October 4, 1995

• Human response to spiritual awareness

• Right relationships

You all are resting in the light of God’s presence. We say that you are resting because you are removing yourselves from the daily concerns that so intensely occupy your lives. This opportunity to remove yourselves from the daily routine is absolutely essential for the nourishment of your souls. Your souls, of course, develop and evolve as a result of your activities, but you need to allow yourselves to find nourishment from the presence of your own soul. If your soul develops but you are not nourished thereby, much of the value of human life is lost. Your soul’s growth is of course the primary objective of life, but that growth needs to be enhanced by your human response to such growth.

You have a position of importance in the development of your souls quite apart from the souls themselves. If it were not so, you could merely exist, take no responsibility in your life, and allow the natural evolution of the spirit. But that is not the purpose of life. It is for you to respond to the development, to respond to the evolution of your spiritual side, allowing it to dictate more fully the way you live your lives. It is far too easy to ignore the spirit and to be consumed by the matters at hand. The present takes on tremendous importance and significance. If you allow yourselves greater awareness of the permanence that is a part of each of you, then the character of the present time is shaped and developed in such a manner that your souls will be able to draw more fully from human experience.

It is true your souls can develop outside of human life, but it also is true that human life is essential for the souls. The reason it is essential is because of the response of the physical being to the awareness of the spiritual being. There is no other reason for human life, for the soul can easily become aware of all that is encompassed in human life without necessarily existing in human life. The one element that would be missing would be the human response. So your physical response to your spiritual awareness is an integral part of your soul’s growth.

You have been given much insight to spiritual truths, but we see your physical response to that insight as less than what it could be. There is more that you can do to reach out and enhance the life of another. There is more that you can do to affirm the sacredness of all that has been created. Each of you can be more successful in your dealings with other people as spiritual entities.

The challenges of life are primarily challenges involving others. You feel insulted or betrayed or unfairly challenged by another. You fear judgment from another. You feel embarrassment because it involves another. You experience anger because it involves another. You may experience anger because it involves yourself. In all cases your involvement with others is central to your human experience.

Each of you must make a greater effort to increase your sensitivity to others, not in terms of what they can do to you, but what you can do for others. There is sacrifice intended in this remark, for you must be willing to reduce your own sense of self in order to elevate another. This elevation of which we speak can be one of physical aid, emotional support—it can take many forms. But what is most essential is that each of you spends more time doing something for others which will bring a reaffirmation of their values, a reaffirmation of their holiness, a confirmation of their spiritual worth. There is nothing that happens in life that is more important than your relationships with others.

When there is strife between two people, the agony of the disagreement is abated when there is a sense of common purpose. In truth, when there are disagreements, there are no winners or losers. There are merely participants, and when you participate in the life of another, you can no longer be in complete disagreement. It is not a matter of dominance, for when one dominates, that person feels vindicated, but the other feels a loss, a loss of a sense of self, a loss of a sense of value, personal value. When another experiences such negative feelings, there is no growth in the soul. There is no dignity in life. There is no dignity in the relationship.

Disagreements, differences in perspective, are inherent in human life and are to be embraced, but the reason they are to be embraced is that they provide the foundation for recognizing common purpose, for recognizing common value. If you acknowledge the importance of another, fully taking that other person’s position into your experience, whether or not you agree, there will be no grounds for vindictive behavior, no need to seek a kind of emotional punishment. There will be rather a conviction of the need for common grounds. When another is in distress, too often you stand by recognizing that distress, maybe feeling sorry for it, but not responding to it in a way that elevates the other.

It is important not to feel reluctant to be involved. Welcome those opportunities that mean risk-taking when what is at stake is the affirmation of another. This is much easier said than done, for there is a kind of background fear or suspicion or reluctance that if you affirm someone else with whom you may be in disagreement, you may somehow lose in a manner that only you can define. Take away the sense of winning or losing in personal relationships, for in a good relationship there are no winners, there are no losers—as we have said, there are only participants.

Your relationships with others must therefore be open and participatory. Each of you should be challenged to be better listeners, more willing to hear what is being meant rather than what is being said, being willing to listen beyond the word to hear the intent. You must be willing to place yourselves in the shoes of another. Find their perspective, understand their fears, their concerns. By so doing, you enhance peace— peace between two people, peace between groups and communities and nations. You are then working for harmony. Harmony does not mean a lack of disagreement, but merely the affirmation of the value of all that has been created.

You must always seek this equilibrium in your lives. Any pain, any agony, worries and anxieties are all a matter of a loss of equilibrium. When you are anxious there is something wrong. It may not be that over which you experience anxiety. The difficulty may actually be within you yourself, how you respond to what has happened, how you perceive what has happened. If you can change that perception, then the anxiety can disappear.

As you travel through your lives, seek out those moments when you sense a lack of equilibrium, and find ways of providing a sense that defines the moment as being the correct event at that time. Find ways of living with that condition and using that condition to benefit rather than to defeat. When you pray for another, you are aware of a lack of equilibrium. You recognize that someone else is being deprived of something that is important. You see that deprivation. Place yourself within the field of another who is deprived and recognize what it is that they really need, not what is merely apparent. By recognizing the real need, you are better able to respond in an appropriate manner. But such a positive response to another and to another’s need can only be affected when you place yourself in the position of the other.

When you pray for those who are ill, place yourself in the position of whomever is ill and imagine what it is that is needed. Is it a physical recovery or an emotional recovery? Perhaps what is needed is a sense of self-worth, a sense of being valued and loved, a sense of being respected. Recognizing that, you can offer that love, that respect, that concern that is really being experienced. Your relationships with others are always changing, for you are changing your perceptions of life-change as well as the perceptions of all others, and you must look for opportunities that emphasize the common perceptions and the common needs. This nurtures the soul. This provides the strength for development that can only be achieved through the human experience of life.

Your souls are indeed permanent. They had no real beginning per se, but they do continue to evolve. They do become stronger, but allow yourselves to participate in that strengthening by taking the responsibility of reflecting in your lives the perception of life viewed through your appreciation of the spirit.

We are always aware of your spirits. We are always in your light as you are in ours. The light strengthens one another. You strengthen us and we strengthen you. When you are removed for a brief moment from your daily concerns, we are given considerably more spiritual strength. It is a time for us to find renewal when we rest with you in God’s light. You are blessed as we are blessed. You are given nourishment from the same source that feeds us. We are strengthened when your lives reflect your spiritual awareness. We pray for that strength which comes only through your actions towards one another, emphasizing the spiritual unity which joins everyone.

Amen.