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The Urantia Book does present many philosophies and teachings which can be read literally or through the insight of the minds eye, which has been noted to some degree, as the peneal/pineal gland, however, no longer presented in todays edition. Nevertheless, just possessing these glandular structures does not endow their functions, as in the use of the cosmic mind, therefore must be developed through various stimulation to enable or to recognize their usage.The following UB narratives specifies that there are differences among mortals, but inherently they are endowed with the ability to be developed. This development can be stimulated in many ways, but is best when stimulated through religious experience.(566.5) 49:5.17 While the three-brained peoples are capable of a slightly higher planetary evolution than either the one- or two-brained orders, all have the same type of life plasm and carry on planetary activities in very similar ways, much as do human beings on Urantia. These three types of mortals are distributed throughout the worlds of the local systems. In the majority of cases planetary conditions had very little to do with the decisions of the Life Carriers to project these varied orders of mortals on the different worlds; it is a prerogative of the Life Carriers thus to plan and execute.
(566.6) 49:5.18 These three orders stand on an equal footing in the ascension career. Each must traverse the same intellectual scale of development, and each must master the same spiritual tests of progression. The system administration and the constellation overcontrol of these different worlds are uniformly free from discrimination; even the regimes of the Planetary Princes are identical.
(566.7) 49:5.19 3. Spirit-reception series. There are three groups of mind design as related to contact with spirit affairs. This classification does not refer to the one-, two-, and three-brained orders of mortals; it refers primarily to gland chemistry, more particularly to the organization of certain glands comparable to the pituitary bodies. The races on some worlds have one gland, on others two, as do Urantians, while on still other spheres the races have three of these unique bodies. The inherent imagination and spiritual receptivity is definitely influenced by this differential chemical endowment.
Therefore, “Spirit-reception” or the use of the “seven adjutant mind-spirits” can be dependent on the development or activation of physical members within the human body, exclusive of the various types “of life plasm” which has also been described and mentioned, in detail, within the Urantia Book and, can be passed on from person to person retaining inherent family traits and abilities, including memories and knowledge, but must be awakened.Mara, what you have presented can be considered true by many and yet there would be some or many who would have a different viewpoint or opinion.
Having mentioned that everyone may have different perceptions of truth which is expressed as opinions and or viewpoints, not everything read literally in the UB will be understood by all the same way. Thereby, being steadfast as to one interpretation of the narrative, versus another interpretation would follow along the lines of forced indoctrination and influencing an individuals understanding thereof. This is what can be considered as being taught what to think, in lieu of how to think, based on ones experience.
Education provides tools to students and it does not end when the school door closes.
This may be true, Mara but, from my experience this is not always true. Many years back I had the opportunity to manage a small, old time hardware store, where we hired students to help out after school. One of these students, who was in his senior year of high school, was hired and required to perform simple math in order to help checkout customers. On one occasion, this senior, had made an error in his calculations and when asked later, what 10 times 10 was, he answered 110. At this time I was surprised and not surprised because having taken the time to evaluate this situation, I was told that these students were taught how to use calculators instead of being taught simple math tables to memory. This might be funny to some but it is really a sad thing when we are graduating students from high school who are not prepared for life’s simple challenges. So could one say that this person was taught what to think or do rather than how to use basic knowledge in formulating more complex theories which require additional thought to solve problems?
Every will creature is wired, so to speak, to the seven adjutant mind-spirits and their ministry (36:5:0).
This also may be true, but being wired for something does not always mean that there is an ability to use the wiring to its full potential. In this case would every person need to know how this wiring functions before it can be used, if so they would need to read the UB in order to take full advantage of these “mind-spirits” and, then there is the need for correct interpretation to be able to understand these functions.
All of us have a role to play sooner or later in the role of a pupil-teacher. We learn by doing, and then by giving back to others what we experientially learned.
