PURPOSE of TEACHING MISSION

Q: What kind of cooperation is desired of us for the teaching mission to do the most good?

A: Yes. In your teaching mission, our teaching mission, the first major task is to achieve fellowship among the teaching group members themselves. As some of you have discovered this is not as easy as it may appear from the outside. Once this goal has been achieved, the next step will be to go forth - each person respectively - into your society and bring forth the same fellowship you have learned in your teaching group, following the example of Michael as much as you possibly can. Between these two chores, you will find yourself kept most busy. And this teaching mission, in its second phase particularly, will most certainly go beyond many of your lifetimes.

S: You know the problems I have with my health. Could you have the Life Carriers assess me now and see how I am doing? I am trying to follow the instructions you gave me on holistic medicine, herbs, trace minerals, and so on, and I feel much better.

R: A moment please, (S). (Pause) I am sorry to inform you that I am no longer permitted to assess health issues. This decision was high level, for a myriad of reasons. It is not personal to you. (01/21/93)

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Q: Rayson, a friend of mine is just beginning to read The Urantia Book. I went to see a movie about extraterrestrial abduction of humans the other day, and she is asking me questions. To the best of my ability I tried to explain that this was not possible. But she had done some little research on the subject and maintains that there's a great deal of it going on. Is that so? Is there in fact any kind of visitation happening other than the teaching mission and the celestial students?

A: We are not allowed to comment in this area. However I would not be surprised.

Q: Are these renegades?

A: (long pause.) There are many complicated issues involved, and I am not allowed to give further information. (03/28/93)

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Q: [To Teacher BERTRAND] A thought has been growing in my mind since I first became aware of this teaching mission that the teaching groups serve a number of purposes, including protected practice areas where each of us can develop whatever skills are relevant to our personal missions. For example, healing skills, transmitting/receiving skills, and will also help us to accelerate our own spiritual growth. My sense is that, as the teaching mission progresses, people who have reached a certain stage of ripeness or maturation with respect to their participation in a teaching group will kind of graduate to start to serve their mission in the world at large, whatever that may be.

A: [BERTRAND] that is true. The teaching mission is designed to prepare students for their missions. Once they have reached a certain level of preparedness they will be coaxed out of the nest and with loving care and guidance of their Thought Adjuster and their personal teacher strike forth into the world bearing the banner of Michael in whatever way has been determined. This is, indeed, a practice ground for your future assignment. In our class we have been studying many different levels of service, of recognizing truth seekers, of spreading the love of God. The same has occurred here. And eventually you will go forth secure in the knowledge that you have the skills necessary to undertake the assignment you have been given.

On the teaching worlds, the Melchizedek teaching worlds, you are given assignments and you are given full knowledge and full help to complete that assignment. The same occurs here. This is a Melchizedek teaching mission. You are given an assignment and you will be given all the tools necessary to complete that assignment. You are beginning the morontia lessons now.

Q: Additionally, as we progress with this, I have an increasingly strong sense that each of us has received clear statement of our mission at the time of the endowment of our Thought Adjuster, and that statement is finally seen by us when we reach a stage of ripeness or spiritual maturity such as we achieve in this teaching mission.

A: At the time the Thought Adjuster chooses you, he is given - as you have read - a projection of your life mission. Once you become aware of the presence of God within you, it then becomes your task - through the practice of the stillness - to discover what that mission is. You are correct.

R: If there are no other comments or questions, then I do have one final statement regarding the nature of the channeling that is and has occurred, is occurring. These lessons are not intended to be a reiteration of Urantia Book statements, nor are they intended to be a grilling opportunity for the one who has offered to channel. This is not an oral examination of the entity, nor of the human. Rather, the lessons are an expression of the understanding of spiritual principles by the entity as transmitted through the human channel with the understanding that the human channel attaches to these principles. It is impossible to avoid a flavoring that is added by the intellect and beliefs of the channel or transmitter/receiver. But it is not in the interests of the teaching mission to split hairs over such biases unless the group finds them so pervasive that they interfere with the material of the lesson, in which case a different channel should be sought. If this is your sense with respect to the present channel, then please take the appropriate action.

S: Rayson, every time I come here I leave with two things. I'm coming from a point of not being able to fit in here because as you know my background with the Urantia Book is very rudimentary at this point. However, there are two things that stand out for me. I always get something validated, either a belief system or a slight idea that's beginning to grow, and it always happens that you confirm that. And that's a great feeling. And the second thing that I always get is like a new jumping off point in terms of concept. It's like a giant - you talk about the stairs - but for me they're like big blocks, and every time I come here, I come away with a feeling of having jumped higher to a bigger block. And I take that away and am able to use it, and my sense of it is that if that's what I go away with then the mission has been accomplished for that one meeting. Is that accurate?

A: If those are your feelings, then yes, it is accurate.

