Inclusion

ItInclusion has been greatly stressed to you all over time the necessity
of inclusion, that beingmeans helping all the people you encounter on this
 world to realize they are family. You are learning better what
 family, from a spiritual perspective, implies, and you are each
 learning more effectively how to apply yourselves in creating this
 sense of belonging in those around you. Commonality, inclusiveness,
 is essential for faith-ers as yourselves on this world, for the
 isolation of this world has created the effect of isolation in
 individuals. Herein lies the importance of the proclamation of the
 brotherhood of man, for it is important that you all gain the ability
 to love one another. Though it is natural for many of you to be
 loving towards the Father and endearing among yourselves, many have
 trouble with their relationship with the Father because they have
 encountered so little love from others. So, I stress again the
 importance of accommodating everyone.

With that said, I would also encourage you to become skilled
 evermore in encouraging those of your kindbrethren to rise to their highest.
Though we teach brotherhood and your common connection, we also are
 teaching you how to better ennoble yourself, to elevate your
 standards of virtue, what you hold as your ideals and to incorporate
 them into your actions.  Now, this encouragement we have provided you
all has been welcomed by you, and it is observed you are making great
strides this way. I simply ask you to foster this reach toward
 higher virtue and spiritual nobility in those around you. The
 caution I throw your way is that some will have difficulty in
 receiving this encouragement because of the human tendency to take
 sides, to be positioning oneself in the order of right and wrong,
 attained and unattained. So it falls in your lap the need to be able
 to develop clever skills, to develop tricks, in a sense. I use
 "clever" and "trick" in a mild manner; the meaning I wish to convey
 is that the individual receiving your encouragement has the paradigm
 in which he functions. The trick is not upon the other but in your
 ability to change your position to meet their viewpoint and arouse in
 them the awareness of their next level of attainment. Here is where
 you need to exercise cleverness in discernment and discovery of the
 other's perspective. So, while we are endeavoring to reach a
 spiritual plateau of familial brotherhood on this world, we also
 would like to draw all of you into ever-higher standards of behavior. 
Since you are volunteers in this mission, we ask you to help us
encourage others this way.

Evelyn: Can you give us an example of a trick? If you
 encourage someone to do better, they might get defensive or get into
 one-upping. Is that what you were saying?

Tarkas: In some sense I am playing with wording that has a
 double reaction in the human mind. To be tricky or clever appeals to
 one's ego sensibilities as it also does stimulate an individual to
 increased skill. However, I also realize that you are oriented
 toward affectionate regard of one another and respect for another,
 and these words "clever" and "trick" seem to be manipulative. So, I
 do emphasize my lighthearted use of these words to stimulate in you
 the responsive awareness that you are, by necessity, required to
 shift from your perspective in order to allow another to shift their
 perspective. By meeting them where they are they are better able to
 make their next step forward, rather than you addressing them from
 where you are.

Mary: Maybe "creative techniques" would be better than "tricks"?

Evelyn: I don't have a problem with the word "tricks". I'm
trying to think of an example.  To encourage someone to strive for
 higher goals, you don't want to sound condescending. Demonstrating
 that you can shift to where they are suggests that they could also
 shift.

Tarkas: You have expressed earlier today your appreciation of
 the master'Master's ability to translate spiritual meaning into the
occupations of the individual to whom he was speaking. You have each
 now expressed similar patterns of approach. One way of going about
 this would be to inquire of another how they perceive their progress
 in a particular field, such as art or career, and engage them in the
 flight of fantasy, that is, to help them indulge somewhat in what it
 would be like to fully attain their goal, then to subtly draw them
 into viewing their entire life through this same drive to attain,
 thereby bringing them into the spiritual arena with the very
mechanisms of thought they have been applying in a circumscribed way.

Mary: So much of our wisdom in comes from experience. It's
 hard to have a plan until we have tools attained from success in
 working with someone.

Tarkas: Exposing oneself to a broad array of your fellows
 increases your library, your tools, the instruments in your studio.
Again I draw you back to the masterMaster as the profound example of this
 method. 

