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In stark contrast to my earlier philosophy for living upon this world, the Papers delivered to me the most unique perspective of these very human feelings I’ve ever encountered.
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.”
Say what???!!!
This is the art of perfecting ascendence….the courage and will to remain calm and joyful and confident and trusting and loyal in the midst of all the great uncertainties at the intersections of choice by our knowledge of the true quest…experiential wisdom gained by the experiences of uncertainty, disappointment, defeat, great difficulty, immensity, and the challenge of the inexplicable!
How is this accomplished? Only by faith is it possible I think. An abiding unshakable faith in God and the friendly universe.
But who in this world could ever claim it to be friendly? Only those who understand the power of free will and the love of a paternal Creator…as illuminated so well by the Son of Man and the Son of God. We choose what we see and believe and we choose what we will do and why and how….and all such choices by all people moves our world closer to our destiny…or retards that inevitability.
When we become motivated by love and guided by the Spirit within, the grip and power of uncertainty, disappointment, and defeat fade over time and by experiential wisdom gained, while purifying our minds from the poisons of fear, anger, indolence, and all anxieties.
100:2.6 (1096.3) The goal of human self-realization should be spiritual, not material. The only realities worth striving for are divine, spiritual, and eternal. Mortal man is entitled to the enjoyment of physical pleasures and to the satisfaction of human affections; he is benefited by loyalty to human associations and temporal institutions; but these are not the eternal foundations upon which to build the immortal personality which must transcend space, vanquish time, and achieve the eternal destiny of divine perfection and finaliter service.
100:2.7 (1096.4) Jesus portrayed the profound surety of the God-knowing mortal when he said: “To a God-knowing kingdom believer, what does it matter if all things earthly crash?” Temporal securities are vulnerable, but spiritual sureties are impregnable. When the flood tides of human adversity, selfishness, cruelty, hate, malice, and jealousy beat about the mortal soul, you may rest in the assurance that there is one inner bastion, the citadel of the spirit, which is absolutely unassailable; at least this is true of every human being who has dedicated the keeping of his soul to the indwelling spirit of the eternal God.
100:2.8 (1096.5) After such spiritual attainment, whether secured by gradual growth or specific crisis, there occurs a new orientation of personality as well as the development of a new standard of values. Such spirit-born individuals are so remotivated in life that they can calmly stand by while their fondest ambitions perish and their keenest hopes crash; they positively know that such catastrophes are but the redirecting cataclysms which wreck one’s temporal creations preliminary to the rearing of the more noble and enduring realities of a new and more sublime level of universe attainment.
The Master taught us to Fear Not and Be of Good Cheer!!
What an adventure!
Bradly wrote:The Master taught us to Fear Not and Be of Good Cheer!!Yes! And as it turns out, it’s our job to figure out how to do that.
108:5.8 The Thought Adjusters would like to change your feelings of fear to convictions of love and confidence; but they cannot mechanically and arbitrarily do such things; that is your task.
And the conspiracy grows!! The Adjutants deliver awareness of our dual natures, mind delivers curiosity and problem solving, and the angels lead us into opportunities for decisions of personal progress (over and over, endlessly until a lesson is learned – and then on to the next one!), while the Adjusters feed the hungry soul who seek spiritual quenching. Every aspect of our selfhood contributes elements for the religious life and to aid in the discovery of the Spirit Within and the transfer of the seat of our personal identity from material/animal to spirit/morontial.
All of which delivers two realities to my mind….thanksgiving for my discovery, response, and growing understanding of all these agents of love and help….but also empathy to those fellow mortals who suffer from their material struggles, self isolated, and filled with anxiety, fear, and self importance in our mutual struggles with the vicissitudes. For some those struggles seem to bear down and smother them, but for those faith children who let hope and faith unchain us from such temporal difficulties with confidence in all outcomes of import, then do material/mortal frustrations, disappointments, and failures seem far less difficult to manage.
