| Transcript of Videotape Series | Session 10 of 12 |
A couple of things we mentioned in our little break were: getting your house in order so that you are free of debts, and what's the purpose in all of that? Not only is debt against the laws, or rules, in the overcoming process, and not only what is the purpose, but we need to realize that it applies most urgently and more directly to those we're talking about as far as overcomers are concerned. Because those houses must be gotten in order, and they have to be gotten in order the right way. And the only way we know, or the best we can do in trying to do it the right way, is according to the instruction that we have received on what is the right way. So, it's important to realize that the issue is a major issue for those who see themselves as beginning a major task in personal overcoming - trying to complete that task to the satisfaction of our Father's Kingdom before the end of the Age, or certainly have it underway enough that we are safe in their hands and certainly in their camp and not in the other camp. There was another point to that, what was it?
Student: Is it not leaving a mess behind?
Do: Yes, that's a very important aspect of it, too. It is improper for us to say, "Well, I'm just going to walk out the door of my house. I'm going to pack my little suitcase, and I'm just not going to worry about whom I owe this to and whom I owe that to and how to take care of those issues." Even though the possibility exists that as you might be in the process of trying to leave quickly - because it's very important that if you go this way that you do it very, very quickly - in spite of your effort to not leave a mess that you might be forced to leave some, and that's different. But for you to intentionally choose to leave a mess and turn the responsibility over to others is not the proper way to do it. If in the process you end up with no choice because the circumstances close in on you so quickly, then you have to do as you would in any circumstance that finds yourself in that position. While you're trying to do what is right and the circumstance changes, then you say, "I have no choice, I must accept this as what is right, and I'll do the best I can to proceed from here or seek help," and say to us, "This happened, what can I do? It didn't happen the way I thought it was going to be." Because it's true that in the process of overcoming, as we receive the lessons that we need, it never is the way we thought it was going to be. It always is pretty traumatic, and it always takes a 90-degree turn that becomes a shock to us, and we have to adjust to it and accept it as, "Wow, that was just exactly the thing to help me take a bigger leap forward that I didn't anticipate." So, we have to be prepared for that. Remember that this lesson of being free of indebtedness and not leaving a mess behind does apply, or the first one certainly, more to those who are in the process of trying to overcome. And not leaving a mess, of course, more specifically would apply to those who are trying to overcome, because they certainly would want to try to be more mature about it and not just careless about it, but would seek help and guidance in how to quickly sever those things without doing it in a wrong way.
You know, one of the hardest things to do in this overcoming process is to take menial instruction - instruction in areas that you think that you can handle yourself - and to seek that instruction from those who have done it before you. It's hard to make that adjustment, and yet if you do this, if you take this step, if you become a student of overcoming and we become teachers for you, if these students become your teachers, at every step you will increasingly learn, "Goodness, I could have avoided this, I could have avoided that, if I had sought some help." But each time you seek help, then comes the test of, "Could I just have done it my way, or is it best to look to our Father's Kingdom and those who have been assigned the task of helping me"? That in itself would put you to a test each time. And even the more you get into your overcoming, you become tested in ways that are pretty tough and pretty serious, because then you want to play a significant role as a teacher, or in the tasks that represent the Kingdom of Heaven, whether they assign you to them or that instruction is given or not.
So, those little illustrations that we used to read about of "putty in their hands" and the patience that is required, and of "wanting Your will, not mine," they keep reappearing at times when we're unaware that it is our will that we seek, thinking that this is just a step in fulfilling Their will. Yet we will assume certain steps in fulfilling it that weren't a part of Their will or our Father's will, in that chain. We must realize the rules are different, the whole world is different, the process is different, and the test is tremendous. We don't mean to frighten you with it. It wouldn't work if your motivation was because we were to scare the heck out of you or have you feel, "If you don't do this, you're going to go to hell!" I mean, that's childish. That should be beneath you and certainly beneath us as teachers. We're trying to help you be objective about it. These things don't apply to you if they don't speak to you. That's kind of hard to understand, too. If this isn't something you're to do, then it is improper for us to say that they apply to all. If you're a part of our classroom, the rules are strict, but if you are not, what you do is no concern of ours. However, no one can get to the Kingdom of Heaven without applying the same behavior that we apply. But we're not judging them; He hasn't assigned us to them. He's assigned us to those who say, "I identify. This is what I know I must do. I know that you know things that I am turned on to that I must pursue."