Mary: He made an amazingly concentrated effort through
 knowledge, book learning, as well as actual experience with people.
Learning about all different kinds of people and their religious
 beliefs will help us be more inclusive and versatile in reaching out.

Tarkas: Expertly expressed. Imagine encountering another and
 striking conversation about, say, their religious orientation.
Without having any understanding of the particular religion they
 adhere to, your exercise of drawing them out with questions would be
 initiated with rather superficial inquiries such as, "What is your
 religion?" Whereas having studied something about the concepts, you
 are better prepared to ask a deeper question, for instance, how would
 they reconcile the statement that the hand of God functions in the
 world when all about them they see chaos? Now you have begun to
 delve deeper rapidly.

Mary: During mundane interactions, if we maintain the goal of
 learning about others, we'll learn how to approach them in a more
 parallel, less oblique manner. If we can keep this in mind we will
 become more versatile in ministry.

Tarkas: Yes. Good.

Elyon.Elyon: I would throw my two cents into this discussion, as well. I
 would offer to attempt to remove youryou from your concept frame, or alter in
 any favorable way, the stigma that discussion on your part of
 spiritual matters is somehow inappropriate. I point out that in your
 basic, daily contact with your fellows, most of the exchanges that
 occur are based on your personal experience, whether it is your
 personal experience with the weather, with your neighbors, with your
 friends, with what you recently viewed on television.

Nevertheless
 these constitute your personal experience and your reaction to your
 personal experience. I declare to you that it is equally as valid
 for you at any point in the conversation to simply state your
 perspective without fear that breaching new territory of spirituality
 is somehow taboo, not to be approached without your partner's full
 consent. An individual you have a conversation with may choose to
interject a variety of thought patterns which they would engage you
 in. You, from your perspective, are not insulted or put off or taken
 back by the desire of another to introduce discussion. You should
 adopt a similar philosophy when it is your turn to produce topics for
 discussion. You should not enter into this with the apprehension or
 preconception that perhaps this subject matter is inappropriate.

Rather, if it is your personal experience, if it is your topic of
 interest, then it is equally as valid as any other topic. I realize
 that much of your hesitancy is contained in not wanting to force any
 concept on another. Realize that you, in your daily exchanges, are
 not forcing your concepts on anyone. If another brings up the
 subject of automobiles, they have not forced this on you. If you
 choose not to discuss it, you simply do not reply or do not further
 the conversation. You are not insulted or challenged by them wanting
to discuss automobiles. You simply determine whether or not you will
 engage them in this. Likewise, should you decide to introduce
 spirituality in any form, it is their option to choose to engage you
 in this or to simply let the ball drop. Either way you have done no
 harm in this. Your perspective has been made, and the door has been
 opened for further discussion.  

As was

It simply
 takes the door being opened sometimes before the whole realm of
 possibilities becomes open. This is perhaps where you have the
 greatest leverage in your daily ministry, to simply crack the door.
Do not attempt at any time to thrust the door wide open and force
 discussion if unsolicited. However, always be ready to twist the
 handle and unlock the door so it may be swung gradually or abruptly
 as reaction dictates.

Mary: We need to avoid pigeonholing people, assuming they
 wouldn't be interested in any subject.  Spirituality isn't any more
 unusual to bring up than the weather. Hopefully, they are all
 interested to some degree; we may just speak a different language on
 the subject

Elyon: Very well stated. This brings me to my next comment;
 you touched on it briefly just now. It would be helpful if you
 would, each one, make active and conscious attempt to alter this
 conception in your mind that this subject is somehow not as freely
 accessed or is uncomfortable or forbidden. The times we live in are
changing rapidly. You have been told that channels are opening;
 communication is increasing. These are times when dialogue of this
 sort needs to be introduced. Do not make the mistake of being so
 respectful of what you perceive another's position to be that you
 decline to even be engaged for the possibility that you might be out
 of line. If you are unwelcome in your solicitation, you will
 immediately become aware. When you become aware, no one in this room
is a forceful personality enough to notsimply back off. 

