Nebadonia - Impatience - Courage - The Prison of Self - Feb 25, 2016 - Jerry Lane, Lightline
Mother Spirit Lightline -  February 25, 2016.
Nebadonia—T/R-JL
 

1. (Companionship-sharing Your Lives)
2. (Escaping the Prison of Self)
3. (The Blessing of Curiosity)
4. (The Mind-spirit of Courage))
5. (Courage to Welcome the Unknown)
6. (Courage Contra-distinct from Fool-hardiness)
7. (Foolish Impatience)
8. (Intuition, Knowledge, Understanding)
9. (Where Courage Leads)
10. (Trust, Faith, and Spontaneity)
11. (Respecting a Child’s Spirit and Autonomy)

NEBADONIA:

Dear Mother Spirit and Michael, welcome. Welcome. Come and be with us, although we know deep in our hearts--as we open our hearts and minds to you--that you are always already here. Your presence is within us and all around us.

Still and all, we do admit to ourselves that your very nature is nigh incomprehensible in spite of all the ways that the human race has personified you, in all the goddesses of all the religions and cultures of the world. This is why we are very thankful for our wonderful Urantia Book with its whole chapters on you and Michael, giving us all of your attributes.

Yet you are still nigh incomprehensible! We can only imagine what it is having a soul of experience of hundreds of billions of years now, so many times more than what our science tells us is the age of the universe. We can only imagine what it is to be spread out over so many thousands of cubic light years of space, attending to your children on nearly four million inhabited worlds like ours--plus on all the architectural spheres of our local universe.

You have invited us so often to go out on a clear, star-lit night when there is no moon to out-shine all the little ones, just see and open our minds and hearts to the Milky Way out there in the whole sky. We can imagine you spread out across all of that. Then to think you are right within us, part of us, part of our minds, part of our own creative spirit.

So, dear personal being who is on the very edge and beyond of our comprehension, we do sincerely appreciate that you can talk to us. You delight in transmitting to us, and you have let us know so many times that any of us—not just me and other Transmitter-Receivers--but any of us with a mind to do it, can receive you. Anyone can open their little recorder and record what you have to say. In this too you are truly universal. For all of this we do thank you. Amen. Nebadonia: Good evening, my children. This is your Mother Spirit, and I thank you for your kind and generous invitation. As Michael and I have taught so often, it is a good thing for you to be humble, for it is a spiritual blessing to acknowledge that which is so much greater than yourselves. It helps you keep in touch with us, for Michael and I, like any proud parents, delight when you address yourselves to us and say hello. We really enjoy that, so again, this is an open invitation that just anytime, anytime it occurs to you, day or night, we appreciate it when you set aside a few minutes in your busy lives to be quiet, and still, and say, “Hello Michael. Hello Mother Spirit. Thank you for me.”

(Companionship-sharing your lives)

Tonight I would like to talk about a few of your attributes, a few of your dimensions of being human. I think the greatest of these is the way you are so much like our universal Father, like God himself. It is the way you can share your lives with others. It is called companionship--your ability and desire to have companions with whom to share your days and your nights. This is part of God’s great nature, this whole notion of sharing oneself, or none of us would exist. We can know that each of us shares a little spark of his infinity.

As you have been told, and it is so true, that your very personality, your uniqueness coming right from him--as does Michael’s and mine--cannot in any way be finally or ultimately captured. In this we are most like him, and we belong not only to ourselves, but to him as well. We share our inner lives with him. Then you can choose to share your lives with the others around you. This is that magical one-and-one-makes-three because, first, you have your unique personality like no other. Second, your companion is like you in this, in that he or she too is utterly unique among all other people. When the two of you get together, you both share another third dimension that is equally unique to just the two of you.

This is companionship--this friendship, this shared soulful quality, because you are now in each other forever. Your souls are as open to yourselves and to each other as you acquire the ability to tune in--tune into yourself and tune in to each other. You can share your histories, your actual living experience.

 (Escaping the prison of self)

True companionship gives you so much. Above all it gives you a way of escaping what we sometimes call the prison of self. I am sure you all know some poor, unfortunate soul who is so self-centered, so totally insecure in themselves and in their life, they are desperately clinging on to themselves and can hardly be companionable at all. You try to carry on a conversation with them and all they are doing is waiting for you to be quiet so they can express themselves. No matter what you say to them, if it doesn’t directly relate to them in some way or another, it is meaningless to them.

