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Posts
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I say yes, emphatically!
30:0.2 It is not possible to formulate comprehensive and entirely consistent classifications of the personalities of the grand universe because all of the groups are not revealed. It would require numerous additional papers to cover the further revelation required to systematically classify all groups. Such conceptual expansion would hardly be desirable as it would deprive the thinking mortals of the next thousand years of that stimulus to creative speculation which these partially revealed concepts supply. It is best that man not have an overrevelation; it stifles imagination.
BB
I agree, however they warn us about our potentially devious minds when we try stuff like that and there are 4 references to the word “visionary” that tend to capture warnings. If you have no objection I will equate visionary with speculate in order to make a point:
modern people can associate visionary with our savants and intellectuals or theoretical types but not the authors.
this below is one of 4 quotes I found:
(1099.6) 100:5.8 There is great danger associated with the habitual practice of religious daydreaming; mysticism may become a technique of reality avoidance, albeit it has sometimes been a means of genuine spiritual communion. Short seasons of retreat from the busy scenes of life may not be seriously dangerous, but prolonged isolation of personality is most undesirable. Under no circumstances should the trancelike state of visionary consciousness be cultivated as a religious experience.
sorry if visionary gets away from your topic.
“. . . it would deprive the thinking mortals of the next thousand years of that stimulus to creative speculation which these partially revealed concepts supply. It is best that man not have an overrevelation; it stifles imagination.”
A thousand years to creatively speculate about the concepts mentioned in the book. And a thousand and more years to speculate about comparative religious thought found in books and various other musings. I gather that one of your interests is to compare parts or words used in the Bible to the UB text. In my view no one person has the greatest and most definitive concepts and words of truth. It is important, I think, to give people a chance to have their interpretations – their speculations – on the subjects pertaining to religion and to personal religion. We don’t have to see alike or feel alike or even think alike in order spiritually to be alike. We do not have to see eye to eye on every point or on any point. Diversity of viewpoint is a good thing. Each one of us is unique. I say creative speculation is a good thing. It is evidence of an active mind. Einstein knew there was more to find and he found it, yet many mysteries remain about the physical world. Spiritually speaking, the pudding must be tasted and intellectual curiosity is inherent, among thinking mortals.
14:5.11 Curiosity — the spirit of investigation, the urge of discovery, the drive of exploration — is a part of the inborn and divine endowment of evolutionary space creatures.I agree, however they warn us about our potentially devious minds
Yeah, also they tell us that speculation is futile when it comes to some things, simply because our minds will never come up with the answers, like how Creator Sons incarnate.
20:6.1 Let the sublime knowledge of the mortal life of Jesus of Nazareth sink into your souls, but waste no thought in useless speculation as to how this mysterious incarnation of Michael of Nebadon was effected.
Speculation about the future is sometimes pointless too.
55:10.9 Speculation concerning the function of these Creator Sons in connection with the outer universes now in process of preliminary assembly is wholly futile.
Mystical speculation can be dangerous if taken too seriously.
100:5.6 The great danger in all these psychic speculations is that visions and other so-called mystic experiences, along with extraordinary dreams, may be regarded as divine communications to the human mind.
Religious speculation can be detrimental.
102:3.2 Religious speculation is inevitable but always detrimental; speculation invariably falsifies its object. Speculation tends to translate religion into something material or humanistic, and thus, while directly interfering with the clarity of logical thought, it indirectly causes religion to appear as a function of the temporal world, the very world with which it should everlastingly stand in contrast. Therefore will religion always be characterized by paradoxes, the paradoxes resulting from the absence of the experiential connection between the material and the spiritual levels of the universe – morontia mota, the superphilosophic sensitivity for truth discernment and unity perception.
Jesus warned his apostles against taking speculation seriously when it came to understanding his teachings. This is where they actually went wrong after Pentecost.
151:2.8 In your own hearts you may often profitably engage in such flights of the speculative imagination, but you make a mistake when you seek to offer such conclusions as a part of your public teaching.
