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Posts
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Greetings friends and fellow students!!
I am starting a new topic I hope will inspire your participation and conversation about a topic that has been important in my life for a long time – even before the Urantia Book found me over 35 years ago. I’ll not post any quotes just yet but a key word search of “response”, “responsive”, and “responsiveness” will lead you to much that is written on the subject. I imagine many of you will have your own experiences related and perspectives which might be beneficial to all truth seekers and pilgrims in the spirit.
First, a brief mention of “responsibility” as opposed to response-ability or responsible vs. response-able. I’d like to make a distinction clearly here. The premise of the original term karma or reaping what we sow declares that for all of us our situation and our circumstances are determined, primarily, by our free will choices (three notable exceptions: first, there are those too young and those in the grips of disaster, war, famine, and other forms of suffering which are NOT their responsibility; second, every individual is also subject to social-karma or that collective situation and circumstance which we did not create by choice and are born into and subjects of regardless of our personal choices; third are the true accidents and other physical events like weather and geological events). There are many who choose to believe they are victims of others in all ways and that only others can change or improve their circumstances/situation. There are even some academics and “scientists” that claim there really is no free will at all…we are preprogrammed to respond to stimuli and “apparent” choices but don’t really have free will. These issues are not those of my focus or intention here (but all here are free agents with free will I believe so I can’t control or predetermine what happens here next).
To the topic at hand. My premise here is that we do not and cannot truly control the future or that which happens to us or transpires in our daily life. That there are many forces at work and, of course, those free will choices by a few billion others we share this world and life with – all of which combine to create constant flux, change, unplanned, and unexpected intersections of free will choice for each of us every day. While some of those are common to us all in life, we appear to each have a rather unique set of intersections to manage and face day to day. You will find many forms of responsiveness for our discussion that exist in the universes of time and space and between time and space and eternity and infinity or the central universe and all its components and the supers and the locals – sympathetic and harmonic effects or this begets that – the universes respond and so do planets respond to retain equilibrium or return to median.
I begin though with how we choose to respond to situations daily as we walk by – in our families, our employment, our community, etc. For while we cannot predetermine our future or determine the choices we face, we DO and MUST choose how we RESPOND to every situation and intersection and relationship and emotion we experience. It is those responses that then determine who we are, who we become, and how ABLE we are to cope, deal, progress, and SERVE. The more response-able we are and become, truly the more control we exert in every situation and the more able we are to take advantage of opportunities to display love and serve others. Our ability thusly enhances our capability. I have contemplated on this for decades and know it is true by experience. There is plenty of corroboration of this important truth from many different sources – including the Urantia Papers. We are in charge of nothing except how we respond to everything.
A related premise is our personal love-response. The first response mentioned is not specifically spiritual and may or may not enhance spirit progress, but the love-response is definitely key to spirit progress. It is my contention (and there is significant UB text in support) that love is God’s “secret sauce” and that no matter our ignorance of facts or truth, if we respond to love and extend love to others, we have entered the circles and are making progress in the spirit…we add to soul and to the Supreme with every act of love extended to others and do so regardless of “religion” or lack of “religion”, that love is a vital ingredient of and indication of personal religious experience and is so whether we know it or believe it. Remember the cave man story?
Enough for now. This should get us started in discussing Response-Ability and its importance to universe reality and our individual alignment with reality. Free will is power, personal power, and it determines who we are, what we become, and our ability to focus on the more important issues in better ways by our awareness of this personal power to choose…wisely and by love how we are able to serve in the universe and in our daily walk. Think about what “maturity” means – might it include response-ability?
Perhaps I should clearly state that while this awareness has changed my life for the better, I am no expert or master at this…it is my guiding philosophy however although I obviously have much to learn and improve in my personal response-ability. The human emotions of anger, fear, and grief have been the more difficult to manage. When those become our initial response to a situation, it is often so hard to make good free will choices. And bad choices, like good ones, feed into a loop of reality creation for the one making the choices. I hope you find the topic of interest.