You know, the way it's designed here at the end of the Age, and as far as our assignment in this task is concerned, it's quite different than some of the motivation was 2000 years ago. A lot of the followers were motivated by seeming "miracles" that Jesus would do - the fishes and loaves feeding multitudes, and water to wine, and healing the blind and the sick, and raising from the dead. These things were, my goodness! they were all used to try to help those young souls to look to this individual who was the vessel and say, "What can I learn from you"? But He soon began to realize that what they wanted for the most part was more miracles, that they really didn't care about the information of overcoming, and following Him in the difficult task of overcoming the world and becoming a student and humbling themselves and going to our Father's Kingdom according to the route that was given to Him, a step at a time, day by day, in the way it was designed.
But back to how it's different. We haven't been given any powers. We don't have any instruction to do any healing or any miracles, even though I know that certainly the Next Level could do them in a snap through us if we are vessels of theirs, because they can do just about anything they want to do just by putting the thought in motion, and they could certainly do it with you or with these students or with us. We have more sense than to limit them.
In a sense, at the end of the Age the test is even greater because no one is whetting your appetite or giving you things that you could easily be motivated to do at certain stages. It's almost as if the Kingdom of Heaven is saying, "Well here's the end of the Age. You should be beyond that." And also the road is a little tougher. If these souls have come back who may have even been with Him at that time and they're coming back to complete what they must do, the road is tougher. It's harder to identify. It requires more effort on your part. It requires more thirst, it requires a stronger pump, it requires a more thorough cleansing. If you're going to get to our Father's Kingdom and be able to stay there and not need to return to the human kingdom unless assigned, then the list is long and the requirements are stiff. If you have truly graduated, you're going to take a vehicle (like we have said before, wear a "suit of clothes") that doesn't even have the capacity to do a lot of things that humans have to do. Not that you would want to do them, but it has also many things and capacities and functions to do (as we've talked about - mental communication, and the missing of certain organs, and certain capabilities to do things). We don't want to try to entice you by saying that you could appear or disappear, or that you could move from here to there in space in a matter of a moment just by techniques that are natural to them, just as natural to them as an elementary chemistry or a physics classroom. Okay, I think enough said on that. What's the next question on our list?
Student: Is this a good time to talk about our lifestyle as it relates to a classroom?
Do: As good a time as any. Our lifestyle as it relates to a classroom I believe we've discussed that we do not currently have a physical place where we can go and where we have protection and seclusion; it's not that easy. I'm not sure we wouldn't try to take advantage of it for as long as we were capable of taking advantage of it, if one existed, but it doesn't. Therefore, our classroom is wherever we are, whatever numbers there are of our classroom in that situation, applying all the lessons, staying in close touch, and receiving instruction. And believe it or not, the design that has been given to us, the help that Ti receives and feeds to me, is just unbelievable how appropriately it can be applied to the circumstances that we have existed in, that allowed us to at times be together, at times to be separate, at times to be in several units.
If we've received instruction to make these tapes, to do these sessions and to put them out, then what's the process? We do it a step at a time, and then we get new instructions. And therefore, we trust, because everything else has worked out as we trusted it. We trust that it would all work out for you. It would require your trust. If you are sincerely seeking our Father's Kingdom, and certainly if we are permitted to serve in the capacity of helping you get there, then I can't imagine that our Father wouldn't take advantage of the opportunity and say, "I have these Representatives there that are doing that process of change, and here are some whom we gave them instruction to be in contact with and receive information on how to get from here to there. So, I certainly wouldn't leave them if they are serious and if they have that potential."