But still….we are to learn by frustration, disappointment, and failure….not just cope or ignore the causes of such effects. Not enough!! As Bonita points out above in the quote…..we still have a task. Experiential wisdom is the true quest. Not mere passive acceptance of failures and uncertainties. Truly we will learn to cherish and relish uncertainty. There can be no thrill of adventure and discovery without uncertainty. We are to learn the certainties of Spiritual Reality to then embrace the uncertainties along the Paradise Path.
I believe such a teaching to be quite extraordinary. Reminds of the teaching Koans by paradox. And also of the sayings of Jesus…the first being last and the greatest serving the least, etc. Such a paradigm shift in perspective releases the mind to soar into the possibilities of free will while unburdened by predicting, managing, and controlling outcomes or any related anxieties….a rather delusional perspective of the self important mind I think.
….a rather delusional perspective of the self important mind I think.Lol Bradly, I’ve never met a mind that isn’t important to itself.But still….we are to learn by frustration, disappointment, and failure….not just cope or ignore the causes of such effects. Not enough!!
Yeah, that’s right. We’re told that divine things (and persons) must be loved in order to be known. That would include loving God despite all our disappointments (instead of blaming him). It’s an evolutionary process, just like everything else.
Van Amadon wrote: Lol Bradly, I’ve never met a mind that isn’t important to itself.Minds aren’t “selves”. The mind is only one component of a self. Bradly is referring to one’s sense of self-importance, not mind importance. All minds are important, which is why abuse of the mind is such a offense. And self-importance is not always a bad thing; the self has rights too. It’s overdevelopment of self-importance that’s the problem. Balance in all things.But still….we are to learn by frustration, disappointment, and failure….not just cope or ignore the causes of such effects. Not enough!!
Yeah, that’s right. We’re told that divine things (and persons) must be loved in order to be known. That would include loving God despite all our disappointments (instead of blaming him). It’s an evolutionary process, just like everything else.
Van Amadon wrote: Lol Bradly, I’ve never met a mind that isn’t important to itself.Minds aren’t “selves”. The mind is only one component of a self. Bradly is referring to one’s sense of self-importance, not mind importance. All minds are important, which is why abuse of the mind is such a offense. And self-importance is not always a bad thing; the self has rights too. It’s overdevelopment of self-importance that’s the problem. Balance in all things.I know what Bradly meant Bonita. We’re all important, but a self-important mind is a mind that’s not being controlled. And yes, it’s a balancing act. Who hasn’t “lost” there mind a few times? I think it’s usually been the result of feeling way more important than I actually am. The opposite of forgetting myself.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.”
Anyone want to guess “how long before reaching Havona” ?? I dont think that the author is talking about just our Urantia experiences.
But in regard to our Urantia experiences, how many disappointments, defeats, and difficulties result in spiritual growth? How many of these experiences will Adjuster carry as memory to the Morontia worlds? How many will we want to remember? How many will we really have access to?
I recall reading somewhere that memory recall on Mansonia tends to be more of a social function involving Adjuster record keeping and other ascenders?? Cant really remember the details. Will we want to sit around and have group discussions about our trials? Just imagining.
I recall reading somewhere that memory recall on Mansonia tends to be more of a social function involving Adjuster record keeping and other ascenders?? Cant really remember the details. Will we want to sit around and have group discussions about our trials? Just imagining.
For those with Adjusters, all spiritually significant experiences are immediately remembered. Those memories which have no value to the individual might have value to another individual, and that memory comes from sharing.
40:9.7 Even with Adjuster-fusion candidates, only those human experiences which were of spiritual value are common possessions of the surviving mortal and the returning Adjuster and hence are immediately remembered subsequent to mortal survival. Concerning those happenings which were not of spiritual significance, even these Adjuster-fusers must depend upon the attribute of recognition-response in the surviving soul. And since any one event may have a spiritual connotation to one mortal but not to another, it becomes possible for a group of contemporary ascenders from the same planet to pool their store of Adjuster-remembered events and thus to reconstruct any experience which they had in common, and which was of spiritual value in the life of any one of them.