(1300.2) 118:6.6 In the mortal life, paths of differential conduct are continually opening and closing, and during the times when choice is possible the human personality is constantly deciding between these many courses of action. Temporal volition is linked to time, and it must await the passing of time to find opportunity for expression. Spiritual volition has begun to taste liberation from the fetters of time, having achieved partial escape from time sequence, and that is because spiritual volition is self-identifying with the will of God.
(1108.3) 101:3.4 Through religious faith the soul of man reveals itself and demonstrates the potential divinity of its emerging nature by the characteristic manner in which it induces the mortal personality to react to certain trying intellectual and testing social situations. …..
(1108.16) 101:3.17 We know, then, by three phenomena, that man has a divine spirit or spirits dwelling within him: first, by personal experience — religious faith; second, by revelation — personal and racial; and third, by the amazing exhibition of such extraordinary and unnatural reactions to his material environment as are illustrated by the foregoing recital of twelve spiritlike performances in the presence of the actual and trying situations of real human existence. And there are still others.
(2095.4) 196:3.20 Every time man makes a reflective moral choice, he immediately experiences a new divine invasion of his soul. Moral choosing constitutes religion as the motive of inner response to outer conditions. But such a real religion is not a purely subjective experience. It signifies the whole of the subjectivity of the individual engaged in a meaningful and intelligent response to total objectivity — the universe and its Maker.
196:3.32 Some men’s lives are too great and noble to descend to the low level of being merely successful. The animal must adapt itself to the environment, but the religious man transcends his environment and in this way escapes the limitations of the present material world through this insight of divine love. This concept of love generates in the soul of man that superanimal effort to find truth, beauty, and goodness; and when he does find them, he is glorified in their embrace; he is consumed with the desire to live them, to do righteousness.
The best response to every situation, circumstance, personal encounter, disagreement, tragedy, challenge, and opportunity comes by way of our perspective, our faith, and our confidence in our source and destiny….and our experience as it contributes to our wisdom. We are told that the TA and the Guardians have no interest in a mortal life of ease or one without challenge. All of our days will be spent getting an education and full testing of our “response-ability”. It is by our choices that we learn and “become” or ascend and transcend. And we must learn such choosing or responding in the midst of doubt, confusion, great uncertainty, disappointment, and even defeat. We are told that such will become a banquet and feast sometime to come. Might as well develop a taste for it now!!
26:5.3 (291.3) That, then, is the primary or elementary course which confronts the faith-tested and much-traveled pilgrims of space. But long before reaching Havona, these ascendant children of time have learned to feast upon uncertainty, to fatten upon disappointment, to enthuse over apparent defeat, to invigorate in the presence of difficulties, to exhibit indomitable courage in the face of immensity, and to exercise unconquerable faith when confronted with the challenge of the inexplicable. Long since, the battle cry of these pilgrims became: “In liaison with God, nothing — absolutely nothing — is impossible.”
And the Master teaches:
156:5.12 (1739.7) Kingdom believers should possess an implicit faith, a whole-souled belief, in the certain triumph of righteousness. Kingdom builders must be undoubting of the truth of the gospel of eternal salvation. Believers must increasingly learn how to step aside from the rush of life — escape the harassments of material existence — while they refresh the soul, inspire the mind, and renew the spirit by worshipful communion.
156:5.13 (1739.8) God-knowing individuals are not discouraged by misfortune or downcast by disappointment. Believers are immune to the depression consequent upon purely material upheavals; spirit livers are not perturbed by the episodes of the material world. Candidates for eternal life are practitioners of an invigorating and constructive technique for meeting all of the vicissitudes and harassments of mortal living. Every day a true believer lives, he finds it easier to do the right thing.
156:5.14 (1740.1) Spiritual living mightily increases true self-respect. But self-respect is not self-admiration. Self-respect is always co-ordinate with the love and service of one’s fellows. It is not possible to respect yourself more than you love your neighbor; the one is the measure of the capacity for the other.