And so we believe the likelihood is there for you, but whether or not it materializes still depends on you - whether the need will exist - it will only exist if you respond. Each step of closeness that we have is determined by how we respond to what is given to us, whether it's a lesson, an exercise in restraint, or getting rid of our own mind. It's how we respond that pleases or displeases our Father. It's not because we make a better cake batter or that we'd be a better driver of an automobile or, even though we try to do all those things to the best of our ability. But things that could be done in the human kingdom, having a better brain (what humans would call a better brain), doesn't necessarily make us a better "responder." It's our yielding - not being someone who is constantly preoccupied with how I want to serve and what I want to do, but someone who says, "If I'm not getting assignments, then it's in order to give me a chance to let the information that I have been given to mature. I'll stay alert and keen and do all the things that are assigned to me as best I can. If those seem to be thin, then it's my test of patience, because I have to trust what has been given to me from our Father's Kingdom. I will be patient and it's Their will that I want." If I respond that way, then that's my response to that situation. I'm always graded on my response, not my proficiency or my skill as far as tasks are concerned. It's how we perform the task and how we perform even if we don't get a task. Therefore, it's our response to the lessons that are given to us, or sometimes even the lessons that aren't given to us that are still situations that invite our response. All right, what's next on our list?
Student: Well, shall we talk more about physical addictions and habits?
Do: Yes, we have to get to that topic, so we might as well. What's first on your little list of physical addictions and habits?
Student: Well, there's drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes.
Do: Okay, drugs, alcohol, cigarettes. Needless to say, there's no place in this classroom or in an overcoming process for things that would change our perception, or alter our consciousness. The principle there is not that alcohol is taboo, it's that alcohol is an interference, it doesn't work for us.
Any who have worked in chemistry as it related to medicine certainly know that a wrong dosage of a medicine can kill you. To the other extreme, it may have no effect. And yet the right dosage can be the thing that can help you very much. Now, in the human world, some of those dosages are in question because they might help one thing but then cause certain side effects that would be difficult. As lessons are given to us in our Father's Kingdom, the dosages that we would receive are examined, and we may not see that dosage again and may not even see that item again. We're trying to help you understand how important dosages are, even in what we consume, whether it's the amount of broccoli we consume or the amount of wheat items that we would consume or the vegetable juice or whatever we might consume. There's no "this is right to consume and this is wrong to consume." I imagine there are certain things that are wrong. I can't imagine there would ever be any justification in our classroom to consume marijuana or morphine or heroin, or certainly mind-altering drugs or things that would pretty obviously be only designed to alter our state of consciousness. But it's important to understand that dosages are important, and that we're not to consume things that would pose any significant danger to us. We don't receive instruction to do that, even though we learn lessons about overconsuming and underconsuming. And that's why we've been put through all kinds of tests, including water fasts and juice fasts and strict vegetarian diets where we consumed only vegetables for a long period of time, and then vegetables and fruits, and then just fruits only for a period of time. We've been through all these things and we've learned lessons at each one of them. And we learn what serves as maybe a cleaner fuel, what might last a little longer. It's funny that in a lot of our testing at times we've seemed like we needed sweets. I don't know if it's a type of brain food, but we need certain types of sweets. Sometimes the fruits will satisfy that need, but we learn that the health food route doesn't always jive with the instructions that we get, though it does jive to some extent for certain periods of time. Don't forget, the name of our game is Capital, neon-light, FLEXIBLE! Therefore, we are put through things again and again and again, because we don't want to get hooked on something new or decide in our own mind, "This is the right thing we've got to stick to." As soon as we do that, then we get instruction to stop it and we go to something else, and we're so confused because we thought, "Boy we thought that was really the best fuel that we could get." But certainly tobacco doesn't seem to have any place, as in smoking or chewing or in any other form that I'm aware of. Alcohol might be used in a very light dosage in certain circumstances (on rare occasion) as it's been given as instruction. Not that we see anything wrong with sometimes getting instruction to use it as flavoring in something that we might be baking.
I think we've covered the drugs, how they would be inappropriate. But, in a sense, when we have instruction to take certain herbs for certain symptoms we might have, or even aspirin, in a sense we're taking certain low dosages of things that might help us with a particular symptom, as a band-aid. What the world has become certainly, and we've discussed how those food items - those fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, and seeds, and so forth - what they are now is nothing of what they were 6000 years ago, at the beginning of this Age. They've been so mistreated, and they've lost their nutrition, and we've altered them genetically so, to make them grow faster so we can get them to the market faster. We make them prettier and we put them through certain processes so that they won't spoil, and in the process we put things in them that we don't want, and we take nutrition out. So, we can't go back, theoretically, and just consume what was in the Garden of Eden, because we don't have those fruits any longer, even though some of those fruit items might seem to be here, but they don't have the same nutritional value. And then it's so hard to find the good ones, and even the good ones aren't good enough this day and time, they're so lacking. Even though we use them, we keep fruits and vegetables relatively high in our diet fairly consistently, but we don't always have them just to see if it matters to us, if it's going to alter our condition or if we are going to override it. We'll be put to tests to see if we're going to override it. This is just to help you understand some of the principles as instructions come down, as it relates to our disciplines and things that we might consume. What's next on that list?
