1. Speed of Progress - Soul Growth and Ascension
2. Physiology - Another Factor in the Growth of Perfection Attainment
3. Mansion Worlds are a Necessary Part of Universes
4. Different Between the Teaching Mission and Magisterial Son’s Mission
5. Words and Concepts as a Framework for Decisions and Actions
6. Evidence of Progress
7. Spiritual Growth is not Easy

Prayer by Daniel (Bob S): Hear these words by your elder brother, Daniel. My friends, let us be in prayer.

Oh great Master of us all, we, your children, reach out in love and hope and need to those who are here to guide us, to comfort us, to help us avoid the stones along the path to you. Now open our hearts, our minds, our very selves to the words that have been prepared for us tonight, and allow them to touch in whatever way they will. Amen.

Minearsia (Bill): Greetings, I am Minearsia, your instructor in residence. Once again welcome to our Southeast Idaho teacher base. Welcome to this classroom of morontial training while yet in mortal garment.

Yes indeed, we are all pleased with your diligent efforts to comply with Daniel’s assignment. Your questions have been thought out carefully, and they do indeed address a number of issues across the different wording of the individual questions. They are not a surprise to us for we do have elaborate monitoring and recording systems beyond your imagination, so that while we do not violate your freedom of will or your privacy, nevertheless we have very accurate information regarding your lives, including the issues that you have raised in these questions. Indeed part of the reason that we wanted you to write them down is the very thing that you have mentioned—that it clarifies and commits your mind to the task, as well as preserves a record for the future.

[T#1: Speed of Progress - Soul Growth and Ascension]

One of the issues that underlies several of your questions has to do with the speed of progress that you should expect of yourselves in terms of soul growth, circle attainment, and ascension career progress. You seem to waiver between two opinions: one that you should be perfected nearly instantaneously, and the other that perhaps this is going to be a long, drawn-out process. [Laughter.]

There is great flexibility in the whole matter of perfection attainment progress. Factors which enter into the flexibility include a certain degree of genetic propensity, but mostly a matter of motivation and technique. It is because of genetic deficits on this planet as a result of the default of two major administrations, your Planetary Prince joining the Lucifer Rebellion and the Adamic miscarriage, that the Teaching Mission has been authorized as part of the larger task of the Correcting Time. The instruction that we are providing you would occur on normal planets, but with different methods. The lessons would be taught by the staff of the Planetary Prince and by the staff of the Adamic headquarters and their sub-headquarters throughout the world. These were deprived from your history, and therefor it was decided to inaugurate these emergency measures. This is one factor, favorable environmental influence, which is unevenly experienced on the planet at this time.

Despite your feelings of doubt or your worry over egotism, you are people who have been given 10 talents and asked to invest them so that they can meet maximum potentials. You are also people who display another factor in the progress to perfection in that you are here because your have chosen to follow this path. You had sufficient interest, transcending the materialism of your culture, to value this kind of education. You are not here because of good luck or any other fallacious reason. You are here because you have made that choice to be here. You have opened the doors of opportunity that you came upon, rather than turn aside in fear or disinterest.

Yes, as you look through the past lessons, should you decide to do that, you will see a great deal of overlap and repetition. You will, also, notice that there is more flesh on the skeleton of the concepts as time moves on. This is normal and inherent in the learning experience, for only as you can experience a concept can more substance be addressed in further presentations.

We have said this before—curiosity is not a bad thing. It is part of your essential human nature. The reason that we have discouraged curiosity questions in the past is because time is short, rather than the idea that curiosity should not be tolerated.

[T#2: Physiology - Another Factor in the Growth of Perfection Attainment]

Another factor in the growth of perfection attainment, in the process of learning itself, has to do with your physiology, for your mechanism of mindal contact is unbelievably complex. Your brain and central nervous system require structural changes in order for learning to be established. These are physical facts, and repetition is an essential part of the process by which the brain lays down the neural pathways which are the connections to mindal concepts, and physical and mental habits. I assure you that it is incorrect for you to compare yourself with others, for you are unique individuals and the factors which I have listed, including others that I have not, effect you all differently. Therefor, do not become preoccupied with comparing yourselves to others, but do as your have discussed this evening. Appreciate and enjoy your diversity. Understand that each of you has a task which is uniquely connected with your individual status, and that each of you has a learning rate for the different aspects of your life. Sometimes that learning rate differs from your learning other types of tasks. Surely your learning rate cannot be compared to anyone else.