156:5.15 (1740.2) As the days pass, every true believer becomes more skillful in alluring his fellows into the love of eternal truth. Are you more resourceful in revealing goodness to humanity today than you were yesterday? Are you a better righteousness recommender this year than you were last year? Are you becoming increasingly artistic in your technique of leading hungry souls into the spiritual kingdom?
156:5.16 (1740.3) Are your ideals sufficiently high to insure your eternal salvation while your ideas are so practical as to render you a useful citizen to function on earth in association with your mortal fellows? In the spirit, your citizenship is in heaven; in the flesh, you are still citizens of the earth kingdoms. Render to the Caesars the things which are material and to God those which are spiritual.
156:5.17 (1740.4) The measure of the spiritual capacity of the evolving soul is your faith in truth and your love for man, but the measure of your human strength of character is your ability to resist the holding of grudges and your capacity to withstand brooding in the face of deep sorrow. Defeat is the true mirror in which you may honestly view your real self.
“Response Ability” is definitely a skill….learned over great time by much practice and error….not much changes in our life for the one who does not learn how to respond better today than yesterday…all the way to Paradise. Response-ability is very related to wisdom…..
From Rodan:
160:4.14 (1779.6) Success may generate courage and promote confidence, but wisdom comes only from the experiences of adjustment to the results of one’s failures. Men who prefer optimistic illusions to reality can never become wise. Only those who face facts and adjust them to ideals can achieve wisdom. Wisdom embraces both the fact and the ideal and therefore saves its devotees from both of those barren extremes of philosophy — the man whose idealism excludes facts and the materialist who is devoid of spiritual outlook. Those timid souls who can only keep up the struggle of life by the aid of continuous false illusions of success are doomed to suffer failure and experience defeat as they ultimately awaken from the dream world of their own imaginations.
160:4.15 (1780.1) And it is in this business of facing failure and adjusting to defeat that the far-reaching vision of religion exerts its supreme influence. Failure is simply an educational episode — a cultural experiment in the acquirement of wisdom — in the experience of the God-seeking man who has embarked on the eternal adventure of the exploration of a universe. To such men defeat is but a new tool for the achievement of higher levels of universe reality.
We are taught that the universe of universes is one vast university of higher (and yet higher) education. We are also taught that for mortals, or material mortals anyway, that the only way to measure or discern wisdom and spirit progress is by the fruits of the spirit demonstrated by the more mature and more wise compared to the less mature and less wise. But this is not the case at any time further into our ascension career, nor do I think it is true for the midwayers, angels, Sons, etc. who reside in time and space. Progress is measured precisely, unerringly, and authoritatively in all other beings and in mortal ascenders from the time of our awakening in mansonia.
45:7.6 (518.2) Suffrage is universal on Jerusem among these three groups of citizenship, but the vote is differentially cast in accordance with the recognized and duly registered personal possession of mota — morontia wisdom. The vote cast at a Jerusem election by any one personality has a value ranging from one up to one thousand. Jerusem citizens are thus classified in accordance with their mota achievement.
45:7.7 (518.3) From time to time Jerusem citizens present themselves to the Melchizedek examiners, who certify to their attainment of morontia wisdom. Then they go before the examining corps of the Brilliant Evening Stars or their designates, who ascertain the degree of spirit insight. Next they appear in the presence of the four and twenty counselors and their associates, who pass upon their status of experiential attainment of socialization. These three factors are then carried to the citizenship registrars of representative government, who quickly compute the mota status and assign suffrage qualifications in accordance therewith.
45:7.8 (518.4) Under the supervision of the Melchizedeks the ascending mortals, especially those who are tardy in their personality unification on the new morontia levels, are taken in hand by the Material Sons and are given intensive training designed to rectify such deficiencies. No ascending mortal leaves the system headquarters for the more extensive and varied socialization career of the constellation until these Material Sons certify to the achievement of mota personality — an individuality combining the completed mortal existence in experiential association with the budding morontia career, both being duly blended by the spiritual overcontrol of the Thought Adjuster.