Student: I think we mentioned the coffee syndrome. And also what is really satisfying? How do we define what's satisfying to the vehicle?
Do: Okay, the thing we need to understand about coffee, for example, is that coffee is certainly so unnecessary to us, and such a common habit of the human kingdom, that we could pretty much guess that it would be removed from our diet because we don't want things to trigger old habits. We don't need it, but, here again, we might use it in flavoring certain things. It's not that coffee is taboo and it's nix and you're going to go to hell if you drink a cup of coffee. If it's some habit that we had, then why would we get instruction to do it. And if it was a bigger habit and it covered more people in any given classroom, then it would be more likely not to reappear in our menu, even though it has appeared as flavoring a time or two. There's another little funny influence that goes with coffee, and also with tea, and that is a lot of people get into a mindset. I can remember in our early campground in Wyoming where some went around with their coffee cup or their tea cup almost as if it was an extension of their hand. And in the morning, they would have that and say, "Well, you know, this is what I am...this is just me. I just can't wake up, I'm a night person, I'm not a morning person, I need my cup of coffee or I need my tea." And that's all you need to say to the Next Level for it not to be a part of your consuming or your experiment. Because if you need it, then you're limited, and if you're a night person, you're limited. At times we have had teas. Since back in the campground at times we've had iced tea because it didn't seem that people were that hooked on having to have it all the time. And pop we did away with for a while, and then we brought it back. But we would try to handle it in a careful way so that people didn't feel like they had to have it and identify with it. But all this came as instruction as to how often to put it in our menu, and how much to put in our menu, and it became an important test for some. Each time one item was a test for one individual or two or five or ten, it also then was not a test for others whom it didn't matter to. Anytime it doesn't matter to you, then you have flexibility, and that's the reason these various lessons are given to us, so that we don't need them. We know that we can survive without particular items. And if we have them, we're not going to get hooked on them, but if we begin to want them on a regular basis, we're in danger of being hooked on them. So, that's pretty much what we could count on losing then if we began to expect it and want it or feel the need of it, because we don't need anything. We need one thing. We need our Father's Kingdom and the relationship to it that He has given to us, and the lessons that He gives to us in order to get closer to Him so that we can become rightful heirs - rightful heirs as children in His Kingdom. What's next?
Student: Well, I'm not sure if you feel you've touched enough on redefining satisfying consuming.
Do: No, I didn't and I'm glad you brought it up. Satisfying consuming. I think we measure satisfying more by "Does the fuel work"? And probably we would say it's even more satisfying in some ways if it doesn't take a whole lot of that fuel, even though we've gone through experimentation where we would consume a whole lot of certain fuel in order to get the nutrients of it. (Like we said earlier, fruits and vegetables have become so depleted, the vegetables probably even more so than the fruits.) And I remember when we were just having vegetables, it seemed like we just had massive amounts of vegetables before we would be sustained, because it would move through us so quickly and our energy didn't seem to quite hold up and our appetite was not quite satisfied. It seems that the pattern has kind of been to consume what works as a fuel, and what has the energy we want.
We're careful about certain things that we consume. For example, if we're consuming meat products, we try to get meat products that don't have hormones in them (within reason, assuming our budget can afford them). We don't want to take the chance that by ingesting those hormones they might have some effect on our hormones, and have us deal with certain things that we don't feel the need of dealing with. So, that's a consideration in all items. We don't want to deal with something that would alter our consciousness. We don't want to deal with certain hormones. As we get these instructions, we feel that the consideration is partially how would it affect us and our chemistry since we are overcomers. But we are interested in the fuel that would sustain us. If we vibrate at a different level, to use one kind of terminology, or we participate in different behavior than the average human out there, then we can have a lot more of what we would call more refined or less dense or less animal type consuming because we don't vibrate on that level. We don't have that behavior. That doesn't mean that muscle has gone out. We still need a certain amount of muscle, so we consume things that would feed the muscle, and from time to time consume certain muscles (i.e., meat).