What if the pupil is not taught by someone who is considered a teacher? We as parents have learned by doing for the most part and as pupil-teachers should recognize when we are pupils and then teachers. I had personal experience with just such an issue, where through specific genetic paring my three sons were born hydrocephalic, but through medical testing developed chemical meningitis of the brain, resulting in various disabilities where learning was difficult. Now, the point which I hope to make is that their mother found it necessary to do everything for these boys which included normal daily activities like dressing, washing, and other activities which were within their capabilities to perform. She did these things because it was easier and faster for her to do this rather than teaching them to be more self sufficient. It became so difficult that I insisted that the eldest boy go to live with his grandparents who at that time were custodians of a private school in Canada. Now my mother was a taught kindergarten teacher in the old country but was never certified once immigrating to Canada. My mother had worked for the owner of this school in the beginning when she started a nursery school in her basement and latter when her own grandchild was born with extreme disabilities she, the owner of the school, insisted on a special training method for all her teachers in this special school having 750 students who were normal achievers. Nevertheless, my son was enrolled in this school along with all the other kids and over a period of about two years, learned to partially speak more than one language, ran in the school athletic programs and overall showed that he had the ability to perform above what was considered his abnormal mental ability. Not being able to afford this school for a long period of time, we brought him back home, where over a short period of time, of having everything done for him again, he lost much of this ability. So in this case he was taught how not to do things and then taught how to do things, which even though might not have improved his ability to think, it proved that he could be taught how to think or do out side of what others thought.
My question is: Who wants to think outside the box of the currently accepted views of one’s family and friends. It takes courage and daring to develop a cosmic philosophy of living.
I’m not sure of your leading statement and its implication to thinking outside the box, where thinking would be internal and, expressing one’s thoughts would be external, and subject to challenge by others who thought differently and possibly indoctrinated to one philosophy of living? Standing up for what one believes is their philosophy of living is truly courageous, but only if they attempted to force that philosophy on others.
Mara is correct to say that thinking is inherent in humans, it’s what the brain/mind does at the behest of human will. Therefore it must be the ‘quality of thinking’ that distinguishes a good philosophy from a faulty one. So, what contributes to quality thinking? Would it not be the recognition and adoption of Truth? We are told Truth is discovered and lived by personal revelation, and/or epochal revelation. Truth’s integration takes time, patience and unrelenting persistence with the help of our Gods. And always are the fruits of truth the discernment and integration goodness and beauty.
There can certainly be a difference in the quality of one’s philosophy, and the difference must surely reflect that person’s thinking. Both of these quotes mention philosophy, but note how differently the light on philosophy shines:
…The religious challenge of this age is to those farseeing and forward-looking men and women of spiritual insight who will dare to construct a new and appealing philosophy of living out of the enlarged and exquisitely integrated modern concepts of cosmic truth, universe beauty, and divine goodness. Such a new and righteous vision of morality will attract all that is good in the mind of man and challenge that which is best in the human soul…. (43.3) 2:7.10
…But true religion is alive. Intellectual crystallization of religious concepts is the equivalent of spiritual death. You cannot conceive of religion without ideas, but when religion once becomes reduced only to an idea, it is no longer religion; it has become merely a species of human philosophy…. (1120.4) 102:2.7
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Richard E Warren
This thread reminds me of the word “realize” or for the purposes of further discussion, “realizing”, so I did a search and found a few quotes that could add value. There is spirit value and benefits from prayer to help us become more realizing. It seems mind action experiencing realization fits into philosophy and one’s broadening education. Note the following quotes:
Urantians should get a vision of a new and higher cultural society. Education will jump to new levels of value with the passing of the purely profit-motivated system of economics. Education has too long been localistic, militaristic, ego exalting, and success seeking; it must eventually become world-wide, idealistic, self-realizing, and cosmic grasping. 71:7.3
A logical and consistent philosophic concept of the universe cannot be built up on the postulations of either materialism or spiritism, for both of these systems of thinking, when universally applied, are compelled to view the cosmos in distortion, the former contacting with a universe turned inside out, the latter realizing the nature of a universe turned outside in. Never, then, can either science or religion, in and of themselves, standing alone, hope to gain an adequate understanding of universal truths and relationships without the guidance of human philosophy and the illumination of divine revelation. 103:6.5
Prayer is designed to make man less thinking but more realizing; it is not designed to increase knowledge but rather to expand insight. 143:7.4
They looked upon the coming of the kingdom in the hearts of men as a gradual development, like the leaven in the dough or like the growing of the mustard seed. They believed that the coming of the kingdom in the racial or world sense would be both sudden and spectacular. Jesus never tired of telling them that the kingdom of heaven was their personal experience of realizing the higher qualities of spiritual living; that these realities of the spirit experience are progressively translated to new and higher levels of divine certainty and eternal grandeur. 170:2.16
And so must we clearly recognize that neither the golden rule nor the teaching of nonresistance can ever be properly understood as dogmas or precepts. They can only be comprehended by living them, by realizing their meanings in the living interpretation of the Spirit of Truth, who directs the loving contact of one human being with another. 180:5.11
The exquisite and transcendent experience of loving and being loved is not just a psychic illusion because it is so purely subjective. The one truly divine and objective reality that is associated with mortal beings, the Thought Adjuster, functions to human observation apparently as an exclusively subjective phenomenon. Man’s contact with the highest objective reality, God, is only through the purely subjective experience of knowing him, of worshiping him, of realizing sonship with him. 196:3.21
Note “truly divine and objective reality” above.