Me here: When considering the need to learn how to better respond to any given circumstance or situation, it should be clear that this response-ability is not merely a mortal issue. All beings at all levels of the universe are also in this business of response and the Supreme is the ultimate repository and unifier of all worthy responses experienced in every creature’s life. The collective response of all from beginning to end of time is creating, in a way, the ultimate force of response-wisdom.
Life Carriers must be responsive. The Most Highs too. The Guardians. And our TA. All deal with the unanticipated or unexpected which trillions upon trillions of beings create individually and collectively. Response-ability is a universal function shared by all beings but one (or arguably three).
2:2.6 (36.4) God is eternally and infinitely perfect, he cannot personally know imperfection as his own experience, but he does share the consciousness of all the experience of imperfectness of all the struggling creatures of the evolutionary universes of all the Paradise Creator Sons. The personal and liberating touch of the God of perfection overshadows the hearts and encircuits the natures of all those mortal creatures who have ascended to the universe level of moral discernment. In this manner, as well as through the contacts of the divine presence, the Universal Father actually participates in the experience with immaturity and imperfection in the evolving career of every moral being of the entire universe. *
2:2.7 (36.5) Human limitations, potential evil, are not a part of the divine nature, but mortal experience with evil and all man’s relations thereto are most certainly a part of God’s ever-expanding self-realization in the children of time — creatures of moral responsibility who have been created or evolved by every Creator Son going out from Paradise.
Regarding the purpose and functionality of response-ability:
32:3.9 (361.4) The perfection of the creatures of time, when finally achieved, is wholly an acquirement, a bona fide personality possession. While the elements of grace are freely admixed, nevertheless, the creature attainments are the result of individual effort and actual living, personality reaction to the existing environment.
32:3.10 (361.5) The fact of animal evolutionary origin does not attach stigma to any personality in the sight of the universe as that is the exclusive method of producing one of the two basic types of finite intelligent will creatures. When the heights of perfection and eternity are attained, all the more honor to those who began at the bottom and joyfully climbed the ladder of life, round by round, and who, when they do reach the heights of glory, will have gained a personal experience which embodies an actual knowledge of every phase of life from the bottom to the top.
32:3.11 (361.6) In all this is shown the wisdom of the Creators. It would be just as easy for the Universal Father to make all mortals perfect beings, to impart perfection by his divine word. But that would deprive them of the wonderful experience of the adventure and training associated with the long and gradual inward climb, an experience to be had only by those who are so fortunate as to begin at the very bottom of living existence.
32:3.12 (362.1) In the universes encircling Havona there are provided only a sufficient number of perfect creatures to meet the need for pattern teacher guides for those who are ascending the evolutionary scale of life. The experiential nature of the evolutionary type of personality is the natural cosmic complement of the ever-perfect natures of the Paradise-Havona creatures. In reality, both perfect and perfected creatures are incomplete as regards finite totality. But in the complemental association of the existentially perfect creatures of the Paradise-Havona system with the experientially perfected finaliters ascending from the evolutionary universes, both types find release from inherent limitations and thus may conjointly attempt to reach the sublime heights of the ultimate of creature status.
32:3.13 (362.2) These creature transactions are the universe repercussions of actions and reactions within the Sevenfold Deity, wherein the eternal divinity of the Paradise Trinity is conjoined with the evolving divinity of the Supreme Creators of the time-space universes in, by, and through the power-actualizing Deity of the Supreme Being.
32:3.14 (362.3) The divinely perfect creature and the evolutionary perfected creature are equal in degree of divinity potential, but they differ in kind. Each must depend on the other to attain supremacy of service. The evolutionary superuniverses depend on perfect Havona to provide the final training for their ascending citizens, but so does the perfect central universe require the existence of the perfecting superuniverses to provide for the full development of its descending inhabitants.