But I'm sure that a question for some of you out there who are listening to us who thought that on your path of enlightenment that it was so valuable to become a strict vegetarian, or maybe from your point of view of animal rights thought, "How could we justify consuming animals at all, at any given time"? And we had to deal with those same questions when it became instruction for us to consume those items. And we realized that we can't question that instruction, any more than when the Lord gave Moses certain instructions to go and kill the fatted calf in celebration for something in His relationship with those individuals. I mean, that was an instruction, and they did it, and probably they were put to the test because that fatted calf was such a precious possession to them that they hated to do it in that way. They probably would have rather had the old cow, but our Father doesn't do what we want. He lets us be fed by our own desires if we're willing to have them satisfied by the wrong side of the fence or the kingdom or corporation that is not of His Kingdom. But we can't question those things. We can't tell Jesus and His disciples that they were wrong if they were wearing sandals that were made of leather or if some of their outer garments had some animal product in it. Even though we have to give a certain amount of respect to humans who have that mindset. But when they have that mindset, they're concerned with death of the vehicle, and this is where we get into a thing that we're concerned with: death of the soul.
We're on a lesson plan in overcoming the world that has all kinds of elements in it that put us to the question, and to the test, that previously we might have thought that we had gotten knowledge about and we wouldn't ever eat animal products again - we wouldn't wear them and we wouldn't need to consume them. And then we get instruction to do it and we say, "Well, at this point, does that mean I turn away from my teacher, I turn away and I can't go any further because I'm not going to do that"? And frequently that was the reason the test was given, and some could at that point turn away, it would mean that much to them. I mean, is it worth it? Is it worth it? Even when Jesus returned to them after having risen from the tomb, He ate a piece of fish and a honeycomb. And earlier He had them multiply fish in order to give it to the crowd. Whoops - animal products! How do we deal with that if we thought it was "spiritual advancement"? Don't forget, that's counterfeit. If you're following instructions, you have to examine, "Is this instruction, is this a Representative"? And if you don't know, then what do you do? You say to the most high God, "If this is right for me, help me to know it because I am willing to go a step further. I want Your will not mine. I don't want to be restricted by my preconceived notions of what is moral or what is the issue here as far as animal rights, or whether I should consume any animal products."
It's true that certain animal products give us difficulties in other ways. We find that we probably have more difficulties with milk products at times, even though we get instructions to use them in this way or use them in that way, and we have to deal with the problems. We've never really wiped them out of our diet permanently, but we've learned, for the most part, to reduce them. And we might use nutmilks or other things because of the vehicle's response to those things, and we do take into account each individual's vehicle's response. Then as I receive feedback from the classroom, or the sections of the classroom, then I take it to my Older Member and say, "What do we do about this"? And then I wait for an answer of what to do about it and how to approach the next lesson as far as symptoms of the vehicles, and what we might consume, and the effect it might have upon our vehicles. Our Father's Kingdom does not need anything in the human kingdom to consume. Our Father has a different kind of fuel and doesn't need human fuel. Therefore, if we're trying to get into our Father's Kingdom, then the closer and closer and closer we get, the more the human-designed fuel and animals of this Earth's Age become less compatible to our vehicles. And we have to try to override that incompatibility. Therefore, it does us a lot of good. We can see why they've switched us from this to this to this to this, because they all seem to have some degree of ill effect on us, and then we counter that with not having too much of this and moving on to that and whatever they give us in instruction. This might help you understand a little bit of how they relate to us and some of the tests that we're put to in their relationship to us concerning consuming.
What's the next question?
Student: Would you like to talk about the psychological addictions and habits, like negativity and moodiness, and judging others.