Here’s another great quote:
132:3.2 Truth cannot be defined with words, only by living. Truth is always more than knowledge. Knowledge pertains to things observed, but truth transcends such purely material levels in that it consorts with wisdom and embraces such imponderables as human experience, even spiritual and living realities. Knowledge originates in science; wisdom, in true philosophy; truth, in the religious experience of spiritual living. Knowledge deals with facts; wisdom, with relationships; truth, with reality values.
Truth consorts with wisdom and wisdom originates in true philosophy. I like the word “consorts” because it implies life partners, or partners in life. It looks like they go together like a horse and carriage. Truth is only made accessible to us when the ministry of the spirit of wisdom is permitted to attune to our souls, where the Holy Spirit, Spirit of Truth and the Adjuster reside. Truth is a supermaterial experience, but we arrive there through wisdom, and philosophy is the search for wisdom. (71:7.4) So in the end, it is more about the direction we seek. Always pull philosophy up to wisdom and wisdom up to truth, and not the other way around.
103:9.7 Faith most willingly carries reason along as far as reason can go and then goes on with wisdom to the full philosophic limit; and then it dares to launch out upon the limitless and never-ending universe journey in the sole company of TRUTH.
Wisdom is defined a few different ways in TUB. Here are a few:
- knowledge directed by experiential reason and illuminated by divine revelation. 92:2.1
- meditative and experiential thinking 85:7.3
- the consciousness of the meaning of personality 102:3.9
- the consciousness of knowledge elevated to new levels of meaning and activated by the presence of the universe endowment of the adjutant of wisdom 180:5.3
Thanks very much for the additional comments and quotes Mark, Bonita. So true Mark, God’s values must be realized, and nowhere else but the domains of education and experience. Experience is usually haphazard, but education should be well rounded, and it should instill the significance of philosophical thinking and understanding. What is the Melchizedek definition of philosophy (thanks Bonita)?
…Teachers must be free beings, real leaders, to the end that philosophy, the search for wisdom, may become the chief educational pursuit…. (806.4) 71:7.4
But some of us realized the value of wisdom several thousand years ago. From Proverbs 4:7:
Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.
New International Version
The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.New Living Translation
Getting wisdom is the wisest thing you can do! And whatever else you do, develop good judgment.English Standard Version
The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight.New American Standard Bible
“The beginning of wisdom is: Acquire wisdom; And with all your acquiring, get understanding..
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Richard E Warren
What is philosophy?
196:3.30 Philosophy is man’s attempt at the unification of human experience.
However, true philosophy appears to be a little more than just an interest in intellectual realities. It is the arises from wisdom, the type of wisdom that does its best to correlate and unify both the quantity and quality of human experience. The soul and energy of true philosophy is spiritual insight.
102:2.6 Unity is best found in human experience through philosophy. And while the body of philosophic thought must ever be founded on material facts, the soul and energy of true philosophic dynamics is mortal spiritual insight.
What is philosophy?
196:3.30 Philosophy is man’s attempt at the unification of human experience.
However, true philosophy appears to be a little more than just an interest in intellectual realities. It is the arises from wisdom, the type of wisdom that does its best to correlate and unify both the quantity and quality of human experience. The soul and energy of true philosophy is spiritual insight.
102:2.6 Unity is best found in human experience through philosophy. And while the body of philosophic thought must ever be founded on material facts, the soul and energy of true philosophic dynamics is mortal spiritual insight.
Another good definition, thanks Bonita. Quality AND quantity, you’re so right.