Speculation, theorizing, hypothesizing, pondering . . . they’re all good activities for the mind. But our minds are not divine. Not every thought we have is a useful thought. We must develop sufficient wisdom in order to determine which thoughts are serviceable and which ones should be discarded. There’s individual wisdom and group wisdom. Let wisdom prevail!
102:3.2 Religion must continually labor under a paradoxical necessity: the necessity of making effective use of thought while at the same time discounting the spiritual serviceableness of all thinking.
9:5.6 Mind, on Urantia, is a compromise between the essence of thought perfection and the evolving mentality of your immature human nature. The plan for your intellectual evolution is, indeed, one of sublime perfection, but you are far short of that divine goal as you function in the tabernacles of the flesh. Mind is truly of divine origin, and it does have a divine destiny, but your mortal minds are not yet of divine dignity.
Inquiring minds want to know.
196:3.17[Part IV]Moral evaluation with a religious meaning — spiritual insight — connotes the individual’s choice between good and evil, truth and error, material and spiritual, human and divine, time and eternity. Human survival is in great measure dependent on consecrating the human will to the choosing of those values selected by this spirit-value sorter — the indwelling interpreter and unifier. Personal religious experience consists in two phases: discovery in the human mind and revelation by the indwelling divine spirit. Through oversophistication or as a result of the irreligious conduct of professed religionists, a man, or even a generation of men, may elect to suspend their efforts to discover the God who indwells them; they may fail to progress in and attain the divine revelation. But such attitudes of spiritual nonprogression cannot long persist because of the presence and influence of the indwelling Thought Adjusters..34:7.8 Having started out on the way of life everlasting, having accepted the assignment and received your orders to advance, do not fear the dangers of human forgetfulness and mortal inconstancy, do not be troubled with doubts of failure or by perplexing confusion, do not falter and question your status and standing, for in every dark hour, at every crossroad in the forward struggle, the Spirit of Truth will always speak, saying, “This is the way.”So get this: “Having started out on the way of life everlasting, having accepted the assignment and received your orders to advance. . . .” Isn’t creative speculation involved in every step of one’s *assignment* and *advancement*? Don’t the celestials speculate? Afterall, each one of us are on some sort of *path* of discovery along the continuum of unending inquiry.Speculation is an innate mind activity, but the willingness to accept that some of its postulates are erroneous is not always present.
p1260:2 115:1.1 Partial, 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.
To entertain error or erroneous concepts (or experience evil) is human and persists even in the morontia career.
132:2.6 As you ascend the universe scale of creature development, you will find increasing goodness and diminishing evil in perfect accordance with your capacity for goodness-experience and truth-discernment. The ability to entertain error or experience evil will not be fully lost until the ascending human soul achieves final spirit levels.On the material side:
Really cool experience – my vision went from clouded and unable to correct with glasses to crystal clear in high definition because of someone who was speculating, using imagination, reaching out beyond what is known to make something new happen.
Cataracts removed and replaced with new lenses and it took only 15 minutes, no anastesia, no pain, perfect vision after removing protective patch 12 hrs later. Need different reaing glasses. Amazing. First thing I saw was my beautiful wife and dog in HD.
On the spiritual side, if the intellect is under control and the emotions are in check – good things can happen.
Cataracts removed and replaced with new lenses and it took only 15 minutes, no anastesia, no pain, perfect vision after removing protective patch 12 hrs later. Need different reaing glasses. Amazing. First thing I saw was my beautiful wife and dog in HD.
Congratulations! So happy for you! And what you said about keeping the intellect and emotions under control when speculating is so true. I also think it makes a huge difference if you’re utilizing the adjutants properly. Abuse of mind ministry is evil.