Do: Yes, it's valuable that we talk about those issues because they are as important, I could say easily, if not more important, but I don't know how to weigh which ones are more important. Negativity, moodiness. Negativity, listening to anything that could discourage me in this task of overcoming. Or when I receive instruction not to listen to certain things, and I continue to listen to them. In my secret, I am holding an ace in the hole, or whatever you want to call it - I'm secretly testing my teachers. Even though this is a teacher speaking, you're not really testing the teachers. You're really, at that moment, for that duration, saying, "I'm going to put the whole Kingdom of Heaven on trial as it relates to the one that you have assigned for me, because I'm going to let that one you've assigned to me be the object of my test or my trial." If they say, "If you do this and this, then it can help you not accept that negativity," but I continue to listen to negativity that could overcome me, then I'm not breaking that habit. I am choosing to continue to listen to doubt or discouragement. Lucifer comes in and says things like: "This isn't really what you want to do, why don't you go out and serve the humans in this way or that way." And he can say, "You can see something accomplished with your time. Where this, you're off isolated and who can be positively affected by this isolation? How much good are you doing the human kingdom? Are you really helping them that much"? That's because Lucifer doesn't understand what you're doing for the human kingdom.
As this classroom goes up a notch, it pulls the whole rest of that human kingdom closer and tests them that much more to give them an opportunity to move up. But Lucifer forgets that, because he wants - he needs - members. He also does not want us to succeed at overcoming. It is par for the course, it is on every student's mind to fight off negativity, discouragement, things that would put us down as individuals. And that discouragement, if we listen to it, also becomes moodiness. For the time we're not listening to it, then, we might be happy. And for the time we are listening to it, we're more shy and more pulled away. Our face is dragging and our ability to serve is interfered with because of our countenance. Everyone around us can read what's going on in our countenance, and they try to help us out of it. And we insist that it's not happening, even though they can tell us that they know that it is happening. So, then they can't try to help us beyond trying to offer help to us for awhile - because we're forcing someone to do something that they don't want to do. Then the next question might be, "Are you sure you want to be here? Because you're unhappy. I'm not sure you want to be here." And at that point you have to say, "Whoops, am I really unhappy? Then maybe I shouldn't be here." That opens the door that much bigger to Satan's argument and tests us, because at that time we've got an opportune time to leave and drop all this and go and tend to what he says is more significant for us. And then we get right down to the nitty gritty. And we have to re-examine: is this everything we were looking for? Are we going to gamble on losing it? Are we going to take a chance on losing it in order to go do the things that we used to do, or that we felt we didn't have a chance to do in the world before joining the class? Neither one of those perceptions would come to your mind if you had not already displeased the Next Level and they had taken away the ability for you to see us for who we are. The whole process of overcoming is testing. Negativity is a major item we have to deal with. Negative thinking, listening to things of discouragement that would put us down, moodiness, and what else?
Student: There was judging yourself and others as well as degrading yourself.
Do: Goodness, Judge not that ye be not judged. I mean, if it is true that my Heavenly Father exists and if He has appointed my Older Member as my Older Member, and if I am a younger member to that Older Member and thereby an Older Member to you, if that is true and you misjudge me, then only He has the right to judge you or have you judge yourself, by judging. Who really judged though? I'm afraid that what I believe the truth to be is that you at that point have not misjudged us. You have listened to misjudgment from those who are such aggressors in feeding you misinformation, and then you have joined their forces in misjudging. It's very important. It's just as important that you not misjudge your own overcoming, your own capacity at overcoming, not let influences or thoughts of misinformation pull you down and discourage you, because that happens again and again. Your performance can be poor and your response can be poor, and you can say, "I'm never going to get this, others are getting this and I can see them moving up and I'm not moving up." It's very easy to listen to negativity and it's difficult to turn a negative into a positive. But we have a plan that was given to us and it says, "If I will expose anything that is of that wrong household, acknowledge it and expose it, it can be taken from me, I can be free of it, I can be not responsible for it."