S: Rayson, I want to thank you again and again, and I really enjoy the relationship you have with (T/R). It's wonderful, and I think everyone in the room should comment on this statement.

S2: Definitely, I would like to right away. I agree that splitting hairs can certainly get in the way of the objective of the mission. But I would also say that for me personally today the conversation ended up making me understand the lesson even better. But I am certainly concerned that it might undermine the confidence of the T/R or channel. I hope that it has not, because I believe the spirit of the questioning is always in the interest of understanding the ideas that you are trying to communicate to us. For me, at least on this occasion, it really did have the benefit of helping me to really understand the lesson even better.

S3: Yes, I'd like to echo that, and I understand, being a TR myself that sometimes something that someone says could hurt the feelings of the T/R who - even though as hard as he or she might try to stay out of the way - can't help hear - some of the words. My intent is not to split hairs but I have that kind of a mind that when something is not clear, I like to have it clarified or I like to clarify it myself. And any ensuing discussion which is brought about because of that, I feel, is good. It has been my understanding that the teachers welcome sincere discussion because that is what causes good relationships among peoples and beings. That was my intent, and I hope that you are not discouraging any of this in the future.

I'd like (T/R) to become aware that I hold her with utmost respect and admiration for doing this, and that I really hope that she is not hurt in any way from any comments that I might make.

S4: I think it's very important - I am particularly bad at this and continue to try to learn to do this better - it's very, very important to learn to phrase a question or a comment so that it is completely nonconfrontive. And maybe you have to think about it for a long time before you come up with just the right wording, but it's all important in my mind.

S5: Rayson, I never thought of changing TR's. I feel so comfortable with (T/R) and you and the relationship you have. I really enjoyed the discussion, though I guess at the time it seemed a little confrontational. The results seem to have been beneficial, and I hope that both you and (T/R) are alright with that.

R: In answer to all of your comments, I offer this. It is not only the biases of the channel that may make a particular lesson or concept seem at variance with what you read in Urantia book, it is also the bias of the teacher. Not every teacher, including myself, sees particular items exactly as they are presented in your book, and you have all experienced this through this channel and other channels, if you recall. It is not my job as a teacher to this group to reiterate the book. That was already done quite well by many others, most of whom are at a much higher rank than I hold in the grand scheme. Rather, it is my job to try to present concepts at the human level through a human's brain and a human's mouth and respond to discussion. And that does seem to be happening adequately with the channels that exist, and the ones who are being prepared.

This is not meant to be a legalistic exercise in theology, and it is important that you all understand that. There are other avenues that can be pursued if you wish to have legalistic discussions in theology. They are not in place yet, but will be offered in future. I am certainly not a perfect authority on the matters of the universe. I only offer my own vantage point.

S: Rayson, you are well-suited for this group and we do love you.

S2: Yes, indeed and we do appreciate and get inspiration and motivation from your lessons. They are wonderful, and I'm glad it's not a reiteration of the Urantia book. We have eyes to read with.

S3: I just marvel at how adept you are, Rayson, at coordinating different parts of the Urantia book which are not connected in the book itself. For example, the concept of worship is completely different from the art of living which is given in the Rodan papers, and I was marveling, during the course of the morning, how well you were doing with the different concepts in the Urantia book and in the Rodan papers. I congratulate you.

R: You must remember, my friends, that I too was a mortal being once, and not only do I have my own biases as a mortal being, but I have my biases from my existence beyond that life and I am not of the level of those who transmitted the papers.

S: We understand that. We sure do appreciate it.

R: Some of the mistakes are mine rather than the channel.

S: And let us not forget that without this group Rayson would not have a chance to learn and grow as well, which I think is part of this process, yes?

R: True.

S: Rayson, I really thank you too for the fact that you continue to use the Urantia book teachings with which we are familiar as a groundwork for your lessons. Without that framework, which a lot of people don't have handy, you bring it in a very personal way, very understandable, coordinating the thoughts and concepts of the book usually in different ways that make it more and more applicable to our daily lives and to the mission. And for that I really really appreciate what you're doing every day.

R: Thank you. This group will in the not too distant future receive a channel who has almost no knowledge of the Urantia book and so this issue of adhering perfectly to the book with respect to details will be even more confounded than it presently is with this channel. If that is not acceptable to some of you, you may wish to excuse yourselves when said channel starts to transmit because it may be very annoying to receive teachings that do not directly link to the Urantia book as you have become accustomed to. This is something for you to ponder on and discuss among yourselves.

The advantage of such a channel is that there will be a completely different vantage point with respect to a number of issues that will be presented. The disadvantages I have already stated. But remember, my friends, that your mission is ultimately not to remain an exclusive group, but rather to take these teachings out to the great mass of people and spread them in the only way that they can be spread that will really persist through your behavior, through your actions. I must now leave. I bid you farewell. (08/28/93)

"Michael est toujours au Volant."

(Michael is always at the Steering Wheel.)

11:11 Angels