Here are some takeaways from our Workshop with Guy and Agnés

Video link at bottom

• Simplicity brings us closer to Go
• “God Lives Within You” – those words can change your life
• Best way is to communicate regularly is to have a Divine Appointment
• Dear God, Help me with the “NOTS” in my life:  The will not, the cannot. And release me from the would not, should not”
• The Inner Life is the womb of the soul
• Challenges are a gift – without them we don’t grow
• Cultivate control over your complaints
• Become allergic to negativity
• Allow the GPS -God’s personal service to be your assistant.
• May you have enough happiness to keep you sweet, enough trials to keep you strong. And enough determination to help you make each day a better day.
• God trusts us with problems to solve. Problems build our cosmic resume so we can continue to be of service in this world and the next.
• Keep your connection to God charged like you would keep your your cell phone charged
• Don’t leave home without God! 

The quote from The Urantia Book that was our focal point:

The Adjuster’s Significance
“Can you really realize the true significance of the Adjuster’s indwelling? Do you really fathom what it means to have an absolute fragment of the absolute and infinite Deity, the Universal Father, indwelling and fusing with your finite mortal natures?” (107:4.7)

The Adjuster’s Plea
“And now, without injury or jeopardy to the subject of my solicitous devotion and without intent to overchastise or discourage, for me, make record of this my plea to him.” Then followed a beautifully touching and appealing admonition. Among other things, the Adjuster pleaded “that he more faithfully give me his sincere co-operation, more cheerfully endure the tasks of my emplacement, more faithfully carry out the program of my arrangement, more patiently go through the trials of my selection, more persistently and cheerfully tread the path of my choosing, more humbly receive credit that may accrue as a result of my ceaseless endeavors—thus transmit my admonition to the man of my indwelling. Upon him I bestow the supreme devotion and affection of a divine spirit. And say further to my beloved subject that I will function with wisdom and power until the very end, until the last earth struggle is over; I will be true to my personality trust. And I exhort him to survival, not to disappoint me, not to deprive me of the reward of my patient and intense struggle. On the human will our achievement of personality depends. Circle by circle I have patiently ascended this human mind, and I have testimony that I am meeting the approval of the chief of my kind. Circle by circle I am passing on to judgment. I await with pleasure and without apprehension the roll call of destiny; I am prepared to submit all to the tribunals of the Ancients of Days.”  110:7.10

THE KNOTS PRAYER  

Dear God:

Please untie the knots

That are in my mind,

My heart, and my life.

Remove the have nots,

The can nots and the do nots

That I have in my mind.

Erase the will nots, may nots,

Might nots that may find

A home in my heart.

Release me from the could nots, would nots

and should nots that obstruct my life.

And most of all, Dear God,

I ask that you remove from my mind,

My heart and my life all the “am nots”

That I have allowed to hold me back,

Especially the thought

That I am not good enough.

 Amen.

(by Lyania Varizant)

NEW FACTS

The Urantia Book is filled with new facts. Do we accept them as new or do we try to interpret them with the old?

“The story in the lobby” – the Divine lives within you, this has nothing to do with. This is God’s decision. This is a universal fact. The only decision that belongs to you is you do something about it or no.

112:2.7 (1228.2) The universe fact of God’s becoming man has forever changed all meanings and altered all values of human personality.

It is a universal fact that God wants to become man, to become you, to become me. For everyone that has a Thought Adjuster – not only Jesus.

1. God has given us everything

2. Good wants to transform us – we have to ask for it and welcome the change

3. Once transformed, God needs us – the drive comes from within

The Spirit of Truth pervades our soul and shows us the Way.

God, our Father and our Thought Adjuster – are personal experience felt in all our being

It is good to have the information – but this is transformative information that needs to be feelingly experienced.

Now the big question: How can I improve my relationship with my Divine Indweller?

1. Commune in worshipful meditation

2. Communicate through effective prayer

3. Collaborate in unselfish service

Commune and communicate are inner activities

Cut the internal stimuli – stop outer activities

We need to develop our inner life – without an inner life, our spiritual life is lacking.

THE INNER LIFE – The womb of the soul

“The womb of the soul” – I don’t need to think about the eyes, the hands, etc.

Same process for the soul.

The movie “Letters to God”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWR55eWQMbc

ENOUGH PRAYER

May you have

Enough happiness to keep you sweet,

Enough trials to keep you strong,

Enough hope to keep you happy,

Enough failure to keep you humble,

Enough success to keep you eager,

Enough friends to keep you comfortable,

Enough wealth to meet your needs,

Enough enthusiasm to look forward,

Enough faith to banish depression,

Enough determination to make each day a better day.

It is all about love

Moving from the concept of the Thought Adjuster to the reality of the Thought Adjuster within – a personal experience

Be afraid of losing of God – trusting our Heavenly Father might be a difficult experience for some (for example, when you lose your Father at 5)

Don’t grow faster than you can

“The Spanish woman at the Urantia conference on Staten Island”

“My own experience”

Spiritual progression is two-fold

1. Religious growth –

• Humility – being teachable
• Be careful of spiritual by-passing – avoiding the psycho-spiritual work.
• The work is important, the self is not.

