2019 International Study Day

I am very grateful to be re~reading Paper 9 with others and to be following along with the discussions here – thanks, Rick.

During this pass through the Paper I highlighted passages that will be considered for the Sunday morning worship at SSS ’19 and for our explorations at Urantia Global Experience 2020 – Lifting Together; United in Purpose, Serving God the Supreme.

Our hearts and minds continually expanding, e’en more so when in the company of loving brothers and sisters.

susanm wrote:

I am very grateful to be re~reading Paper 9 with others and to be following along with the discussions here – thanks, Rick. During this pass through the Paper I highlighted passages that will be considered for the Sunday morning worship at SSS ’19 and for our explorations at Urantia Global Experience 2020 – Lifting Together; United in Purpose, Serving God the Supreme. Our hearts and minds continually expanding, e’en more so when in the company of loving brothers and sisters.

Thanks for dropping by and adding input, Sister Suess. Your words prompted a memory of a mind quote to live or die with. Maybe it will fit into your worship session:

 …into your hands, subject to your own decisions, has been given mind, and it is by mind that you live or die.
^{111:1.4 (1216.5)}

Pleased to hear the 2019 ISD is contributing to this year’s SSS, and the Vancouver conference next year (see you there!)  

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^{9:6.1 (103.6)} The Third Source and Center, the universal intelligence, is personally conscious of every mind, every intellect, in all creation, and he maintains a personal and perfect contact with all these physical, morontial, and spiritual creatures of mind endowment in the far-flung universes. All these activities of mind are grasped in the absolute mind-gravity circuit which focalizes in the Third Source and Center and is a part of the personal consciousness of the Infinite Spirit.

^{9:6.2 (103.7)} Much as the Father draws all personality to himself, and as the Son attracts all spiritual reality, so does the Conjoint Actor exercise a drawing power on all minds; he unqualifiedly dominates and controls the universal mind circuit. All true and genuine intellectual values, all divine thoughts and perfect ideas, are unerringly drawn into this absolute circuit of mind.

^{9:6.3 (104.1)} Mind gravity can operate independently of material and spiritual gravity, but wherever and whenever the latter two impinge, mind gravity always functions. When all three are associated, personality gravity may embrace the material creature—physical or morontial, finite or absonite. But irrespective of this, the endowment of mind even in impersonal beings qualifies them to think and endows them with consciousness despite the total absence of personality.

^{9:6.4 (104.2)} Selfhood of personality dignity, human or divine, immortal or potentially immortal, does not however originate in either spirit, mind, or matter; it is the bestowal of the Universal Father. Neither is the interaction of spirit, mind, and material gravity a prerequisite to the appearance of personality gravity. The Father’s circuit may embrace a mind-material being who is unresponsive to spirit gravity, or it may include a mind-spirit being who is unresponsive to material gravity. The operation of personality gravity is always a volitional act of the Universal Father.

^{9:6.5 (104.3)} While mind is energy associated in purely material beings and spirit associated in purely spiritual personalities, innumerable orders of personality, including the human, possess minds that are associated with both energy and spirit. The spiritual aspects of creature mind unfailingly respond to the spirit-gravity pull of the Eternal Son; the material features respond to the gravity urge of the material universe.

^{9:6.6 (104.4)} Cosmic mind, when not associated with either energy or spirit, is subject to the gravity demands of neither material nor spiritual circuits. Pure mind is subject only to the universal gravity grasp of the Conjoint Actor. Pure mind is close of kin to infinite mind, and infinite mind (the theoretical co-ordinate of the absolutes of spirit and energy) is apparently a law in itself.

^{9:6.7 (104.5)} The greater the spirit-energy divergence, the greater the observable function of mind; the lesser the diversity of energy and spirit, the lesser the observable function of mind. Apparently, the maximum function of the cosmic mind is in the time universes of space. Here mind seems to function in a mid-zone between energy and spirit, but this is not true of the higher levels of mind; on Paradise, energy and spirit are essentially one.

^{9:6.8 (104.6)} The mind-gravity circuit is dependable; it emanates from the Third Person of Deity on Paradise, but not all the observable function of mind is predictable. Throughout all known creation there parallels this circuit of mind some little-understood presence whose function is not predictable. We believe that this unpredictability is partly attributable to the function of the Universal Absolute. What this function is, we do not know; what actuates it, we can only conjecture; concerning its relation to creatures, we can only speculate.

^{9:6.9 (104.7)} Certain phases of the unpredictability of finite mind may be due to the incompleteness of the Supreme Being, and there is a vast zone of activities wherein the Conjoint Actor and the Universal Absolute may possibly be tangent. There is much about mind that is unknown, but of this we are sure: The Infinite Spirit is the perfect expression of the mind of the Creator to all creatures; the Supreme Being is the evolving expression of the minds of all creatures to their Creator.

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Rick Warren wrote:

Speaking of thinking, the UB editors italicized the words ‘created mind‘. Is there uncreated mind? Maybe that quote hasn’t been inserted into my book yet by those mischievous inserters.