32:3.15 (362.4) The two prime manifestations of finite reality, innate perfection and evolved perfection, be they personalities or universes, are co-ordinate, dependent, and integrated. Each requires the other to achieve completion of function, service, and destiny.
32:5.7 (365.3) There is in the mind of God a plan which embraces every creature of all his vast domains, and this plan is an eternal purpose of boundless opportunity, unlimited progress, and endless life. And the infinite treasures of such a matchless career are yours for the striving!
32:5.8 (365.4) The goal of eternity is ahead! The adventure of divinity attainment lies before you! The race for perfection is on! whosoever will may enter, and certain victory will crown the efforts of every human being who will run the race of faith and trust, depending every step of the way on the leading of the indwelling Adjuster and on the guidance of that good spirit of the Universe Son, which so freely has been poured out upon all flesh.
How will we respond to such a call???!!!
I think there is some risk and danger in too much self evaluation (self absorption) but the discernment of one’s own motives, intentions, priorities, etc. is an important way to bring changes in mind – the reorientation and transformation of self. But I also think that true love for others brings all changes needed….is this a chicken and egg conundrum? I do think that the more we are identified with the spirit within, the less ego self there is to “measure” or examine and the greater the soul becomes. But the measurement of true wisdom and maturity and spiritization by experience and choice is best left to those with such abilities.
34:6.13 (381.7) The consciousness of the spirit domination of a human life is presently attended by an increasing exhibition of the characteristics of the Spirit in the life reactions of such a spirit-led mortal, “for the fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance.” Such spirit-guided and divinely illuminated mortals, while they yet tread the lowly paths of toil and in human faithfulness perform the duties of their earthly assignments, have already begun to discern the lights of eternal life as they glimmer on the faraway shores of another world; already have they begun to comprehend the reality of that inspiring and comforting truth, “The kingdom of God is not meat and drink but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.” And throughout every trial and in the presence of every hardship, spirit-born souls are sustained by that hope which transcends all fear because the love of God is shed abroad in all hearts by the presence of the divine Spirit.
Me here: Are we joyful? Peaceful? Long-suffering? Gentle? Do we see the goodness and add to that where we can? Are we confident in our source and destiny? Do we walk our walk within the kingdom today or are we waiting and hoping for it sometime later?
Are we suspicious and doubtful and anxious and impatient? Easily aroused to anger?
194:3.2 (2062.11) Many things which happen in the course of a human life are hard to understand, difficult to reconcile with the idea that this is a universe in which truth prevails and in which righteousness triumphs. It so often appears that slander, lies, dishonesty, and unrighteousness — sin — prevail. Does faith, after all, triumph over evil, sin, and iniquity? It does. And the life and death of Jesus are the eternal proof that the truth of goodness and the faith of the spirit-led creature will always be vindicated. They taunted Jesus on the cross, saying, “Let us see if God will come and deliver him.” It looked dark on that day of the crucifixion, but it was gloriously bright on the resurrection morning; it was still brighter and more joyous on the day of Pentecost. The religions of pessimistic despair seek to obtain release from the burdens of life; they crave extinction in endless slumber and rest. These are the religions of primitive fear and dread. The religion of Jesus is a new gospel of faith to be proclaimed to struggling humanity. This new religion is founded on faith, hope, and love.
194:3.3 (2063.1) To Jesus, mortal life had dealt its hardest, cruelest, and bitterest blows; and this man met these ministrations of despair with faith, courage, and the unswerving determination to do his Father’s will. Jesus met life in all its terrible reality and mastered it — even in death. He did not use religion as a release from life. The religion of Jesus does not seek to escape this life in order to enjoy the waiting bliss of another existence. The religion of Jesus provides the joy and peace of another and spiritual existence to enhance and ennoble the life which men now live in the flesh.