If I listen to negativity in overcoming, I'm "sinning" - I'm doing something against my Father's House. I am separating from my Father's House and the appointee that He has designated. That "sin" itself has to be taken from me - another note taken by His Representative, who says, "Just acknowledge that what you're doing is self-destructive to you and acknowledge what it was and we'll get past it. Don't worry about it. Forget it - it's gone, it doesn't exist." Then we have to drop it. We have to forget it! if we expect to eradicate it. Lucifer does not want us to forget anything negative, even if we make progress and make progress. He wants us to remember it. He will even say, "It'll do you good to remember those things as lessons," so that you will say, "I learned those lessons." It doesn't do any good to dwell on the negative. When you acknowledge it, and you admit it and you say, "I want to go on," that's the same thing as asking for forgiveness. "I want to go on. Here it was, this was wrong. I can see how it was destructive to me. I don't want it, I want to go on. Will you accept me still as a student? Will the Next Level accept me"? Because all your teacher can say is, "Well, I'm afraid I've got to go ask my Older Member, and we'll see." And that usually doesn't take much time. Sometimes, on the spot, the Older Member can speak through the vessel and say, "It's done, it's behind you. It's gone. You can forget about it!" And we can start afresh. And if you do that, if you refuse to remember it again and you take a major step forward, then that step forward will be a part of your new structure. But if you remember it, you can step easily back into it. You will remind yourself of that position and you will remain in that condition as long as that's where you put yourself. If you refuse to put yourself there, then you're ready for the next step and a new position and a new person. Each step can be a new person. Each time you get rid of something, you're a brand new person.
Now, it's up to each class member, each time a student takes a step forward, not to take their fellow class members where that fellow class member once was. They've got to make that adjustment, they've got to give that class member credit for change. If they want to help them change, they've got to give them credit for change and not hold anything against them for where they were. But the easiest way for your class members to accept that is when they see in you that you have made that change, and not that they have to wait. It's their responsibility to give you credit for that change. It's your responsibility to demonstrate that that change has taken place. And these are basic elements in overcoming.
Who's next?
Student: Did we want to talk a little bit about deceit and dishonesty. I think you've mentioned it's like a neon light in the Next Kingdom Level.
Do: It's such a festered boil, few things could be equal to it. It's so bad to be deceitful and to be dishonest, because for the time that you are deceitful, on any little item, no matter how minute it is, it increases. Because first it might have just been that item, and then another item is added of dishonesty, then another item is added - "I'm not keeping my slate clean as I promised that I would." And items continue to mount because those forces are saying, "It's not that important, you don't have to worry about it, you don't have to be embarrassed by recognizing that this was negative, this was beneath you to do that thing." And you want to expose it. Exposure is a wonderful thing! It's like getting relief. But if influences say, "Don't expose, hold it." Then you immediately become dishonest, deceitful, and difficult things mount. When difficult things mount, what does it take to get me to the next step? An equally more difficult test. I can't move forward if I'm permitting an indebtedness to occur without something just as equally difficult. The step up would have been a very little one if I had exposed it at the time that we had instruction to expose it, and I moved up. It wouldn't have been that difficult. But the longer I delay it and the more things that begin to mount because I'm getting further and further in my privacy, and in putting it off and in not doing the things that were given to me to do, then in order to move from there to here, it becomes super tough and major! At that point, it's hard to prove that you want to change and move forward to those who help your Older Members, those of our Father's Kingdom, who in their daily activities do a lot of this work that the teachers certainly don't do. And they will have things occur to you that will put you in the position of that test. I mean, most of the work happens from them. The classroom situation, what happens with the teachers, is almost small in comparison to what Members of our Father's Kingdom literally are doing for you and the things that they subject you to and the circumstances you're put in that permit you the opportunity to move ahead and conquer.
Now this, of course, gets into another issue of what are some of the activities of our Father's Kingdom, which we'll talk about when we get to that question. I'm going to try not to make that jump. Who's next, or did we not finish that one?
Student: I think there are a few other things, like gossip and confidentiality and familiarity. I didn't know if you wanted to talk about those things?
Do: Okay. Boy! These are really deadly sins, these are really negative things that can breed just as much trouble as dishonesty and deceit. You said gossip and confidentiality. Confidentiality to me is the same thing as deceit. It's finding someone else to join me in my deceit, because if I'm entering into something with someone else that I wouldn't enter into with my teacher, or other members of the class, then I'm creating an unnatural circumstance there. It's certainly less than objective or more than objective, whichever way you want to look at it, and it becomes a relationship that was not an assignment. Therefore, I have gone against the instruction. I am no longer a flexible crew member that is objective. I am giving into the desire of the flesh or the influences that are triggering that flesh by wanting some kind of special relationship. I've conned somebody who could really be a partner to me. We can have our little confidentialities and our little gossip. That makes the partnership absolutely impossible and deadly to both individuals if they participate in it, until they learn how not to participate in it. So, we talked about gossip, confidentiality, and...?
