QA255 QUESTION: I have the great privilege to be working closely with the lectures. Specifically, I have undertaken the task of editing the lectures. My goal is to be able to untangle certain complicated paragraphs – grammatically and stylistically – and make them flow, without however altering the meaning, but trying to clarify the concepts. In other words, at times the language gets in the way, and it needs to be cleaned up and simplified.
I feel very connected to this work. I felt the desire to do this work many years ago when I read the first lecture. However, the responsibility is great, and I would like some feedback from you. When I feel connected to the lecture I am working on, I seem to become one with it, and as I read it, the words shuffle around and go to the right place as if by magic. I have no doubts then. At other times, the task is more labored and I have to leave a lecture with certain question marks in my mind. Sometimes I feel I over-edit, sometimes that I haven’t edited enough. Could you comment on the quality of the work in general?
ANSWER: The work you are doing with the lectures is excellent. You are truly fulfilling your task now, and you know it.
QUESTION: Do you have any suggestions or hints that might help me?
ANSWER: When you have difficulties, I would suggest that you ask yourself why. Is it something that you have not been dealing with in your life right now, that may not have any bearing on the material? Then you must deal with it, because the repression makes you restless and diffuses your energies. Or is it something in the material of the lecture itself? This too, needs to be looked at.
Apart from that, you need to accept that no work can always flow equally smoothly and evenly. You are a human being and as such immersed in a variety of levels that create rhythms and phases. The times that the work is more difficult may also serve a certain purpose and needs to be accepted, apart from what I said before.
QUESTION: I have noticed that there is a great unevenness in the flow. There are some paragraphs which are gems, beautiful, simple and clear, and others that are quite tangled up. Does this have to do with where the medium is at, or directly with you? Also, can the medium use words she doesn’t normally know or use, or does she use her normal vocabulary? Does she have the task of forming the words, or giving a word to a knowledge, a feeling or a concept, or is she served more directly with words?
ANSWER: These processes are extremely complicated. There is no one single answer. The medium’s humanness constitutes a thick wall through which finer vibrations of truth need to come through – material that is utterly foreign to her, sometimes even words. Sometimes only the vocabulary she possesses can be used, but this is by no means always so.
There were many instances where words could come through that were unfamiliar to her. Here too the flow varies. At times, with certain material, at certain stages of rhythmicity – and they may change from minute to minute – spiritual truth can come through powerfully. At other times, the process is much more labored.
This is why you will almost always find with all mediums that there is an apparent verbosity. There is a period at the beginning of a message where it literally seems to gather steam. This may manifest in preparation of words, or sometimes even sounds.
QUESTION: I have made the commitment to continue my work with the lectures until they are all new, edited, and uniformly typed and printed in their present form. However, I visualize the lectures soon being printed in different formats, in a book, according to subjects, etcetera. Is it time to start thinking along those lines? Do you have any suggestions in this area?
ANSWER: Eventually, a book form will evolve. This thought has come to many before, because it is a natural outcome. However, the time is still not quite ripe. Let it evolve more naturally, more organically. Perhaps this may prove to be your task after you finish with editing the present material. You would have the necessary preparation through this task. This might be a possibility to consider. Your deep appreciation, in addition to your understanding, would equip you well.
Here I also want to say to the two friends who have long been the only ones to do the editing work, that their work too was well done and has been very valuable. It just is not their task now. They should not feel sad. You all are blessed.