Self, true self, is created by the choices we make as strive to do Father’s will. Rather than trying to determine what to do and what not to do, I believe it is our motivation first and our intention second which drives our progress. Motivation is the underlying foundational support for all choices in all circumstances while intentions are specific to any situation. Proper motive and intent do not eliminate error but they can and do avoid sin – the willful embrace of that choice we know to be wrong. What do we hope for and strive for? It is the direction we trod that is far more important than the speed with which we progress. And yes, we are taught that all true growth is unconscious to the one growing. Experience may deliver maturity and it wisdom as we learn the results of cause and effect…but our heart determines the purity and sincerity of the effort….and we are told we all have this key….sincerity of heart.
111:1.5 (1216.6) Mortal mind is a temporary intellect system loaned to human beings for use during a material lifetime, and as they use this mind, they are either accepting or rejecting the potential of eternal existence. Mind is about all you have of universe reality that is subject to your will, and the soul — the morontia self — will faithfully portray the harvest of the temporal decisions which the mortal self is making. Human consciousness rests gently upon the electrochemical mechanism below and delicately touches the spirit-morontia energy system above. Of neither of these two systems is the human being ever completely conscious in his mortal life; therefore must he work in mind, of which he is conscious. And it is not so much what mind comprehends as what mind desires to comprehend that insures survival; it is not so much what mind is like as what mind is striving to be like that constitutes spirit identification. It is not so much that man is conscious of God as that man yearns for God that results in universe ascension. What you are today is not so important as what you are becoming day by day and in eternity.
And Jesus said:
133:6.5 (1478.4) “The soul is the self-reflective, truth-discerning, and spirit-perceiving part of man which forever elevates the human being above the level of the animal world. Self-consciousness, in and of itself, is not the soul. Moral self-consciousness is true human self-realization and constitutes the foundation of the human soul, and the soul is that part of man which represents the potential survival value of human experience. Moral choice and spiritual attainment, the ability to know God and the urge to be like him, are the characteristics of the soul. The soul of man cannot exist apart from moral thinking and spiritual activity. A stagnant soul is a dying soul. But the soul of man is distinct from the divine spirit which dwells within the mind. The divine spirit arrives simultaneously with the first moral activity of the human mind, and that is the occasion of the birth of the soul.
133:6.6 (1478.5) “The saving or losing of a soul has to do with whether or not the moral consciousness attains survival status through eternal alliance with its associated immortal spirit endowment. Salvation is the spiritualization of the self-realization of the moral consciousness, which thereby becomes possessed of survival value. All forms of soul conflict consist in the lack of harmony between the moral, or spiritual, self-consciousness and the purely intellectual self-consciousness.
140:4.7 (1572.7) “By their fruits you shall know them.” Personality is basically changeless; that which changes — grows — is the moral character. The major error of modern religions is negativism. The tree which bears no fruit is “hewn down and cast into the fire.” Moral worth cannot be derived from mere repression — obeying the injunction “Thou shalt not.” Fear and shame are unworthy motivations for religious living. Religion is valid only when it reveals the fatherhood of God and enhances the brotherhood of men.
140:4.8 (1572.8) An effective philosophy of living is formed by a combination of cosmic insight and the total of one’s emotional reactions to the social and economic environment. Remember: While inherited urges cannot be fundamentally modified, emotional responses to such urges can be changed; therefore the moral nature can be modified, character can be improved. In the strong character emotional responses are integrated and co-ordinated, and thus is produced a unified personality. Deficient unification weakens the moral nature and engenders unhappiness.
140:10.5 (1585.3) 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.
140:10.6 (1585.4) This new religion of Jesus was not without its practical implications, but whatever of practical political, social, or economic value there is to be found in his teaching is the natural outworking of this inner experience of the soul as it manifests the fruits of the spirit in the spontaneous daily ministry of genuine personal religious experience.
Me here: I think the ends never justifies the means but the means are always justified in the end….if the means spring from good motive and intent. The “end” or result is not always as expected or planned….to be sure. We are not in control of the “end” or result….we are in control of the “means” or the intention of our choosing and doing. Or so I think.