Having said all of that, I wish to now give you all one great big pat on the back. I wish to dispel your self-criticism. I wish to relax your anxieties. I wish to increase your joy. We are indeed making significant progress as a group, even as you are making significant progress individually. Again, thank you for completing Daniel’s assignment. There will definitely be a new flavor added to the stew of curriculum organization as a result of your input. Daniel is here, as you know, and will make additional comments. One moment please.

Daniel (Bill): Greetings, I am your friend Daniel, your teacher, companion, guide, and once again staunch admirer. Indeed am I delighted with your efforts, my friends! You did not let me down. Even though you think Abraham a more stern taskmaster, you have redeemed yourselves by completing my assignment in fine fashion. [Laughter.] So I feel that you value me as your teacher, and we will enjoy your comments and figuring out lessons that will address your concerns.

Ken: Daniel, have no doubt that we value your lessons and your friendship very much.

Daniel (Bill): Thank you, Kenneth. I was trying to be a little light-hearted hoping you would see some humor in my reference to Abraham’s ability to command and get attention to get things done, but none of you jumped at the bait. [Laughter.]

Ken: Well, he is a five star general. [More laughter.]

Daniel (Bill): True, but I am pleased that this assignment was not taken less seriously because it will assist us all in our process together.

At this time I would like to offer a time to ask questions, and we who are present, which do include Ham and Abraham, as well as Minearsia, myself and Aaron, we are here to be your brothers and sisters. The floor is yours, please. (Pause.) Don’t be shy. If you want to say something, please do.

Ken: Well, I would say welcome to all those here this evening. It is always a pleasure to feel their presence, to hear their words, and to try and apply them to our everyday life. Not only the morontial life, but the mortal life also.

Minearsia (Bill): Yes, Ken. I am Minearsia speaking. It is a two-way street, my friend. You enjoy our presence. We likewise enjoy yours. It is our greatest joy to give back to the less experienced soul that which we have acquired from our experience. You will increasingly enjoy this role yourselves as you lift up the hand of one who is just behind on the path. Are there any comments on or questions on my discussion of the variability of the factors which pertain to perfection attainment progress?

Ken: It’s a slow process.

[T#3: Mansion Worlds are a Necessary Part of Universes]

Minearsia (Bill): Indeed. The mansion worlds are a necessary part of universes whose systems have not reached Light and Life status. When all the planets in a local system have reached Light and Life status there is no longer need for mansion worlds for then, in the careers of mortals on those glorious planets in the long extended life and all the spiritual nourishment provided, lives attain such a degree of human perfection that there is no need for remedial work. That is the first stage of perfection, the completion of human perfection which Jesus attained in his short life on Urantia. Then begins the next career, the morontia career that is in between material and spirit, for this is what morontia is. A great and enormous evolutionary progress is made in this time frame. It is no longer the completion of mortal perfection. It is the process of morontia perfection. Then your true spirit career begins, and this extends all the way from the superuniverse level to Havona and to Paradise. You see, there are several levels of perfection attainment.

At the same time, getting back to the first level, mortal perfectedness, it is possible to attain a degree of symmetry and alignment with your Thought Adjuster, your Thought Controller, so that terrestrial escape is accomplished without death. On advanced planets, those in the last stages of Light and Life, a majority of people do not experience death but are directly translated by fusion, bypassing the mansion worlds altogether, and landing directly on the system headquarters and sometimes all the way to the local universe capital. Does that put into perspective your statement, Ken?

[T#4: Different Between the Teaching Mission and Magisterial Son’s Mission]

Ken: Yes, thank you. One more question. This evening the question of the Magisterial Son came up, and since we are a planet coming out of quarantine and coming into light and life I would assume that his mission would be modified for this type of planet versus a normal planet. What is the different between the Teaching Mission versus the Magisterial Son’s mission? What type of lessons are different for us from his perspective?

Minearsia (Bill): You are aware that with each epochal revelation there is an associated dispensation, but rather I should put it the other way around. With each dispensation there is an epochal revelation. The new planetary dispensation has begun. It is the dispensation of the first Magisterial Son mission to Urantia. This dispensation has included the textbook [Urantia Book] and the Teaching Mission as a practical laboratory experience. The dispensation has been termed the Correcting Time, but the Correcting Time will probably be larger than this first magisterial mission. I cannot tell you for sure the duration because this is not within my ability to foreshadow with great accuracy. So I would say to you, understand that the Son associated with this dispensation and this epochal revelation is definitely an Avonal Son on a magisterial mission. Again, the Teaching Mission is the practical application laboratory experience associated with the formal textbook aspect of the Fifth Epochal Revelation. Does that answer your question?

