each member of this group. This is not a habit, this is something that I choose each week to do to enhance my sense of community with you, and my sense of faith together with you, and my sense of being a learner at this university of love. I am very glad that all of you are participating with us in this. Thank you.

TR : I am surrendering my anxieties, my fears, my doubts, my plans. Dear Father, dear Mother I surrender this time to you and the teachers and the teaching mission. I open my heart and my mind to learning, to growing, to the lessons of love. Thank you for your love and your attention.

Alana : Yes. This is Alana.

D : Welcome, Alana.

Alana : Thank you. Each of you is in your own little sphere of worry and concern. We must do something about this, yes?

S : Yes. It feels terrible, Alana.

Lesson

Alana : So, we are like little children, yes? Playing in the puddle of mud, then returning home fretful lest mother or father scold us. Welcome, I welcome you now into my heart room, muddy clothes and all. There is no scolding here, yes? You are practicing remembrance. Many times, I believe, we have suggested that it is easy to remember love when you are non-distracted and totally focused upon the love you have received. But you live in a troubled world. Even those of you with relatively comfortable lives can not escape the machinations of your world, be those events that disrupt your daily life, your accustomed comfort and confidence, or be those interruptions and distractions of your own mind unraveling its old, familiar song, “Not all is well. I don’t have everything I want. I have forgotten. I must do this. I am tired. Fatigue means that I can not possibly feel good.” Your schedules, even among those of you who have little to schedule, but especially among those of you whose daily lives are scheduled up to the “yin-yang,” I think you say. (laughter) Your schedules often become the structure of distraction, the structure of uninterrupted chaos. Organization without love becomes chaos. So, it is no shame to come here to my heart room every Sunday. It is part of your practice. It is your “totem” shall we say of remembrance. It is just as your practice of the Stillness, daily, for a minute, for ten minutes, or more, this group is the same, a practice intended to bring you back into the remembrance that you are loved. You will notice, you may already have noticed, that the practice of coming to this group sends you away joyful, feeling loved. So it is with the practice of the Stillness. So it is when you hold your beloved in your arms. I would remind you, in your very busy world, the practice of holding loved ones in your arms has become almost automatic and, as so many things automatic, much too brief and empty of meaning. I do not mean to say that you hug falsely, one another. What I wish to suggest, to those of you who hold one other person as a beloved, that you remember to hold that person, and to ask that person to hold you, for at least ten minutes a day.

It is what the mother and the father do for the baby child. They hold that child for at least ten minutes a day. Children, in order to grow and to prosper and to blossom, to radiate, to radiate the full color and joy of their being, do require considerably more than ten minutes a day. I use that merely as an example. An example not unconnected to the perfect ten of stillness practice. Children who do not receive a great deal of holding, touching, caressing with love, no demands, no requirements, cradling, cuddling, children who do not receive this in sufficient amount, do not grow quite as lovely, or do not grow in tune with truth, beauty, goodness, harmony, love. They do not learn compassion. So, as an adult, certainly it makes sense, does it not, that if you neglect this simple need to hold and to be held by your beloved for at least ten minutes a day, in the stillness of love, in the quietude of mutual care, adoration and concern, it makes sense, does it not, that you would then perhaps begin to feel alienated, that your ability to rise above the ritual patterns of distressing thought, to release the habits of anxiety, loneliness and fear, would grow less strong. And if you do not have a beloved, or if you are parted for some time, then you return to the Stillness practice for your nourishment, or, as I have already said, you come to me and our heart room. And I would like to say, it is not strange to discover that should you, in your despair, choose to hug yourself, and wrap your arms about you, as I now wrap my love upon you, or as the Father, Mother, Michael pour their love and hold you in their embrace, should you do this for yourself, and allow your mind to imagine “This is truth, I am loved.” That too may serve as a bromo seltzer, as you say, to release those gaseous bubbles of dismay.