As I understand it, created mind is creature mind out here in the worlds of time and space which is subject to mind gravity.  Uncreated mind would be pure mind, a law in itself, right?  It would be the absolute mind of the Third Source, the original mind and source of mind gravity.

9:6.6 Cosmic mind, when not associated with either energy or spirit, is subject to the gravity demands of neither material nor spiritual circuits. Pure mind is subject only to the universal gravity grasp of the Conjoint Actor. Pure mind is close of kin to infinite mind, and infinite mind (the theoretical co-ordinate of the absolutes of spirit and energy) is apparently a law in itself.

Rick Warren wrote:

On the cosmic level, Paper 117 has an insightful bit on the role of mind in universe unfolding: …The energy circuits will be in perfect balance and in complete subjugation to mind, while spirit, in the presence of personality, will have achieved the dominance of mind. 117:7.13(1292.7)

That’s a description of power-personality synthesis with the emergence of the Supreme.

Rita Schaad wrote:

but there is this one line that puzzles (103.4) 9:5.6 Mind, on Urantia, is a compromise between the essence of thought perfection and the evolving mentality of your immature human nature…   compromise…. evolving mentality?  What are the prerequisites for each to be fitted out with the right set of mindal system for the  ‘mentality’ to grow and expand? Is it genetic, is it circumstantial, is it adaptable to sudden ‘changes of mind’? We see differences in inherent intellect – or the lack of it. Can exercising the mind combat that or are certain people stuck with whatever they got? Just wondering!

Hi Rita.  You ask about prerequisites for an evolving mind system?  I think the only prerequisite is life itself and capacity for receptivity.  The purpose of evolution is to develop a physical system capable of supporting the full complement of mind ministry.  It’s called a human being (not being sarcastic). When they say “normal mind”, they mean a physical system with the capacity to receive contact from all seven adjutants and the Holy Spirit’s overlap to the soul, a separate morontia system which must evolve its own capacity for receptivity.  Never forget that mind is a ministry on temporary loan from God and the morontia system is not guaranteed to be eternal either.

The evolving mentality of our immature human natures has to do with character.  Human nature is character which we inherit from our earth parents.  This material character is by definition immature because it’s material.  Maturity is transferring the seat of identity, which means transforming the identifying character in line with divinity.  In other words, evolving the morontia system with the help of mind ministry, both material and morontial.

All normal minded individuals are “fitted out with the right set of mindal system”.  It’s what the personality does with it that matters.  There are two ways a personality can screw this up.  Number one, it can mess with the brain itself, the capacity organ, with physical poisons.  Number two, it can mess with receptivity, by resisting, denying, obstructing and actually going to battle against mind ministry and mind gravity (reality response).  Both behaviors result in chaos and instability.

Are people stuck with what they got?  In terms of inheritance, or capacity, yes.  But how often are we told that humans do not utilize their full capacity?  So the pint/quart analogy only applies if you’re actually utilizing your entire pint.  But here’s the dirty little secret everyone seems to forget about.  If your pint is full to overflowing, there’s another vessel waiting to capture the excess, the soul.  Growth, or expansion of capacity, never ceases.  That’s what mind evolution is all about.  That’s one of the reasons we have to get re-outfitted so many times on the mansion worlds, because capacity keeps expanding.

What the anti-intellectual crowd won’t tell you is that if you want to create greater capacity for receptivity of higher mind ministry (Holy Spirit, etal.), then you have to do exercise with your mind ministry, use your intellect.  You have to utilize wisdom, yes the adjutant of wisdom, which is the acme of intellectual performance and the goal of a purely mental and moral existence. Why? because it is the gateway to the soul where capacity can expand.

65:8.4 As mind evolution is dependent on, and delayed by, the slow development of physical conditions, so is spiritual progress dependent on mental expansion and unfailingly delayed by intellectual retardation. But this does not mean that spiritual evolution is dependent on education, culture, or wisdom. The soul may evolve regardless of mental culture but not in the absence of mental capacity and desire — the choice of survival and the decision to achieve ever-increasing perfection — to do the will of the Father in heaven. Although survival may not depend on the possession of knowledge and wisdom, progression most certainly does.

How do you activate the adjutant of wisdom?  Through prayer, the adjutant of worship.  When worship is admonished by wisdom the mind begins to open to spiritual insight, the door of the mind is ready to discover and recognize spiritualized thinking, the very beginning of expansion. It’s what they mean by praying in the spirit, which is the same as thinking in the spirit, growing spiritual capacity by contact with the mind of spirit (supermind).

133:7.11 The human mind early begins to manifest qualities which are supermaterial; the truly reflective human intellect is not altogether bound by the limits of time. That individuals so differ in their life performances indicates, not only the varying endowments of heredity and the different influences of the environment, but also the degree of unification with the indwelling spirit of the Father which has been achieved by the self, the measure of the identification of the one with the other.

130:4.9 Only indegree does man possess mind above the animal level aside from the higher and quasi-spiritual ministrations of intellect. Therefore animals (not having worship and wisdom) cannot experience superconsciousness, consciousness of consciousness. The animal mind is only conscious of the objective universe.