And this is where response-ability comes forth….why do we respond the way we do? Why did I think THAT? Why did I say THAT? Why did I do THAT? The “why” of our choosing lies in the motive of our choosing. What results by what I think and say and do? Motive is the primary cause by which the effects of our choosing are manifest. Cause and effect. Motive and choices derived thereby and therefrom cause effects. Situations, circumstances, and relationships and encounters with the choices and motives of all others challenges us to be mindful of our response to those….all of those. Why do we respond the way we do? How’s that working? How might I respond differently? What effects might that change?
We are “what we choose”. We are also “why we choose”. I think what is chosen is most easily transformed by first realizing why we choose what we choose. Is the why aligned with reality? Does our why elevate us above animal and ego mind? If so and when so, we begin to transfer the seat of our very identity….and progress, purposeful progress, begins. How quickly it goes is immaterial in eternity….the certainty of directional progress is what matters. Or so I have come to think.
100:1.8 (1095.3) Religious habits of thinking and acting are contributory to the economy of spiritual growth. One can develop religious predispositions toward favorable reaction to spiritual stimuli, a sort of conditioned spiritual reflex. Habits which favor religious growth embrace cultivated sensitivity to divine values, recognition of religious living in others, reflective meditation on cosmic meanings, worshipful problem solving, sharing one’s spiritual life with one’s fellows, avoidance of selfishness, refusal to presume on divine mercy, living as in the presence of God. The factors of religious growth may be intentional, but the growth itself is unvaryingly unconscious.
Me here: I would claim that “value habits” includes our “response-ability” – how we respond to everything and everyone. Are we aware of those? Do our responses align with our ideals? Are our ideals love focused? Do they include transformation and transcendence? Patience? Kindness? Tolerance? Meekness? Joy? Faith? We all must learn how to grow such fruit and identify what might we choose to learn and to do which provides the soil for such seed and provides the water and nurturing elements for such a truth-vine to bear abundantly.
Conscience and guilt are elemental to progress and is the evolutionary foundation I think to proper motive-response. Some do the “right” thing out of fear of punishment or loss or to avoid guilt. My biblical upbringing was all about avoiding damnation and punishment based on the OT traditions of “thou shall NOT” and public confessions of transgressions – “back sliding” as its called. And I was measured guilty since I was not perfect and then made to feel guiltier since Jesus had to die for my sins. Guilt was the motive for avoidance of further guilt! And yet, even as a lad, I read Jesus words to do right for right’s sake; that wanting to do right and doing right offered great REWARD – far beyond avoidance of guilt.
Related to response-ability then, my response was predicated on potential guilt and personal suffering or its avoidance.
Some people are motivated to look good to others, the projection of “image” determines the motive and the responses to situations and circumstances – choices are made based on “self” reward….those are described in both the bible and the UB by the examples of those who give alms in public and those who stand on the corner praying loudly….”look at me, look at me!”.
And we know there are those who feel no guilt and have no care for public image and are merely ruthless in their own selfishness. The motive is purely self reward with little or no care for any other. Their response in every situation is determined by perceived self interest.
This is why we are taught that it is the motive or the heart and the intention formed in mind which matters most I think. Pure and spirit led motive lacks self examination and situational assessments of what’s in it for me or how do I best serve myself.
170:3.9 (1862.6) The righteousness of any act must be measured by the motive; the highest forms of good are therefore unconscious. Jesus was never concerned with morals or ethics as such. He was wholly concerned with that inward and spiritual fellowship with God the Father which so certainly and directly manifests itself as outward and loving service for man. He taught that the religion of the kingdom is a genuine personal experience which no man can contain within himself; that the consciousness of being a member of the family of believers leads inevitably to the practice of the precepts of the family conduct, the service of one’s brothers and sisters in the effort to enhance and enlarge the brotherhood.
170:3.10 (1862.7) The religion of the kingdom is personal, individual; the fruits, the results, are familial, social. Jesus never failed to exalt the sacredness of the individual as contrasted with the community. But he also recognized that man develops his character by unselfish service; that he unfolds his moral nature in loving relations with his fellows.
