Nebadonia - The Inner Compass - Your Ntural State - Sep 12, 2005 - Marin TM, Mill Valley, CA
Nebadonia—September 12, 2005
Marin TM Group—Mill Valley, California, U.S.A.
NEBADONIA—T/R-JL
Dear Mother Spirit and Michael,
We must confess how we look forward to these meetings all through the day with a spirit of anticipation, and maybe too, an anticipation of spirit. It’s been many years now we’ve had these living conversations, many hundreds of hours, first with our dear brother Welmek, then with You and Michael. And so we know in our hearts that we are not just blind believers, nor incredulous, for we have tried your suggestions and found that they not only ring true, but they work! And so we thank You for these rewards we have been reaping--following our trust and faith in You. Amen.
NEBADONIA: Good evening, My sons, this is your Mother, Nebadonia. It always warms My heart so greatly for you to realize how directly I can feel your hearts beating right within Me. I remind you I am all about you, I surround you and support you and sustain you--as you say, twenty-four/seven. And I will always be here until that far, far distant day when Michael and I bid you a fond farewell and send you off into the galaxy. But even then We will follow your progress with a parent’s pride in Our offspring, and We will accompany you as We have been accompanying Our other children, bound for Paradise these many billions of years.
(To meet someone where they are, as who they are)
This is the depth you can find in Us, and even though it goes completely off the scale of your reckoning, I mention it to enhance your assurance of Us, We who have been here long, long before this planet formed. So We would have you appreciate, that as humanly ancient and enormous as We are, it is Our profound delight to be able to meet you where you are, as you are.
My dear children, what you give to Us is quite beyond uttering. We remark on the courage with which you open your hearts and your souls to take Us in. It is We who salute you. What greater joy could a parent have than to receive this kind of love from their children? It is why We treasure right along with you these wonderful rewards you are finding in trusting Us. For We are, for the most part, just pointing out our mutual Universal Father’s ways.
This is the nature of God that We are sharing. It is His delight that we love each other so. In your prayers to Us, and to our Father, you are, in a way, giving voice to His presence within you. You are giving consent to the promptings of He who dwells right within your minds and is co-creating along with you, your very soul. This is also the spiritual family of which you are a part and, as you have noticed, this has been one of the main emphasis’s of Our recent lessons to, in a way, introduce you to dimensions of your own self you either had not noticed before, or no one told you that you could develop as you are doing.
(Your inner Godly compass; the Big Plan)
As you were just talking among yourselves, it is very much as if you were born with a Godly spiritual compass, but for many of you, no one thought to introduce you to this marvelous instrument right within you, either that you had it or how to use it. And so it is Our delight to introduce you to yourself, and enjoy the surprise with which you discover you are so much more than you ever dreamed.
But I too must confess: this is part of the Big Plan. This is part of God himself teasing all of us, every last personal being out here in time and space, with constantly encountering so much more than what any of us could ever dream. I don’t believe I’m giving anything away here, My children, for as much as you come to anticipate this enormous outburst of glory from our Father, still you will not be able to dissemble your surprise upon encountering it. For in all God’s handiwork there is a touch of the Infinite. This is the open family secret, if you will, that awaits everyone.
This is just one more dimension to Michael’s wonderful gospel, the good news of the family of the children of God. Because a great part of this surprise in store for you, indeed the greatest value your soul can contain, are your brothers and sisters with whom you share your life. Every single one of them is a small, time-and-space-encapsulated soulful infinity. While it is true that every stone, every plant--every tree, every bird--everything bears the hallmark of God’s creativity in being somewhat unique, when you make that enormous leap to considering a personal being, a unique personality created directly by our Universal Father, don’t be surprised when once again your value meter goes off the scale.
(The perception of unfathomable individuality)
As was suggested once before in one of Our previous lessons, it is both interesting and of great value to look at society and how men and women relate in all the unique combinations that they do, and ask yourself, now that you perceive this unfathomable individuality, how is this perception handled--or avoided--person to person, and how it has been so all through history? This should give you an enormous insight then as to why things happened the way they did, so even more importantly: how can society grow and mature so as to allow more and more recognition of this supreme fact to be shared among your brothers and sisters?