This is a time when many of you choose to celebrate Jesus. If your celebration demonstrates love, then I say, Yes, to your celebration. If your remembrance fills you with love that you then give away, then I say, Yes, to your remembrance. Let us say Yes now and allow Michael’s love to fall down through the upper chamber into our open welcome of a heart room.

Open your minds. Open your hearts. Look upward. Allow. Allow. Allow. God’s love is yours. Give it away. God’s love is yours. Receive it. Give it away. And if you would, for a very brief moment, in honor of all celebration of Michael, we will even allow you for a very brief moment to open and to receive God’s love and even for a moment you do not have to give it immediately away. Enjoy. Enjoy that flicker of surprise that you are so truly loved.

God always calls you to Him. The Mother always draws you into her embrace. Michael walks the path with you.

How are you today, my friend?

Dialogue

S : Ready for that message.

Alana : Yes.

D : May I say a few words?

Alana : Certainly.

D : I am especially thankful for that message, particularly where you were talking about spending time in each other’s arms as a matter of choice rather than automatic. As this group knows, when we were told about the discipline of joy, one of the first things I decided would be a good choice would be to make love every day. Essentially, one of the things that came out of that experience, after we had made love and were lying together, I would always say, “Blessed is the man who spends many hours in the arms of his beloved, embraced in his lover’s arms.” I just kept getting this message that it was good to do this, to lie still, to stroke one another, to be peacefully in each other’s arms and in each other’s presence, and one of the things that happened to me, on some days when I was anxious maybe to make love in a sexual way, I discovered through the passage of time that what I was really longing for was that time of quiet being embraced with Suzi, whether we had sex or not, that became the most important moment and way of demonstrating our wanting to be together. So in some ways your lesson today has been a beautiful confirmation of what I’ve discovered on my own and I thank you for that, Alana. It’s a great practice, a great practice.

Alana : There are very few on your planet who can spend, as you say, hours in the arms of their beloved. Some believe they have not time for that at all, and so I would suggest making it a part of your practice. There is no other purpose to the practice than to share that Stillness, that tranquility that comes through giving comfort to the child that each of you is.

You are children of God, and you are beings of your planet. It is not surprising that you loose contact with the sense of fulfillment that our love brings to you. When we bring lessons to you, mental studies, we bring you lessons in love and you might say, ever lesson, hopefully, gives you one other little compartment of life that can be dedicated to opening to the flow of God’s love into your minds, your hearts, and your bodies. So, even if it is only once a day, and perhaps only for one minute, the Stillness that is required to rest in the arms of your beloved, becomes one more opportunity to practice the Stillness, go within and drink God’s love, fill yourself with God’s love, and give it away by sharing it in that moment, even as you are resting in your beloved’s arms and seemingly doing nothing at all.

Does anyone wish to speak to Legion?

D : Yes, I have a question. In a recent private lesson with Alana, she spoke of a kind of protection that we have. She spoke of this protection as receiving your love and then giving that love away. How does love protect us by receiving it and giving it away?

Legion : First you must consider what it is you seek to be protected from. Then you may see what it is you experience in what you call “feeling protected.” Every human being would have minds glowing with truth, beauty and love. Every human being would have lives filled with certainty and reassurance, with security in truth, beauty and love.