By their example you can know in your own self, in your own soul, what a terrible prison this is. Your own companionship and your own delight in sharing yourself and enjoying other folks can be the most precious experiences of your life. Because if you can let go, if you do have the wonderful quality of self-forgetfulness, you can take in another totally. Then if they too have this wonderful quality of self-forgetfulness, this third dimension of the-two-of-you, the companionship, becomes a very lively dance all by itself, does it not? Who knows where it will go? Who knows what it can encompass?- -because you are both bringing your own unfathomable souls to the present moment. For remember: you are both somewhat infinite to yourselves. This is the state of your existence, my children: you can only know your own souls kind-of moment-by- moment. You await that magical transformation, sometime in the future, you will have that promised moment of becoming one with your own soul and the presence of its co- author, God himself. This will be the fusion of all that you are and have been, wrapped up in this unfathomable soul of yours.

But until that transformation, what a wonderful thing to let your soul come forth and remind you of all you’ve been. This humility of realizing all that you are and have been gives you the ability to acknowledge all that your companion is too. This is the promise and the actual reward of companionship, of having real, honest-to- God, living and breathing companions with whom to share your life.

 (The blessing of curiosity)

All this comes about with the help of another great quality I’d like to talk about tonight, and that is curiosity. Let’s pause a moment to wonder: what is it? (I must confess I am teasing you with the very thing) What is curiosity? What is it that catches your attention, sometimes even in spite of yourself--especially when you were younger and didn’t have that much control over yourself. What is it that captures you and says, “Look here! What is this?”

It could be whole world all around you, strange and new and maybe even a little scary. Think of your delightful little furry creatures and the nursery-rhyme notation that curiosity kills the cat. Of course as you grow older, you realize that curiosity is just part of their nature to examine everything, though perhaps the more cynical among you would say that it is just their hunting instinct, looking for some other little furry thing to pounce on and eat. Or maybe you have seen cats prowling around and standing up to look out the windows like some nervous gun-fighter, wondering about some bigger cat that might eat them.

But in human beings, curiosity is an innate soul-hunger to know what is out there. What is all around you? Even at a very young age it includes wondering: what am I? What are these little wiggling things on the end of my arms; then exploring and finding you have hands and feet and even a stomach that gets hungry. All this curiosity leads you to discover everything you know, everything you contact to understand.

It is a wonderful hunger because it can be satiated. It can be fulfilled. It can lead you to a kind of ease for a while as you sit there with all you have come into contact, and know, and understand. You can let it all go in a good-night’s sleep and even dream of it all in all its mystery.

Curiosity led you to the others all around you. As you let go of your family, your mother and father, and maybe brothers and sisters, and headed out there to school— your first, second, and third grade, your class room; remember all the others you met your own age, and the curiosity. Who were they? What was this sex thing? What were boys? What were girls? Why were you and they the way you were?

What a wonderful blessing curiosity is. And what a terrible tragedy it is with those who feel they are cursed with curiosity, that some way or another they have to numb out to shut it off. They just want to close in upon themselves and not be curious about others because, perhaps, they never acquired the social skills to satisfy, to share in joy with others and satisfy their curiosity. So think of the satisfaction, my dear ones, that has led you to know so much.

 (The mind-spirit of courage))

I would like to mention one other attribute that I actually help increase right within you. If you will, I augment another real ability of yours. As I mentioned companionship- -what your Urantia Book calls my Mind/Spirit of Counsel—helping you enjoy each other as you counsel together and share your experience—this is the mind/creative spirit quality of courage.  

What is courage? If new experience it is one of the most crucial, welcome, and valuable of attributes, the ability that enables you to do difficult things is itself so precious. Seen in this light, you can never have too much of it--not the real stuff. Instead you might have a kind of fake courage you call fool-hardiness, a lack of acknowledgement and respect for the situation where you just charge blindly into something, and perhaps get wiped out for that very reason.

Genuine courage is not being fool-hardy. It is exactly the opposite. It means with all the fear and trembling that fills your soul, your mind, your spirit, even your whole body, you are still able to act. You still to have the determination to do the right thing. Think how this necessary attribute feeds and supports your curiosity, to not only be curious, but to have the courage to explore it. For that exploration can extend to all the aspects of you. Physical courage is needed to get out there and do whatever it is, perhaps even risk your life and limb--as you say.

Then to follow your curiosity about “what if…” or “wouldn’t it be nice to…”—you can fill in the blank—it takes mental courage to be open-minded and not just cling to what you have already known and experienced, but to let all that go, put it all on the line because something new suggests itself. Or you are simply in an honest experiment and you have to find the courage to be open-minded to whatever comes out.