In regards to “sudden changes”, are you referring to conversion reactions or genuine personal religious experience?   Both can result in changes in thinking.  But don’t forget that our material thoughts are just scaffolding and they can be delicately built.  Some sudden changes are resisted because they can cause a collapse of the scaffolding and that would be terrifying.  Most growth is subtle and slow so as not to destroy the underlying structures, but instead, wean the thinker off of dependency on erroneous or immature thoughts.

115:1.1Partial, incomplete, and evolving intellects would be helpless in the master universe, would be unable to form the first rational thought pattern, were it not for the innate ability of all mind, high or low, to form a universe frame in which to think. If mind cannot fathom conclusions, if it cannot penetrate to true origins, then will such mind unfailingly postulate conclusions and invent origins that it may have a means of logical thought within the frame of these mind-created postulates. And while such universe frames for creature thought are indispensable to rational intellectual operations, they are, without exception, erroneous to a greater or lesser degree.

115:1.2 Conceptual frames of the universe are only relatively true; they are serviceable scaffolding which must eventually give way before the expansions of enlarging cosmic comprehension. The understandings of truth, beauty, and goodness, morality, ethics, duty, love, divinity, origin, existence, purpose, destiny, time, space, even Deity, are only relatively true. God is much, much more than a Father, but the Father is man’s highest concept of God; nonetheless, the Father-Son portrayal of Creator-creature relationship will be augmented by those supermortal conceptions of Deity which will be attained in Orvonton, in Havona, and on Paradise. Man must think in a mortal universe frame, but that does not mean that he cannot envision other and higher frames within which thought can take place.

Does this answer any of your questions or have I just muddied the waters more?

The view inside our temporary room-mountain top, library-study, back yard, beach, or whatever in our temp life here doesn’t show us all, as you know. The All Wise Ones share only a snippet for our “itty-bitty” brains. That is one of perhaps many reasons for stepping away (in mind, thinking) into the next room, the one called faith. Limited view is the big reason faith is so vitally important because there is a big bunch more God intends to share when we are better prepared. In the meantime, we keep on guessing.

In short, if we don’t understand, go buy a big supply of faith! Its a saving thing!

Rick Warren wrote:

Now this is a weighty subject :) Remember the first time your read the words, “mind gravity”. It’s a new concept for our itty-bitty brains. Evidently thoughts have pull.

I think it’s important to point out that not all thoughts have pull.  Only thoughts with vital meanings and intellectual value have pull, in other words, thoughts that ping with reality.

115:6.1 The triodity of actuality continues to function directly in the post-Havona epochs; Paradise gravity grasps the basic units of material existence, the spirit gravity of the Eternal Son operates directly upon the fundamental values of spirit existence, and the mind gravity of the Conjoint Actor unerringly clutches all vital meanings of intellectual existence.

14:2.8 Likewise does the Infinite Spirit draw all intellectual values Paradiseward. Throughout the central universe the mind gravity of the Infinite Spirit functions in liaison with the spirit gravity of the Eternal Son, and these together constitute the combined urge of the ascendant souls to find God, to attain Deity, to achieve Paradise, and to know the Father.

I think the last quote is informative in that the urge for the soul to ascend has a dual source within it, the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Truth, the representatives of the Infinite Spirit and Eternal Son living within our souls. Which brings me to this statement of yours:

Rick Warren wrote:

Astonishing as it seems, the Infinite Spirit is in every head in the universe: …he maintains a personal and perfect contact with all these physical, morontial, and spiritual creatures of mind endowment in the far-flung universes.

OK, don’t panic but I’m gonna bust ya again.  You’re theoretically right but technically a little bit wrong.  The Infinite Spirit cannot live inside your head like the Father fragment.  The Infinite Spirit, and also the Eternal Son, have to be down-stepped to live in your head.  The Infinite Spirit is in contact with all creatures of mind endowment but only indirectly through his Daughters, and directly through those thoughts which respond to mind gravity because they are so vitally real and valuable they make it all the way to Paradise.

30:1.101 The fragmentations of the premind spirit of the Third Source and Center, though hardly comparable to the Father fragments, should be here recorded. Such entities differ very greatly from Adjusters; they do not as such dwell on Spiritington, nor do they as such traverse the mind-gravity circuits; neither do they indwell mortal creatures during the life in the flesh. They are not prepersonal in the sense that the Adjusters are, but such fragments of premind spirit are bestowed upon certain of the surviving mortals, and fusion therewith constitutes them Spirit-fused mortals in contradistinction to Adjuster-fused mortals.

56:3.5 The mortal mind is the creation of the Sons and Daughters of the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit and, when fused with the Thought Adjuster from the Father, partakes of the threefold spirit endowment of the evolutionary realms.

Rick Warren wrote:

So we got gravity pulling us in diverse directions.

I think it’s only one direction, no?  Paradise?  I know there are a lot of confused folks in the world who are lost directionally, meaning they haven’t recognized reality sufficiently to respond to one of these gravity circuits which would lead them home.  They’re still trying to get to from DC to Philly through Mangolia with a side-trip to the Galapagos, oh look! a squirrel!!