This should give you some notions as to how you too must grow in order to acknowledge and make room for each individual and unique personality. But it all starts when this insight I’ve given you actually changes your perception and becomes a visible reality in your life. It begins to transform your thinking as to what a human being is, and what we can all do to not only enhance the quality of life but, on Urantia in particular, how we can all help to keep your brothers and sisters from killing each other.
Simplistic answers and solutions just won’t cut it. You must open your hearts—to feel, but also open your minds to accept the complexity of the situation and not be daunted by it. You must really think through again, and again, and again what effects follow what causes.
(Love with all you have, and are)
This is true love, really taking in and accepting your brothers and sisters as We do--where they are, as they are, in order to even begin to comprehend a solution that allows both of you to live. So love fully, My children. Love with your hearts--your feelings. Love with your understanding and your open-mindedness. Love with all the strength of your inclusive spirits which shut out nothing and no one. And if this stretches you rather thin at times, love with your souls. Love with all the love you have received from all the family and friends you have known. Love with all that you have shared so deeply with so many. We will be right beside you, marveling at your courage, thrilled that you are Our children.
If you have any questions or comments this evening, bring them to Me. One of My mother’s great joys is to have these conversations with you.
Student: Dear Mother Nebadonia, I’d ask for You to expound a little more on the word happiness. I studied emotions like, you know, exhilaration and enthusiasm, but happiness--Jesus mentioned quite a bit, happy a day and so forth, ah…satisfied… And I know that as we advance, that overall happiness will expand with the acceptance of our chores in the universe--become really more gripping, but this… Please expound on happiness.
(Happiness and joy)
Nebadonia: Yes, V--My son, you’ve done pretty well yourself there. But the word does carry certain connotations of superficiality in its current use in your culture, which is why We generally use the word joy or joyful. On a deeper level they are nearly synonymous. The English word that comes to My mind most readily, describing the joyful or happy emotions, is spontaneous. Because they are a consequence of something that seems to spring up by itself in certain circumstances, and be part of your wisdom. Part of your maturing as a person is to appreciate the fact that you cannot usually directly create happiness--that is, not the real thing. It’s more of a consequence of being in sync with something which is intrinsically expansive.
Now what do you know that is intrinsically expansive? That’s a rhetorical question, My sons! (group laughs) For We’ve been pointing at it now for many lessons. Something all around you, and right within you is growing, expanding, reaching out to encompass ever greater experience. And so when everything suddenly clicks in sync, and you are expanding, something is working. You are in touch with God’s will and God’s way. There is this signal from your spirit, like your personality in there is bursting forth and waving a flag signaling the rest of you, your body and mind, that yes! This is working! This is the way to go! This is real now! This is happening! This is joy! This is happiness, and it’s its own reward for being. Indeed, it is the reward itself. And so it is not superficial at all. It just takes maturity and a willingness to be in accord with something greater than yourself which enables happiness to be something more than a fleeting, mere token of itself. But this means too, there is no bottom to it. There’s no limit to how deep it can go--to how much in accord with your Father you can be. So trust it. Respect it. Let real joy help show you the way. Does this help you, My son?
Student: Yes, Nebadonia, it’s a wonderful lesson. It shows the graciousness and generosity of both Your personality, and Michael’s, and the overall tone of the whole universe. Thank You.
New student: Mother, I just wanted to ask: You’re a new concept to me. I knew about Mother Spirit and Christ’s consort from the Urantia Book, but I’ve never heard the term Nebadonia until three weeks ago. And I was wondering if that’s mentioned in the Urantia Book, or if it just came about?
(Nebadonia of Nebadon)
NEBADONIA: Yes, My son. The Local Universe that Michael and I have developed together with all of our many, many sons and daughters, is called Nebadon. And this is essentially where my name of Nebadonia comes from. Of course these are both just word-symbols in the English language as a close human approximation of what is on many other worlds and in many other languages, even spiritual languages, somewhat different. But My name and the name of our shared Local Universe are the same.