 (Courage to welcome the unknown)

Some of your famous scientists have said that they suddenly encountered some new fact that challenged everything they believed up to that point. They had to have the courage to let all that investment in time and energy go in order to follow this new thing that appeared to be negating everything they had known up to that point, and simply, but profoundly, step off into the unknown. So this is another dimension of mine that I share with you, this thing of courage, of determination, of the ability to do what your heart, your mind, and your soul suggests.

Now, my dear ones, if you have any questions or comments on these attributes of being human, or anything else, let us both open our minds and welcome them. Come forth, if you will.
Student #1: I have an idea on courage that seems to involve a lot of faith. You just can’t know everything so you have to have the courage of your faith to jump into something and do it. But I also like the idea of fool-hardy, actually, because after a kind of spontaneous thing you have to have the courage to go out there and try something new. If you can’t know everything, you can think to yourself it is fool-hardy. I was wondering if you could talk a little more about the difference of being fool-hardy, and courage.

 (Courage contra-distinct from fool-hardiness)

Nebadonia: Yes, my son. Courage--to me—is the human ability to act or to do, the determination to do what you feel is right--all the while admitting and feeling all the fear that might be keeping you from doing that! It means staying open, moment by moment. You have a commitment, a determination, to understand moment by moment that your fear that can be a righteous caution.

Think about traveling a very dark, winding road at night with only that oncoming road dancing in your headlights.  You are determined to go somewhere and you know you have to be very attentive moment by moment. You can feel, not just the fear, but the caution that keeps you from going too fast and throwing your life away by ignoring the present situation and all the threat that it contains.

Whereas fool-hardiness is saying “Well, to hell with this caution, I’m just going to rush into whatever it is. Whatever scary thing it is, whatever threat is coming at me, I’m just going to let myself go.”

It’s called fool-hardy because yes, you may be very hardy, but you’re a fool because you’re throwing your life away. You’re refusing to acknowledge the genuine fear and threat in the situation. You’re refusing to feel. You have a saying about your alcoholic drinks that “courage comes in a bottle,” but it doesn’t always take some strong booze. Some folks haven’t the courage or nerve to stay with the situation moment by moment, but can only throw themselves into it. The reason fool-hardiness has such a negative connotation is because of the result.

 (Foolish impatience)

Impatience often leads to this kind of fool-hardiness, whereas courage means the ability to not just react right within that feeling. Fear may sometimes be overwhelming, but it can be a wisdom coming from your whole self, your whole sense of past experience and your soul--all your deeper knowledge and understanding. These can give rise to a fear that is simply caution. You need to do your best to feel it, acknowledge it, and respect it. And still act!

That takes courage. Does this give you some notion? It’s not being a fool, but the exact opposite.

Student: Yes, a little bit. Still… I guess I’m kind of impatient and spontaneous, and I kind of rely on… I get myself in trouble, but I kind-of rely on your spirit of intuition. I just jump into things and hope my spirit and intuition are going to guide me through. It is kind of an adventure, and I do feel kind of a fool because sometimes I end up in something I wasn’t expecting. But I am always learning.

Could you talk a little bit more about the spirit of intuition and how it guides our courage?

 (Intuition, knowledge, understanding)

Nebadonia: Yes, my son. Intuition has a lot of different connotations, but we mean it as your very most basic, direct, immediate perception, your experience of life itself in all of its dimensions. It’s your ability to know both yourself and others--the essence of experience itself. You store that living experience as knowledge; you know something because you’ve done it. And of course you have vicarious experience, the way your intuition can give you an experience because you’ve read it in a book.

Yet even that is a creative, learned art because, as you know, some folks can get an enormous amount of experience from reading, while others who have not learned that particular art cannot.

Sometimes intuition can be led by curiosity to an openness, a wondering about what something is, that leads you to more experience. Also sometimes, the intuition of your whole being can present you with certain feelings, such as fear. All of a sudden, you don’t even know where it is coming from, but you hesitate or stop because you have this feeling. It may take you a few moments to realize what is causing it. As I said before, it’s wonderful to be open to caution, where to be fool-hardy is to deny any kind of fear.

It does not take courage to feel impatient, or the inability to experience fear. But my son, the very fact that we are here, talking together, means that most of your fool- hardiness has been genuine courage, or you simply would not be here. Every person in their life--especially in your highly mechanical age now—has experienced more than one time the impulse to throw their life away; yet here you are. Does this give you a deeper notion?

Student: Thank you for exploring that with me.