This from Melchizedek is GREAT: “…the soul and energy of true philosophic dynamics is mortal spiritual insight.” Dynamics of philosophy, what a concept! Philosophy must flow, must be flexible, must grow, evolve, and improve in quality and quantity.
But you lost me here: “It is the arises from wisdom,”
Richard E Warren
But you lost me here: “It is the arises from wisdom,”
Bad editing on my part when it comes to copy/pasting from my notebook on the subject. It should read: “It (true philosophy) results in the type of wisdom that does its best to correlate and unify both the quantity and quality of human experience.”
Actually, I wrote that years ago and now I think it would be better to rewrite the whole thing and try to make it all a bit clearer. I was just being lazy doing the copy/paste thing. Sorry.
Not a problem! It happens to the best of us. Hard to find perfect humans
A few days ago a poster to this topic on Facebook gave permission to repost this. We were lamenting poor education. I wanted to share it here:
“Unfortunately, many, because they do not have a philosophical background, are not familiar with ” The Great Books of The Western World. ” Many do not realize that major politics is based on the thought of great philosophies from our past, such as ” The Social Contract. ” From the Magna Carta to the US Constitution, there is a delightful, philosophical history of how mankind’s fight for freedom, philosophically, evolved. Since these philosophies are often distorted by politics or religious organizations, it is very important that we as a people understand the dynamics of philosophy, so that we may maintain a healthy skepticism of the machinations of power. When others claim ” these truths to be self evident, ” question everything. To remain free we must be aware of every stage of philosophical progression as well as philosophical sophistries. And the more we understand the world’s great philosophies, the ethical fitness of some philosophies over others, the more we will be able to realize and utilize personal philosophies. As individuals and as a collective consciousness, we will grow as a people, when we recognize the philosophical importance of including everyone in the search for Truth, Goodness Beauty–Freedom”
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Was wondering what this group might think about it?
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Richard E Warren
I like it Rick. My significant other is a former elementary teacher and has always been a nurturing, loving teacher, a model for her students. She would agree with wholehearted enthusiasm that education is paramount for progress.
Gene mentioned students are taught what to think, not how to think. Seems so true. Perhaps we need to promote a wise, three-word question to be used for all life aspects—everything. “What is true?” Or real. It harmonizes with training people how to think. Our revelators certainly have given us ample proof for developing personal philosophy to help us recognize God. The writer above is interested in progress. Yea! If we seek progress we will get help from above.
I like it Rick. My significant other is a former elementary teacher and has always been a nurturing, loving teacher, a model for her students. She would agree with wholehearted enthusiasm that education is paramount for progress. Gene mentioned students are taught what to think, not how to think. Seems so true. Perhaps we need to promote a wise, three-word question to be used for all life aspects—everything. “What is true?” Or real. It harmonizes with training people how to think. Our revelators certainly have given us ample proof for developing personal philosophy to help us recognize God. The writer above is interested in progress. Yea! If we seek progress we will get help from above.
Well said Mark and Gene, and thank God everyday for the light of revelation, on religion, science, philosophy, God. Yes.
Richard E Warren
A few days ago a poster to this topic on Facebook gave permission to repost this. We were lamenting poor education. I wanted to share it here:
Yeah, a few days back I was putting together a post on that very subject but a sense of ennui came over me and I tossed it. Essentially, what I wanted to say is that philosophy should be integrated into every single subject, not just politics and history as the author you quoted pointed out. Every course taught should include some aspect of philosophy, including the arts, literature, science, math, gym, home-ec and even recess. Kids don’t necessarily need a separate course in philosophy at the K-12 level. They just need to be exposed to its relevance.
A few days ago a poster to this topic on Facebook gave permission to repost this. We were lamenting poor education. I wanted to share it here:
Yeah, a few days back I was putting together a post on that very subject but a sense of ennui came over me and I tossed it. Essentially, what I wanted to say is that philosophy should be integrated into every single subject, not just politics and history as the author you quoted pointed out. Every course taught should include some aspect of philosophy, including the arts, literature, science, math, gym, home-ec and even recess. Kids don’t necessarily need a separate course in philosophy at the K-12 level. They just need to be exposed to its relevance.
Agreed!! And specific study of philosophy should always be available to those who show interest and inclination.
Richard E Warren
Agreed!! And specific study of philosophy should always be available to those who show interest and inclination.