The soil essential for religious growth presupposes a progressive life of self-realization, the co-ordination of natural propensities, the exercise of curiosity and the enjoyment of reasonable adventure, the experiencing of feelings of satisfaction, the functioning of the fear stimulus of attention and awareness, the wonder-lure, and a normal consciousness of smallness, humility. Growth is also predicated on the discovery of selfhood accompanied by self-criticism—conscience, for conscience is really the criticism of oneself by one’s own value-habits, personal ideals.

The Urantia Book 100:1.5

Mental poisons – fear, suspicion, impatience, intolerance, vanity, pride

2. Spiritual growth

The transformation comes from God

(100:2.1) Spiritual development depends, first, on the maintenance of a living spiritual connection with true spiritual forces and, second, on the continuous bearing of spiritual fruit: yielding the ministry to one’s fellows of that which has been received from one’s spiritual benefactors.

Worship & service: we are transformed as we are serving.   

Combining worshipful meditation with service is essential. 

Bring all together in unselfish service in prison ministry.

Picture in prison

Before we close, we will do another divine appointment.

Loving-kindness meditation

The loving-kindness meditation for us is the bridge between worship and unselfish service. It is an important part of our preparation to serve in God, with God and for God. It is a great way for us to maintain a living spiritual connection with true spiritual forces for the continuous bearing of spiritual fruit to be bestowed on our fellows throughout the day.

Sit comfortably. Close your eyes, relax your muscles, and take a few deep breaths. Imagine yourself experiencing complete physical and emotional wellness and inner peace. Imagine feeling perfect love for yourself, thanking yourself for all that you are, knowing that you are just right—just as you are. Focus on this feeling of inner peace, and imagine that you are breathing out tension and breathing in feelings of love.

Repeat three or four positive, reassuring phrases to yourself. These messages are examples, but you can also create your own:

• May I be happy
• May I be safe
• May I be healthy, peaceful, and strong
• May I give and receive appreciation today

Bask in feelings of warmth and self-compassion for a few moments. If your attention drifts, gently redirect it back to these feelings of loving-kindness. Let these feelings envelop you.

You can choose to either stay with this focus for the duration of your meditation or begin to shift your focus to loved ones in your life. Begin with someone who you are very close to, such as a spouse, a child, a parent, or a best friend. Feel your gratitude and love for them. Stay with that feeling. You may want to repeat the following phrases or similar ones that bring about feelings of loving-kindness within you:

• May you be happy
• May you be safe
• May you be healthy, peaceful, and strong
• May you give and receive appreciation today

Once you’ve held these feelings toward that person, bring other important people from your life into your awareness, one by one, and envision them with perfect wellness and inner peace. Then branch out to other friends, family members, neighbors, and acquaintances. You may even want to include groups of people around the world.

Extend feelings of loving-kindness to people around the globe and focus on a feeling of connection and compassion. You may even want to include those with whom you are in conflict to help reach a place of forgiveness or greater peace.

When you feel that your meditation is complete, open your eyes. Remember that you can revisit the wonderful feelings you generated throughout the day. Internalize how loving-kindness meditation feels, and return to those feelings by shifting your focus and taking a few deep breaths.

Conclusion

3 universal facts concerning ascending mortals

1. God has given us everything
2. Good wants to transform us – we have to ask for it and welcome the change
3. Once transformed, God needs us

3 pillars of our spiritual progression

1. Worshipful meditation to commune
2. Effective prayer to communicate
3. Unselfish service to collaborate

God is good, eternally good and He indwells each of us… how much better can it be?

Complimentary information on the mind and the body

(110:6.4) …It is to the mind of perfect poise, housed in a body of clean habits, stabilized neural energies, and balanced chemical function—when the physical, mental, and spiritual powers are in triune harmony of development—that a maximum of light and truth can be imparted with a minimum of temporal danger or risk to the real welfare of such a being. By such a balanced growth does man ascend the circles of planetary progression one by one, from the seventh to the first.

• How do I acquire a mind of perfect poise?
• What are the efforts I make to have a healthy body?
• What habits am I willing to let go of and to replace with clean habits?
• How do I stabilize my neural energies?
• How do I stay balanced?  

(110:1.5) The Adjuster remains with you in all disaster and through every sickness which does not wholly destroy the mentality. But how unkind knowingly to defile or otherwise deliberately to pollute the physical body, which must serve as the earthly tabernacle of this marvelous gift from God. All physical poisons greatly retard the efforts of the Adjuster to exalt the material mind, while the mental poisons of fear, anger, envy, jealousy, suspicion, and intolerance likewise tremendously interfere with the spiritual progress of the evolving soul.

• How do I free myself from physical poisons?
• How do I free myself from mental poisons?