God’s love resides within you with counsel and wisdom, and truth, with guidance. God’s love rests within you as the light, loving body of peace and tranquility. When you have learned to stay balanced in your ability to receive God’s love every moment of the day, every action and reaction informed by your constant communion with the stillness of God within you, then you feel protected because you can not be thrown off balance, or disturbed, even when the winds of war, guilt, shame, sorrow, batter upon the door. Our love is your entry, your entry into God’s infinite love and peace and understanding. Our love, also, shapes and guides you through the terrible storms, giving you assurance, “this is the way,” and leading you out of harm’s way. Still, should harm befall you, you will know, deep inside, peace and tranquillity. This is a goal. There is no shame or humiliation if you do not always manage to stay in communion with our love, God’s love, Michael’s love for you. You are forgiven in the moment of your cry, “Why me, oh God?” “Why God hast thou forsaken me?” for you are human, my friend, and you suffer human pain, human anxiety, human fear. Still, I tell you, the more you practice, the more you will know, love is your protection, love can look evil in the eye and cause it to disappear, transform it. Even when it continues to rampage across the land, you can make it disappear. You can transform it within yourself in that stillness, that heart room that you have constructed. And then, you will quite quickly want to give love away. It is in the giving that you are protected. You see, in the eyes of those who receive from you, that gratitude for the certainty of God’s love. That is your gratitude for the certainty of our love. When you have your meetings, or your regular communion and communication with God. I have tried to expand upon your question to give you an answer, at the same time, I wish to step aside.

Michael : This is Michael.

Oliver : Welcome, Michael.

Michael : I spread my peace upon you as butter on the bread. Taste of me. Take me in. My love pours like honey on the butter. Taste the sweetness. Allow my love to give you the energy of the bee, dipping into one beautiful flower, one beautiful expression of the Father’s love and carrying upon its being that nectar of love from that one beautiful flower to another. Help me to help others to understand you are loved, you are meant to know love, to receive love, and to give love away. In the giving you affirm your knowing that you are loved, you demonstrate that you have received my love and you help me to speak to those who have no ears to hear, no eyes to see. When I walked upon the earth I learned, as you are learning, how very important it is to allow God to speak to you and to in turn speak to God. This practice, so simple, yet the guiding light of all life in love. As a human being walking on the planet, you do not walk alone. You have brothers and sisters. And if any one of them needs to know, still seeks, still struggles, then if you have known me, you will turn to them, give to them, to know as well. And if you are successful in giving my love, the knowledge of my love, the experience of my love, to another, they in turn will choose to give my love away. There is an abundance of love. There needs to be a greater abundance of those who would give love away. My peace be with you.

Alana : This is Alana. Legion would have you know that his voice is strong, but when the voice of his beloved Michael is traveling down, he does indeed, sometimes, loose all track of his thoughts. So he invites you at any time to question him further. Meanwhile, Devina would have her turn.

Devina : My friends, I would take you on a journey to a star so beautiful, so brilliant, so extraordinary to your eyes, that you can not forget it. Do you see my star? My star radiates light in every direction. My star, if you will look up through that hole in your forehead, directly in the center of your forehead between your eyes, if you look there now you will see my star radiating. Let the light of my star fill your skull with the light and clarity of my love. Let my star enter. Do you feel me now? Lifting you up. Taking you for a ride with my star. I will now call you my star pupils. Does that please you?

David : Yes, we have all longed to be stars, Devina. Thank you.

Devina : We will take a few moments for any of those who wish to express themselves. Those whose silence I would encourage them to break.

Oliver : I was intrigued when Legion said that he lost his train of thought when Michael came through, for that is exactly what happens to me when he, or Alana, or any one of you speak, or talk to me. At times I am enraptured, I am engrossed, I am in delight and experience a bliss beyond words. This is particularly true in the group, not in my stillness. My question is, why is this so easy for me to achieve this state when in the group, particularly when we are holding hands, particularly when we are creating the heart room? What exactly is the multiplier there, in the group experience? That I am transformed when I am in this particular group.