This is truly My realm. The physical dimensions of Myself and Nebadon are identical. I am surrounded by my Sister Spirits much like a bubble in foam: we delineate each others’ boundaries, spatially. And it is a very gracious acknowledgement of this by our Michael Creator Sons, that Our names are thus synonymous with our Local Universes. Does this answer your question?
Student: Yes, thank You, Mother.
NEBADONIA: You’re very welcome. Welcome to our group. I think you can feel these other sons of Mine are very generous with sharing their spirits. And be in My love.
Student: Thank you! It’s good to have a mother.
NEBADONIA: Yes, I have one Myself. (laughter) She’s called the Infinite Spirit.
Student: Mother Nebadonia, you and Father Michael at times have said, have asked rather, can we trust the Heavenly Father to put us together again when we wake up in the morning? And I don’t quite understand that. Is that literally putting us back together, or just more or less a figure of speech?
(Letting go and trusting God)
NEBADONIA (laughing): Well C, you got Me there, (hearty laughter) for it’s actually both. Physically our Father is supporting and sustaining what you call life. And in your present configuration, your personality depends on this living vehicle to contact impersonal reality, all the "stuff" about you, and this planet you’re living on. But insofar as this is a continuing living organism, Michael and I were referring more to your mind and spirit. Because as you go about your busy days, think of how little you are generally aware of the enormous--unfathomable to you as yet--complexity of your physical being. But you are aware of yourself, more or less, and you are more or less aware of the spiritual dimensions you enjoy as a perception of value. So it is mostly these mental and spiritual perceptions that you relinquish when you fall asleep. We are encouraging you to trust God to keep the watch through the night over your mind and your spirit and your soul, so your sleep can be truly restful and renewing. You can relinquish yourself--your self-consciousness, in full trust to God. For the deeper you can do this, the more complete will be the rest and renewal. And this is what We mean by God putting you together. Or as one of your poets put it so beautifully, "…and knit up the raveled sleeve of care."
This can go very deep, My son--this trust, this letting go, letting another day close, letting enough be enough. Let it go. Let it cease, so tomorrow can be a new day, another day, and not just a weary continuation of what has gone before. This is how you trust your Father to put you back together, one more time, as He has been doing ever since you were born. Does that help you, My son?
Student: Yes Mother, it does! And now that I recognize that trust has been well placed there all my life, it is easier to let the day go, and let tomorrow be tomorrow, instead of carrying over today into tomorrow. So thank You very much.
NEBADONIA: You’re very welcome, My son. There’s no greater theft of your piece of mind, and the health that is based on it, than a profound, almost existential worrying that frays your body and mind and soul to no purpose. For this is a symptom of a lack of trust. It’s though your faith and your recognition of what God has been doing for you all these years, as you just did, that truly puts an end to worry. It always helps to remind yourself, you’re not keeping your own heart beating. So rest in Our love--your Father’s and Mine.
Student: Yes, Mother. I was pondering over the idea of joy and happiness as well in that, would I feel--and we have talked about this before--is joy our natural state of being? It’s what God is. And it’s unaffected by what goes on around us. It’s who we are. But happiness is something that comes and goes? And it’s more from an external source. What I’m asking is, that when I do not feel joy within my being, when it seems to be clouded over by what I see and feel around me--and this is my reaction to what I see and feel around me--does that mean that I am out of harmony with my connection with God? Am I coming from my own misperceptions, or limited perceptions? Because if it is our natural state to be joyful, then why I am not joyful? Why don’t I feel it? And one question from that is: Did Jesus feel joy as He was being crucified?
(Michael’s experience as Jesus)
NEBADONIA: You know, My son, I sensed a whole series of questions there. (laughter) Concerning whether or not your present feelings indicate you are out of sync with God’s will or God’s way, I would have to say, not necessarily so. One of the greatest kinds of love that you humans share with each other is taking on each others’ burdens. When confronted with pain or sorrow, to give up your own joy to share the situation with your suffering brother or sister is a real gift of spirit. And son, when you ask how Michael experienced His human life, it was not so much different than this. Because it was for this that He gave up His self-consciousness of being a Creator Son to experience this very thing--the simple human-to-human sharing of whatever the situation holds, with all the enormous emotional variety which that implies. This is that very quality of respect we talked about, and your natural outgoing sympathy when confronted with suffering.