155:3.7 (1727.7) They learned that, when religion is wholly spiritual in motive, it makes all life more worth while, filling it with high purposes, dignifying it with transcendent values, inspiring it with superb motives, all the while comforting the human soul with a sublime and sustaining hope. True religion is designed to lessen the strain of existence; it releases faith and courage for daily living and unselfish serving. Faith promotes spiritual vitality and righteous fruitfulness.
Me here: The more our motive becomes spirit aligned, the better our response in every situation and circumstance. Conscience is the entryway to this bridge and pure motive and intent is its point of deliverance to the other side of the transfer of the seat of our identity – from self to family. What is our motive when we awaken and as we walk by? What is our intent when faced by others or choices or circumstances? How do we respond to uncertainty and disappointment and failure? To me, this mortal life is a gift of time in which to align motives and intentions with universe reality which is love centered in service to the family of all creation….love one another. I also think, thankfully, that the “flicker” which gives safe passage to mansonia is the individual’s response to love itself and not the mastery of self….which remains but a goal as we struggle to purify motive and intent for improved response-ability.
We are born into a life where we respond by self gratification and we must learn to respond to the spirit. Thanks Rexford for moving us forward into further illumination and reflection.
196:3.20 (2095.4) Every time man makes a reflective moral choice, he immediately experiences a new divine invasion of his soul. Moral choosing constitutes religion as the motive of inner response to outer conditions. But such a real religion is not a purely subjective experience. It signifies the whole of the subjectivity of the individual engaged in a meaningful and intelligent response to total objectivity — the universe and its Maker.
Before I found the UB (or it found me), I had begun to classify all motives and acts into 4 categories:
1. Doing the wrong thing for the wrong reason.
2. Doing the right thing but for the wrong reason.
3. Doing the wrong thing but for the right reason.
4. Doing the right thing for the right reason.Then there’s the Jesusonian Way – doing the best thing for the best reason. And God’s Way – doing the perfect thing for the perfect reason.
This became my gradient scale, if you will, for measuring my own motives and choices. From sinfulness to divine. I always found #3 to be the most fascinating and paradoxical of all….and often, the “tadpole way” or pilgrim’s attempt to find wisdom as we are admonished….the innocent as a dove and yet wise as a serpent lesson….to be both at the same time. A real challenge for me but I learn….or I think I am learning how to unify and apply this most difficult lesson.
Compassion definition: sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others.
synonyms: pity, sympathy, empathy, fellow feeling, care, concern, solicitude, sensitivity, warmth, love, tenderness, mercy, leniency, tolerance, kindness, humanity, charity.
That’s quite a bundle!! Jesus warned against what he called “false sympathy” or pity for those who suffer by their own hand – wrong motive, intention, priority, and choice.
I don’t know if compassion is integral to forgiveness. I suppose so. Or is forgiveness something higher, seeking to understand better the one who angers us and notice how unhappy and unsettled they may be and why so. While we are to pity and have compassion on all victims of the choices of others (and not their own), I must also realize how often I have chosen to be with someone or somewhere that was unwise – I put myself in a place of being victimized; so then, who is to blame when I am then victimized? A curious problem.
When I get angry, no matter its source or cause, I immediately feel like out of tune, distorted, uncomfortable, etc. Often I find myself angry AT someone else but that’s some weird reaction of being mad or frustrated at some failure of my own when honest with myself upon reflection. In some ways, getting angry is itself a form of failure in my mind….demonstrates immaturity and incorrect response mechanism (this is strictly my opinion of myself and no comment on any others). So regardless of the “cause” of my anger, I seek to purge it from mind first and then look for its true cause and then I often must laugh at myself for being such a tadpole!
And yet, anger is still triggered later by the same or other cause. It’s a quandary! But one thing I know for sure, every “response” I make in anger is always a bad response with a negative outcome. A real “hornet’s nest”!!
Even the Master showed a little anger time to time. So it must be a deeply embedded human trait that requires self mastery to transcend.
Response Ability….
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