In the meantime try assuming the very opposite; just imagine
 people freely and willingly desiring to engage you in conversation of
 a spiritual nature. Try this in your perspective with individuals.
I realize that this is almost 180 degrees from where you reside in
 your approach to this scenario. Nevertheless, I encourage you to be
 bold, to remove the concern that you are overpowering, because you
 are not. It is no more overpowering for you to suggest some aspect
 of spirituality than is for your neighbor to suggest the weather is
 pleasing. They are merely facets of your personal experience. You
 could argue that your spiritual perspective is of far more enduring
 quality than the transient nature of the climate. Therefore, be not
 afraid to drop the hint, to crack the door, to at least let the other
 individual know that this is part of your experience. ( If the other
 shows no interest).interest...you leave it be; you talk about the weather, the
 automobiles, and the grass. On the other hand, if they do choose to
 engage you with it, then you have made the first step to crack the
 door wherein you may both enter into that bastion of spirituality
 where you can both grow from the experience. It is far better to
 take the remote chance of offending another or making another
uncomfortable than it is to decline to ever enter that domain of
 spirituality with them.

Realize that they may very well be equally as apprehensive
 about discussion of their spirituality with you. If you make the
 first move, you open the arena for both of you. You may be surprised
 at those around you who are in search mode and at a stage of
 consideration of these issues. This is occurring more frequently as
a consequence of the opening of the circuits and the work done behind
 the scenes by the many spiritual helpers. Many individuals are
 searching for meaning. It would take but a word from you or any
 other for the floodgates to open. Individuals would greatly
 appreciate having someone who they consider a friend, a neighbor, an
 acquaintance to simply discuss these issues with. 

Never forget that it is equally important to be as good a
 listener as you are an instigator of conversation, that many
 individuals simply desire to share the experiences they are trying to
 assimilate into their repertoire. So, once again the command, the
 calling, to be bold and step forward. Do not fear that you will be
 shunned or regarded as fanatical for merely suggesting the spiritual
 side of your nature. It is, indeed, fully half or greater of your
 entire nature, yet, it is rarely discussed except in settings like
 this. That, my friends, needs changing. You are in a position to
 change that scenario by merely dropping the hint, opening the door.
It is a simple matter to do, but I realize it takes some courage on
 your part. I bid you the courage and the strength to do that.

Jonathan: All paths lead to God; it sounds like all
 conversations lead to God. We illustrate not that all we can talk
 about is spirituality, but that in any conversation we can provide
 patterns of thinking that can help another later in applying that
 pattern in an entirely different context. In being a good listener,
 we can rise when others open the door for us.

Elyon: I will also offer that you reflect in your dealings
 with our brethren, when you are in discussion on any given topic, you
 are basically sharing your values, whether it is the value of a good
 day, of a good automobile, of the interaction you had with another.
You, in bringing any conversation to the forefront, are offering
 something of your value system to be shared with others. They are
 doing the same; they bring forth things of value to share with you
 that they have in their lives. It is incumbent upon you to point out
to them, softly, maybe, that one of the aspects that is of value to
 you is your spirituality. This can be powerfully effective,
 especially to individuals who you have come to know on a different
 level. They have witnessed you as a friend, a neighbor, an
 acquaintance, as someone they see in the course of business.

They
 have formulated a relationship and opinion of you given this
 exposure. Now you can add one more thing to the equation; you can
 add that in your life you hold of value and significance your
 spiritual connection, your spiritual reaction to the world. This may
 open many eyes in that they thought they knew you, and now they learn
 another side of you, that there is more to you than met the eye, so
 to speak.

Mary: Not all people interested in spirituality are fanatical.
It might be enlightening to know that you can be involved in religion
 without begin offensive.

Elyon: Again, very well said, an excellent perspective. You
 are dealing with a common perception of what religion is and does.
It is your fortune and privilege to show those around you by your
 actions and demeanor and receptivity that you are a breed apart from
 the stereotype they may be thinking. You are quite normal and
 average in many regards, nothing to be afraid of, simply a fellow
 human being.