As you know from your text, as Michael continued to mature as a young man, yet still before He had gained the full recognition of not only who--but what kind of being--He was, He had ever deeper experiences of these spiritual dimensions We have been pointing out. This was His growing assurance the love and the mercy of God could encompass and ultimately triumph over all the very real suffering He could perceive. And as He has recently told you himself, He came to love this human life of His so greatly, that even though He had the power, as a Creator Son of God, to give up His physical life, He chose to stay with it to the very end. This is what Michael meant when He said that everything that happened to Him was by His choice--not that He chose a single instant of suffering, either for Himself or for any other being anywhere in existence, for that is neither Michael’s nor God’s nature. But when confronted with a situation, He chose to accept it in its fullness. And I would say this triumph of His, as He was being tortured to death, is indistinguishable from the definition you gave of joy--that which goes right to the core, deeper than what you call happiness. It was His final triumph that nothing could separate Him from His Father. He never lost His freedom through it all. Up to the very last instant of His human life, He chose to follow His Father’s will. And that is the true triumph of the way His human life ended--an unbroken continuity with all that had gone before.
So I will leave it to you, My son, for you are fully capable of deciding for yourself, if Michael knew joy during His last moments of life.
Student: What this shows me, and what Jesus--going through all this, shows me and shows the world, is that no matter how dark and bleak the situation might be, what torture a person may experience, we are always connected to God, to our Father. And that it wasn’t God’s will that Jesus be tortured; it was His will that Jesus loved those who tortured Him. And embraced them and forgave them. Thank You.
NEBADONIA: You’re very welcome, My son. As Michael told you during His last meeting, it was just His wish that every single person there could have felt the Father’s love as He did. And then He invited you to join Him by realizing this is our work together now: to help everyone perceive and feel that love.
(Your natural state)
I would only caution you on your understanding that your natural state is one of joy. Because even this puts some limitations on what you may spontaneously experience as you go through life. I would rather have you think that the natural state of your life is something unbounded. This is realizing how some things can only be discovered moment-to-moment, far beyond your knowing them beforehand, or even being able to categorize, for this is just one more way in which a faith in God is so very necessary. There is no natural state whatsoever you can rely on, or by which you can measure whether or not you are in accord with it. All you have is God, because He is all you need. Does this make sense to you?
Student: Yes, it does--very much so, because I was pondering that idea about joy, and kind-of spinning my wheels, reflecting that: why do I not feel joy; or asking, if I don’t feel joy, then I’m not connected with God? But I do know the joy is there beneath the agony that I feel sometimes, in what I see around me--the suffering of the people all over this world, and even in my midst. So I need to honor what I feel.
NEBADONIA: Yes. This is why I said your feeling pain and suffering, either yourself or for another, is not necessarily departing from God’s way, but rather acknowledging a reality in front of you, or within you.
Don’t forget, My son, you are a creature extending through time. Pain and suffering can overwhelm you and challenge your very completeness. And so it is with the spiritual strength of hope that you look forward, with Our assurance, to when the suffering will end. While there may not be any joy you can feel beneath anything at the moment, it awaits you absolutely and certainly. (Thank you.) You’re very welcome. You know you’re in My love.
So once again My children, let me applaud your courage. This is that ironic blessing of having been born on Urantia. (laughter) Here, as on few other worlds, you truly earn your souls. And for the terrible price you pay from time to time, We assure you these possessions, these experiences you are going through will be yours forever. Your spirits will emerge triumphant.
During your last meeting, Michael shared with you a realization He had as a young man when, as He became more and more aware of His deeper personality, He realized that His years as a human being would be very, very short compared to His whole existence as a Creator Son of God. And so He cherished each day all the more. But now I ask you, My children, are you so very different? Think of what lies before you--without end! Reflect on this and see each unique and living moment of time--never to be repeated, perishing almost as you observe it. Appreciate these so very short, intense lives you are living. When you awake someday on the other side, on the Mansion Worlds, this perspective will be just one more surprise God has in store for you.
Go to your rest tonight, and sleep deeply in My love. Good evening.
END