Yeah, but then you’d have to have knowledgable teachers. Where are they going to come from at the K-12 level if philosophy isn’t taught to the teachers? Teacher education is where I’d start, to be frank. Then I’d get education out of the hands of the politicians and lawyers. But don’t get me started; I could rant about this all day and all night. It’s something that really gets me riled up . . . been that way since the days I had to take my kids out of public school so they could get an education . . . then there’s all those tax dollars . . . . oh boy, I’m getting started. Sorry.
I’m not lamenting a poor educational system. Why get worked up about it? How fortunate a person is to be able to choose where their children go to school. Most people don’t have that option, either in the US or elsewhere. Things will improve over time. We’re informed about “the ideal state” and “education” and “philosophy” in this Paper:
71:7:2 In the ideal state, education continues throughout life, and philosophy sometime becomes the chief pursuit of its citizens. The citizens of such a commonwealth pursue wisdom as an enhancement of insight into the significance of human relations, the meanings of reality, the nobility of values, the goals of living, and the glories of cosmic destiny..What is Jesus’ philosophy of living, his gospel of living, his wisdom of the living of the heavenly life while on earth by means of daily submission to the will of the heavenly Father? He did live his gospel as a way of life by actual experience in doing that which the Father in heaven showed him.130:2:2 At their inn there also lodged a merchant from Mongolia, and since this Far-Easterner talked Greek fairly well, Jesus had several long visits with him. This man was much impressed with Jesus‘philosophy of life and never forgot his words of wisdom regarding “the living of the heavenly life while on earth by means of daily submission to the will of the heavenly Father.” This merchant was a Taoist. . . ..His ordination discourse to the twelve constitutes his master philosophy of life.140:4:9 Without a worthy goal, life becomes aimless and unprofitable, and much unhappiness results. Jesus‘ discourse at the ordination of the twelve constitutes a master philosophy of life. Jesus exhorted his followers to exercise experiential faith. He admonished them not to depend on mere intellectual assent, credulity, and established authority..140:8:14 The family occupied the very center of Jesus‘ philosophy of life — here and hereafter. He based his teachings about God on the family, while he sought to correct the Jewish tendency to overhonor ancestors. He exalted family life as the highest human duty but made it plain that family relationships must not interfere with religious obligations. He called attention to the fact that the family is a temporal institution; that it does not survive death. Jesus did not hesitate to give up his family when the family ran counter to the Father’s will. He taught the new and larger brotherhood of man — the sons of God. In Jesus‘ time divorce practices were lax in Palestine and throughout the Roman Empire. He repeatedly refused to lay down laws regarding marriage and divorce, but many of Jesus‘ early followers had strong opinions on divorce and did not hesitate to attribute them to him. All of the New Testament writers held to these more stringent and advanced ideas about divorce except John Mark..140:10:5 The one characteristic of Jesus‘ teaching was that the morality of his philosophy originated in the personal relation of the individual to God — this very child-father relationship. Jesus placed emphasis on the individual, not on the race or nation. While eating supper, Jesus had the talk with Matthew in which he explained that the morality of any act is determined by the individual’s motive. Jesus‘ morality was always positive. The golden rule as restated by Jesus demands active social contact; the older negative rule could be obeyed in isolation. Jesus stripped morality of all rules and ceremonies and elevated it to majestic levels of spiritual thinking and truly righteous living..And Rodan expressed his search and discovery of the living gospel of Jesus which surly breathed life into his preconceived philosophy and to his destiny..160:1:15 My philosophy gave me the urge to search for the realities of true attainment, the goal of maturity. But my urge was impotent; my search lacked driving power; my quest suffered from the absence of certainty of directionization. And these deficiencies have been abundantly supplied by this new gospel of Jesus, with its enhancement of insights, elevation of ideals, and settledness of goals. Without doubts and misgivings I can now wholeheartedly enter upon the eternal venture..161:1:11 When Rodan heard these arguments, he said: “I am convinced. I will confess God as a person if you will permit me to qualify my confession of such a belief by attaching to the meaning of personality a group of extended values, such as superhuman, transcendent, supreme, infinite, eternal, final, and universal. I am now convinced that, while God must be infinitely more than a personality, he cannot be anything less. I am satisfied to end the argument and to accept Jesus as the personal revelation of the Father and the satisfaction of all unsatisfied factors in logic, reason, and philosophy.”
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