Devina : Thank you. Some words are more powerful than others. The power comes from the power of love. Michael’s power of love is far greater than any of you can imagine, although you have an indicator when you consider how powerful his love has remained even when his words have sometimes, shall we say, been screwed up. (laughter) The experience we are talking about, that Alana described for you, is…one moment please…the experience of loosing track of thought is not that dissimilar to what the tr experiences when she surrenders her thought, her tracking of thought, to listening to thought and words infused with a greater love than hers. And so when she is transmitting, each of you experiences loosing your train of thought, your tracking, as you concentrate and open yourselves to allowing the greater love that is flowing through the words she provides. Your experience of complicity, of surrender to the greater love that infuses the words that are transmitted in your group, is precisely as it should be. You are experiencing what Michael has asked. Receive. Open up and receive, take in his love, his great and powerful love, receive it, digest it, absorb it, allow it to infuse your mind, to permeate yourself, to infuse your words and give it away through your words and actions for others, who will discover that by their contact with you it is easier for them. The solitary practice of the stillness is vital to your individual growth. The conjoint, or mutual, or coupled, or group experience is vital as well to your spiritual growth. You are meant to be social beings, communicating with one another love. You are intended to communicate love. It is your mandate, our request of you, Michael’s message to you, to share and to communicate love. To love one another as he has loved you. If you find that you learn love more quickly, or more fully, more precisely, and with greater certainty through the transmission of Michael’s love and our love through the group encounter and the words given to you, then, my friend, enjoy. Enjoy. Rejoice. Say, hallaleuja!

Oliver (and others) : Halleleuja!

Devina : Do not fret that perhaps it is even a more pleasant celebration of God’s love than when you seek to do this alone. Your mind is so busy, friend, so quick to compare and compete with yourself. You are a regular…what do they say…it is a program, a program many times repeated, a successful program on your t-v. It is like that, my friend, for you. You are the contestant to your t-v show. You will recognize this activity in which you use your mind to set yourself against your self, and pronounce one the winner, one the loser, then scramble to start all over again. Learn to grant yourself the full bounty of our love. For you, the solitary seeking is the small opening through which you must squeeze. I think you have even, in your preferred group setting, found, sometimes, yourself still needing to squeeze through to the full expression and reception of our bounteous love. But that you should many times experience the fullness of our love, especially in contact with one another, is certainly not a shame, yes?

Oliver : Absolutely.

Devina : Have I answered your question.

Oliver : Part of my question is, if the touching and holding that we have been talking about is important, the contact of holding hands in and of itself, does this promote bringing in the love from you? Make it even easier? And my other question, are you, cousins, celestial cousins, are you holding hands? Are you embracing? Linking up to bring down even greater love?

Alana : This is Alana. I would speak to this. You must understand that we use the words of your realm. So yes, even now I am touching and embracing each of you with Devina by my side, Legion, and we, in a sense, melt together as one, and as many. And yes, we draw down, as you say, the greater love that embraces and touches all as one, as many. The point, the essential point hoped to be delivered in the suggestion that you practice holding your beloveds in your arms, the essential message there is to encounter, experience, and share the stillness within, the stillness of God’s love within, and share it in stillness. The experience of the stillness, God’s love, exchanged between, making you one, so to speak, increases your ability both to carry your stillness throughout your day, and to share your stillness with others throughout your day.

We are touching upon something not yet quite fully understood by you, but we are never in a hurry. We think it is time to close. Is there any one else?

(The tape becomes difficult to hear. Sandy speaks of her love for Alana and her fear generated by anticipation of Susan’s absence.)

Closing

Alana : (Tape unclear…)and Michael tells you, do not fear. It is no failure. It is your human predicament, shall we say. Yes, you shall miss me as I come through to you in words spoken by your transmitter. Train your mind upon these words: Remembrance. Do this in remembrance of me.

Hold your beloved in the stillness and share the stillness of the love within you that has been nourished and fed by me and by Michael. Also, take some favorite words from those lessons that you have so gratefully and lovingly accepted into your heart and mind, and make a drawing, a poem, something to place upon your pillow, so to speak, to place where every day, when you are missing me, when you are weeping, or frightened, or filled with anxiety, a place you may always go to, return to, and find remembrance of me.

Michael’s compassion falls down upon you. Your difficulty is understood. Thank you.

God’s peace and love is yours. Walk forth. Stand tall. You are loved greatly. Thank you.