© 2002 Jeanmarie Chaise
© 2002 French-speaking Association of Readers of the Urantia Book
Friends recently asked me to tell them about Dourdan 2002. Here is what I sent them as a report.
A few days before the birthday of Jesus (the two thousand and ninth, I believe), 14 countries were represented this year by 225 members of the fraternal worldwide association of Readers of the Urantia Book at our French meeting in Dourdan, the first of its kind outside the United States. I specify, 225, but in fact, there were 226, because a man named Damien, a half-philosopher, half-homeless troubadour, who usually haunts the outskirts of the universities of a city in our Brittany, was surreptitiously hosted by a reader who had taken a liking to him. But shush! the information should not be spread. (It seems, for the record, that Damien’s Urantia Book is a real relic, he has studied it so much.)
I would like to present here the memory that I have kept of this meeting in an informal way, that is to say in a very personal way, because I hardly know how to do otherwise. Apart from the setting which was very acceptable and the weather which was slightly less so for the beginning of August, it is above all the actors and their actions that I would like to talk to you about and only the actors, without necessarily naming them, who marked my stay.
Indeed, when I told you that 90% of this assembly was absent for a visit to a neighboring castle, for an entire afternoon, I would have only told you my feeling of abandonment during these lost hours. But naturally, they were not lost for everyone, since a large majority of visitors to castles were foreigners to France. We nevertheless found ourselves among friends during this time. When I told you that the evenings were a battle for audience between the musical performances of some and the various gatherings of others around discussion tables, I would have only told you my interest in the latter to the detriment of the former. Not that I do not like music or assemblies captivated by a show, but because the exchange of ideas is my favorite music.
Finally, when I have told you of my satisfaction at having found myself generally like a fish in water in this warm atmosphere of friendship, I will have told you of the enthusiasm that I felt from everyone, known and unknown.
So I can only tell you about my own experience and some of the encounters that took place during these two days, because I did not attend the third one in its entirety. First of all, it was a joy, for me as for everyone, no doubt, to renew friendships with familiar faces and see in their features their evolution, sometimes exciting, but sometimes less so. Then there were those we knew through exchanges (via the Internet for example or by correspondence) and who revealed themselves to be barely different from what they had seemed to us to be through these blind means of communication. Certainly, frank friendships were formed in this way, since that happened to me. But there were also many opportunities to get to know complete strangers, by which I mean, previously unknown people. I notably had a long conversation with a pianist who had enchanted us with Chopin, as well as with a translator of the Urantia Book into Romanian, who had become acquainted with the Urantia Book in Hong Kong and with whom I had an interview until late at night. Other meetings still, but often more limited due to the language barrier, punctuated the free time between workshop sessions and “plenary” sessions as the people of Quebec say.
During these last plenary sessions, we felt a general sense of sympathy, despite the immensity of the room, which was full and buzzing. There was singing, individual and collective, and sustained attention during the presentations, which were sometimes long but never boring and interspersed with humorous remarks from one and all and numerous flashes. The photographers and camcorders had a great time. Moreover, I was told by my friend Georges that a would be made of all these days with numerous photos.
Here then, very briefly, is the story of my impressions of Dourdan with regard to the physical and mental aspects, if indeed the presence of people and what they give off in terms of strong and reasoned feelings have to do with these two levels of our reality in society. But there is another level of this reality to which we all aspire and which is permanently underlying us, at least through our secret aspirations, those which we carefully lock away in our baggage of eternity, our spiritual aspirations.
Faced with this more confused level, we feel more evasive when it comes to determining its values. These are not usually given over to analysis or only exceptionally. And I must say that I have nevertheless felt the effluvia on a few occasions, and notably during the presentation of the theme of personality. I immediately determined the cause, because the speaker, Georges, did not hide it, it emanated directly from a colorful character who was among us and about whom I now want to speak to you.
Moussa had come from Senegal and it was to his workshop that I went from the first day, and it was to the sessions that he led afterwards that I went until my departure. To tell the truth, Moussa covered my entire stay with a mantle of spiritual friendship. Addressing this theme of spiritual friendship is not familiar to me, and I believe that this is the first time that I have felt it with this intensity. How can I tell you about it? Moussa’s last workshops had to take place in a larger room because more and more people wanted to attend. This is the physical manifestation of his impact on a society.
Moussa is simplicity itself, kindness itself, he listens as much as he communicates. I have observed him. When he goes from a phase during which he explains to a phase during which he listens; his face changes completely. Moussa has infinite respect for what is said to him, and he inspires infinite respect for what he says. However, it is through simple things that I know by heart about what is presented to us in the Urantia Book that he has been able to capture my attention. I have had the opportunity to ask him questions several times and he has always been able to answer them with perfect serenity and a clear vision, both of the question and the answer to be given. Such is his mental impact on his audience.
Moussa, when he is not working, because these sessions are obviously a job that he is passionate about but also to which he brings an intensity of attention and constant intention, is a personality that shines. It is in these occasions of relaxation and observation of the society around him, when no one pays particular attention to him, that I was able to observe this spiritual personality. His calm, I would say his inner presence emanates from his person and it is the first time that such an impression has seized me.
I saw Moussa again a few days later at the AFFUB headquarters with his son Mustapha and his two nieces Fatou and Monique. There again, with about fifteen other people, I was able to appreciate the benefits of this presence that I hope everyone will meet one day, because I believe that The Urantia Book is completed and perfected by the approach of such a personality who truly and deeply puts the teachings of Jesus into his life.
Jeanmarie Chair