Ken: Yes. I like your term " laboratory experience".

Minearsia (Bill): The Magisterial Mission is larger than the Teaching Mission of course, for it has to do with the progress of all aspects of life on Urantia. Again it may not be as large as the Correcting Time which may require another magisterial mission and/or the presence of Daynal Sons of Paradise, Trinity Teacher Sons. These are matters which are the concern to no one less than Michael Himself, and He is the one who will decide on the sequence and manner of the unfolding of these events.

Ken: Thank you, my friend.

[T#5: Words and Concepts as a Framework for Decisions and Actions]

Bob S: Minearsia, I would like to follow up on something you said earlier and Ken commented on—the laboratory experiment. If I understand what the teachers are trying to do, it is to provide us with words and ideas that we can make into our own experience. I am have some trouble with that. How can we take words and ideas, and make them part of our experience?

Minearsia (Bill): Well, you have done it all your life. You have taken words and concepts as the framework and as guidelines, and then made decisions, made efforts, completed actions, and the result was experience. Think of your time in school as a child. You were presented with mathematical concepts. At first they were difficult to understand, but with practice in applying them you began to see the innate rightness of them. Your mind could comprehend that 2 + 2 could only equal 4, not 5, not 3, but first it was a rote statement. At least it is that way for many children, but later they understand the concept of 2-ness, and how that 2-ness plus 2-ness is 4-ness, and it can’t be anything but 4-ness. So the application of concepts that are merely words at first, as you say, when they are practiced become part of your experience. Where is your difficulty with this idea, my friend?

Bob: I’m not sure.

Minearsia (Bill/Isaac): My thought is that people often fail to learn because they fail to practice. Sometimes a person can say to themselves, "Well, I’ve heard all of these strange notions and I don’t know whether there is a lot of value in them. I don’t know whether I want to put forth the effort"; only then to later complain it just didn’t work for them. You see, if you knew ahead of time the new thing that you need to learn, in a sense you wouldn’t have to learn it. So it’s the application; it’s the practice that is needed. Isaac is thinking of a case in point. He had a child in the second grade who wanted to learn guitar. This boy thought that he could pick up that instrument and in a matter of a hours be able to play at least well enough to sound like his teacher, to some degree. Weeks and weeks of futile lessons were given by the teacher, Isaac. The boy did not practice. Guess what? He made no progress. Therefor, I say that perhaps this might be the problem. I am not saying that it is necessarily the problem. I am just suggesting that it may be.

[T#6: Evidence of Progress]

Bob: When we are dealing with spiritual growth though, the evidence of one’s progress is not clear—to the person himself. So that complicates the whole thing because you don’t get clear feed back. You wonder, "Am I making progress?" It seems like we are going over the same old stuff. What would you say to those words?

Minearsia (Bill): Sometimes practice is not enough, for if one practices incorrectly all that is learned is incorrect. Practice does not make perfect. Good practice makes perfect.

As far as the issue of accountability to yourself, yes, this is very difficult to discern for two reasons. Number one, progress is slow for all the reasons that I described before including the neuronal hookup; and secondly, no one is sufficiently detached from themselves to be an accurate observer so that their ability to make an accurate judgement is greatly hampered. The outsider, however, who perhaps does not see you as frequently as you see yourself ,will notice changes; not merely aging, but maturing. [Laughter.]

You hear us tell you all that you are making progress, and you tend to believe us when we talk of other issues. Therefor you should to be consistent and believe our words on these issues as well. [Much laughter.] I can’t think of anything more that would be helpful to you, my friend, so I leave you with two admonitions. Do good practice and stop worrying.

Bob: Thank you. Those are good ideas. Not easy, but good ideas.

[T#7: Spiritual Growth is not Easy]

Minearsia (Bill): Spiritual growth is not easy. It is facilitated by stressful situations, which none of you naturally enjoys. The progress of the soul is possible without the need for excruciating difficulties, so that the more freely that you offer yourselves to the guidance of your Indweller without demanding fore-knowledge and other restrictions on your willingness to comply, the faster and easier spiritual growth will be. If you can feel toward your indwelling presence of God as Jesus did when he referred to Him as ‘Aba,’ which means ‘Daddy, ‘ the trust of a child in a good Father, you will do the best that is possible.

And now my friends, the TR is tired. Thank you for the attention that you have paid to us, and also for your laughter which signifies that you are letting up a little bit on your self-importance so that you can float like balloons, rising to the sky in our Father’s joyous universe. Be at peace. Good evening.

END