 (Where courage leads)

Nebadonia: Thank you. Again, my son, I congratulate you on your courage, especially with those things that were a total surprise and you could not anticipate. That is the very purpose of courage--to lead you to things that you have not yet encountered. Consider what happens after this human life of yours. Go out on a starry sky at night and entertain the notion that that is where you are headed. That is where your curiosity will be leading you, and all the courage, all this ability you will have acquired, will stand you in good stead. So be in my Love.

Student: Thank you. (long pause) If there is not another question, I have another one for you.

Nebadonia: Of course. Go ahead.
Student: Imagine two people coming together in a third dimension. I got an idea that as two people come together, there is always a medium between the two, kind-of like a quantum affect in the sense that Paradise is the center. So any interaction between two people always goes through Paradise first, then goes to the other person, which gives it that one-plus-one-equals-three. Can you explore that a little bit?

 (Where one and one make three)

Nebadonia: Well, yes, my son. You definitely have your finger on it insofar as each of you is unique, right from God. That means that any time two of you get together, that combination, that living dynamic, is also unique.

But believe me, it doesn’t have to go through Paradise. It is right down here on earth, and im-mediate—no intermediary--because each of you has your own intuition of each other. Obviously your intuition of each other is enormously complex, depending on how long you have known each other. Are you brand new? What prejudices—pre- judging--are each of you bringing to the meeting? But because the meeting is itself   unique, it’s why I called it a “third party”—the shared companionship that can arise. And of course you can have more than two. You can have three, or four, or a whole group that is unique to themselves.

Think of religion mainly as your personal relationship to God. Yet this can be socialized in what you normally called “religion” as a group of people coming together to share and enjoy their religious and spiritual experiences. The different religions of the world vary according to the different cultures that people are raised in. So this is the extra something that comes about when people get together.

What we call companionship concerns the dearest true companions that you’ve had in your life—what you call your closest friends--those with whom you’ve shared the broadest and deepest experience. This is what I mean by that “third something,” that living companionship that arises that is just as unique as the two of you are. Does that fill the bill?

Student: Yes, that is pretty good. I feel it seems that always when people interact they are transcending the frame or background--sort of what you are saying. I was thinking: there is always a background there. You are saying we transcend the frame we are working in--and our circumstances—when we are into pure communication.

 (Trust, faith, and spontaneity)

Nebadonia: Yes! When each person is open-minded and sufficiently curious, the third thing, the relationship, can be very spontaneous. It can transcend what either one can anticipate. That is really the delight! Two friends who have known each other for fifty years or more, can still get together and have something spring up all by itself. It’s that very “something else” that is actually holding them together. It’s something that spontaneous arises which is beyond what either one can create by themselves alone. It comes about when each lets themselves go, not controlling the situation, but with an earned deep trust and faith in their basic humanity, this basic incomprehensible part of another person you can never throw a loop around. Rather, you can simply respect it and have a humble, delightful attitude toward another person. You appreciate them so much you let them be. And they let you be. Then something spontaneous arises. We call this spirit because it is alive and creative. It is capturing the aspect of now that has not happened before and will never happen again.

I pointed out poor souls that cannot let go of themselves and actually know this. It is tragic indeed when they have to control everything to be sure that nothing spontaneous does arise, they are so afraid of others. So it does take courage to really enjoy spontaneity and let it come about.

Student: Thank you.

Nebadonia: Thank you, my son. These are fun things to explore are they not? Be in my love.

Student: One more comment I have, and that is: one beauty of personality is that it is made to interact with other personalities. That is its purpose; and that is a kind of beauty.

 (Respecting a child’s spirit and autonomy)

Nebadonia: That interaction is the great ability of those who were fortunate enough to have had wonderful parents. If the parents are this way with each other, and with their children, it is the way they give their children autonomy right from the very beginning. They can recognize that yes, although this little creature, this little boy or girl definitely came from all their efforts, his or her personality is coming from God. What a gift to enjoy and acknowledge this even to a very young child, and respect that this little creature of theirs has his or her own autonomy: and relate that way!

What a blessing. What a total blessing for a child to have this kind of parents who can enjoy and enter into a spontaneous exchange, encouraging and acknowledging their child’s creativity.

Well, my dears, if there are no further questions or comments, this has been a long lesson--getting together this evening. I’ll go ahead and wrap things up with my blessing upon you all.

Thank you so much for attending these sessions, and creating what you call the gestalt- -the shared mind that we have during these lessons, with these marvelous technological inventions of yours--these telephones.

So bid you all Good Night. Be in my love.