Student: Familiarity?
Do: Familiarity. Familiarity is pretty much the same thing, except a lot of times familiarity is still a withdrawal symptom from needing a close attachment with another individual. I know it sounds tough, and Luci makes this sound absolutely ridiculous when it comes out our mouths, but our Father's Kingdom says, "If you're going to overcome this world and come into my Kingdom, you're going to be only familiar with one thing, and that's my Kingdom. You're only going to love one thing, that's my Kingdom. As far as a physical familiarity with anyone, the only familiarity you're going to have, the only confidant you can have, the only one you can talk to about things that you might want to talk to are your check partners, within procedures, and your Older Member. That's the way we have designed it, and if you try to change those, then to that degree you're going against the lesson plan." And you have to mistrust the lesson plan to participate in those things.
When we don't know that we're going against the lesson plan, the methods that they give us always help surface that we have done something that we didn't know we were doing when we did it. And then it becomes another kind of test - CAN I take criticism, or can I have it brought to my attention, or do I want to say, "Oh no, you're taking me from a wrong level"? Because a test that comes to us so frequently is, "If I'm really flexible, then I take what is given to me as correction and believe it and apply it." It's very important that you understand something here, and that is even if it was misinformation, even if it didn't apply, the technique works of examining it and saying, "Well, I must not have seen what was going on here." In other words, I want to take the blame, I want to say, "You're right," even though influences and my brain might say, "I wasn't wrong, it was the other person that was wrong here." But if I say, "I must have been doing something wrong or you wouldn't have responded the way you did, or the others wouldn't have seen me in that light," and if I take the blame and assume it is something that I did wrong, then I stand on the path of eliminating whatever it was that I did because of my willingness to examine it. What harm would come to me even if I had not been wrong? But if I defend myself, then I'm taking more than a 50-50 chance that I was not being flexible. I am choosing to believe my own mind instead of the mind that is being given to me through my Teachers and through my helpers and through my partnerships.
Believe it or not, none of the students likes to hurt each other. Why would somebody come and accuse you of something? Because they like to hurt you? I mean, Heavens! If they aren't past that by now, I don't know where they are. Frequently, we have to fuss at a partner for not helping a partner because a partner will say, "The partner doesn't bring up things to me, I don't feel like I'm making any progress." We confront the partner and they say, "Well, I just hate to bring it up because it might be difficult for them to deal with." You're not helping someone if you don't bring it up. If they've solicited help, if they've said, "Would you please bring it up, I want to know about it," and you say, "Well, but I don't want the confrontation," then you're no good to them. You can't really help them in that circumstance. So, it's very important that we be willing to help them. When we say to them that you might have been doing this behavior or that one, and it might be inappropriate, we preface it by saying, "I could be wrong, I could be completely off base by what I see, but the thought occurred to me and we have a procedure that when the thought does occur to us to bring it up. And so if the shoe fits, wear it; if it doesn't, I'm sure glad because I don't like to bring things up." And it works. Of course, it can put the person to the test and they can say, "How outrageous for you to bring that up!" Or they can say, "Goodness, I wasn't aware of that, I'll examine it, and I'll try to apply it." The neat thing is that if we can shift into the gear of assuming they were right or it wouldn't have been brought to our attention, 99 times out of a 100, we'll find out exactly how they were right and how we were guilty. It didn't mean anything, it wasn't any big deal. The most important thing was for us to become flexible, for us to examine it, and if we take the blame, what harm has happened if the shoe didn't fit. Do we feel embarrassed, are we too concerned about being embarrassed by it? We have to overcome that, too - that's just another thing that we have to overcome. Boy, we're getting into the nitty gritty. This is part of what goes on every day in the classroom, again and again. So, I felt that it would be only fair to you to see. What are we doing? We're trying to shorten your days, we're trying to help you not enter a possible classroom situation only to say, "Boy if I had known that was going to happen, I wouldn't have started this."
There's that 10-second card, and we'll see you in our next session.