36:5.12 7. The spirit of wisdom – the inherent tendency of all moral creatures towards orderly and progressive evolutionary advancement. This is the highest of the adjutants, the spirit co-ordinator and articulator of the work of all the others. This spirit is the secret of that inborn urge of mind creatures which initiates and maintains the practical and effective program of the ascending scale of existence; that gift of living things which accounts for their inexplicable ability to survive and, in survival, to utilize the co-ordination of all their past experience and present opportunities for the acquisition of all of everything that all of the other six mental ministers can mobilize in the mind of the organism concerned. Wisdom is the acme of intellectual performance. Wisdom is the goal of a purely mental and moral existence.
Said Jesus,
159:3.9 Tell my children that I am not only tender of their feelings and patient with their frailties, but that I am also ruthless with sin . . . .
Sin: knowingly embracing a deliberate immoral judgement.
3:5.15 The possibility of mistaken judgment (evil) becomes sin only when the human will consciously endorses and knowingly embraces a deliberate immoral judgment.
Do the will of God. Be happy. Don’t worry. We are thinking, feeling, finite mortals with potential.
75:8.7 But in our evolving universe of relative perfection and imperfection we rejoice that disagreement and misunderstanding are possible, for thereby is evidenced the fact and the act of personality in the universe. And if our creation is an existence dominated by personality, then can you be assured of the possibilities of personality survival, advancement, and achievement; we can be confident of personality growth, experience, and adventure. What a glorious universe, in that it is personal and progressive, not merely mechanical or even passively perfect!
I think this kind of speculation is along the line of philosophying as oppose to professing a message allegedly gained from spiritual communion with TA or any other spiritual agent. But exercising caution would not prove detrimental to such liberty.I agree, however they warn us about our potentially devious minds when we try stuff like that and there are 4 references to the word “visionary” that tend to capture warnings. If you have no objection I will equate visionary with speculate in order to make a point: modern people can associate visionary with our savants and intellectuals or theoretical types but not the authors. this below is one of 4 quotes I found: (1099.6) 100:5.8 There is great danger associated with the habitual practice of religious daydreaming; mysticism may become a technique of reality avoidance, albeit it has sometimes been a means of genuine spiritual communion. Short seasons of retreat from the busy scenes of life may not be seriously dangerous, but prolonged isolation of personality is most undesirable. Under no circumstances should the trancelike state of visionary consciousness be cultivated as a religious experience. sorry if visionary gets away from your topic.
BB
Don’t the celestials speculate? Afterall, each one of us are on some sort of *path* of discovery along the continuum of unending inquiry.
The papers are replete with divine speculation.
BB
To entertain error or erroneous concepts (or experience evil) is human and persists even in the morontia career.
132:2.6 As you ascend the universe scale of creature development, you will find increasing goodness and diminishing evil in perfect accordance with your capacity for goodness-experience and truth-discernment. The ability to entertain error or experience evil will not be fully lost until the ascending human soul achieves final spirit levels.This is a really good quote and is also appropriate for another thread; I will post it there. Thanks for sharing.BB
One type of creative imagination TUB encourages us to try is the use the fictitious (imaginary) alter ego when praying; it’s a method which evolves into realizing the actual presence of God within. It may seem primitive and naive, but it does encourage a childlike attitude toward God which is more open and honest.
p997:5 91:3.7 Enlightened prayer must recognize not only an external and personal God but also an internal and impersonal Divinity, the indwelling Adjuster. It is altogether fitting that man, when he prays, should strive to grasp the concept of the Universal Father on Paradise; but the more effective technique for most practical purposes will be to revert to the concept of a near-by alter ego, just as the primitive mind was wont to do, and then to recognize that the idea of this alter ego has evolved from a mere fiction to the truth of God’s indwelling mortal man in the factual presence of the Adjuster so that man can talk face to face, as it were, with a real and genuine and divine alter ego that indwells him and is the very presence and essence of the living God, the Universal Father.
132:2.6 As you ascend the universe scale of creature development, you will find increasing goodness and diminishing evil in perfect accordance with your capacity for goodness-experience and truth-discernment. The ability to entertain error or experience evil will not be fully lost until the ascending human soul achieves final spirit levels.
This quote also explains that we are capable of entertaining error and experiencing evil all the way to Paradise.
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