Gene wrote:But in regard to our Urantia experiences, how many disappointments, defeats, and difficulties result in spiritual growth?It all depends on how you handle the disappointment. Remember the boy Fortune who was frumping away in solitude in the mountains all because of some disappointment he experienced? He wasn’t handling it very well; it was going badly for him. Jesus turned him around resulting in spiritual growth. Had that not happened, he may or may not have grown from the experience. He might have isolated his personality to the brink of non-existence . . . who knows?Jesus spent most of his time with the apostles making them disappointment-proof. Not that they wouldn’t ever be disappointed, but getting them to the point where they could be relied upon to face disappointments appropriately. He taught them a philosophic approach to disappointment and then worked on them to make it a habit.153:1.3 The Master well knew that many of his followers were slowly but surely preparing their minds finally to reject him. He likewise knew that many of his disciples were slowly but certainly passing through that training of mind and that discipline of soul which would enable them to triumph over doubt and courageously to assert their full-fledged faith in the gospel of the kingdom. Jesus fully understood how men prepare themselves for the decisions of a crisis and the performance of sudden deeds of courageous choosing by the slow process of the reiterated choosing between the recurring situations of good and evil. He subjected his chosen messengers to repeated rehearsals in disappointment and provided them with frequent and testing opportunities for choosing between the right and the wrong way of meeting spiritual trials. He knew he could depend on his followers, when they met the final test, to make their vital decisions in accordance with prior and habitual mental attitudes and spirit reactions.
Don’t you think that most disappointment comes when you really think something is right, you base your choices on that opinion, only to find out it’s wrong for some reason and all your ideas about it collapse around you. It happens all the time. I think U.S. society is currently going through one of its biggest disappointments in decades . . . and it’s not going well because the philosophy necessary to deal with it is lacking. Really lacking. In fact, I think there is a huge faction of society suffering from JRDS (Judas Response to Disappointment Syndrome):
- Bitter resentment of opposition
- Poor loser mentality
- Inability to accept disappointment
- Blaming others for disappointment
- Suspicion, holding grudges and planning revenge
- Inability to face facts
Thanks for the quotes on how Jesus prepared his disciples and apostles for disappointments. Above you speak of disappointment related to preconceptions and misconceptions and I think also the tendency for prejudice – the love of and loyalty to our opinions/beliefs/knowledge. To me, I find disappointment most often attends expectations not met….nothing breeds disappointment like mismanaged, inappropriate, immature, and impatient expectations.
It’s all about attitude. How readily does Plan B come to mind when thwarted or disappointed or defeated?
I also agree that there are those who blame others or circumstance for every disappointed expectation and who believe it is up to others to correct, improve, deliver their relief or outcomes. No personal responsibility and no adaptability thwarts all progress potential.
Thanks to all for contributing!
And those poor finaliters who fail to trinitize. They experience supreme disappointment, but on the bright side, are admitted to a special group of finaliters.
22:7.6 And not always do these devoted couples meet with success; many times they fail, and that through no discoverable error on their part. Candidates for trinitization who thus fail are admitted to a special group of finaliters who are designated as beings who have made the supreme effort and sustained the supreme disappointment.
In fact, there are so many ways an ascender can fail, even after making it to Paradise, that it seems disappointment is an on-going potential. Might as well get used to it now.
It’s all about attitude. How readily does Plan B come to mind when thwarted or disappointed or defeated?
This brings to mind another quote:
48:6.35 From them you will learn to let pressure develop stability and certainty; to be faithful and earnest and, withal, cheerful; to accept challenges without complaint and to face difficulties and uncertainties without fear. They will ask: If you fail, will you rise indomitably to try anew? If you succeed, will you maintain a well-balanced poise – a stabilized and spiritualized attitude – throughout every effort in the long struggle to break the fetters of material inertia, to attain the freedom of spirit existence?
And those poor finaliters who fail to trinitize. They experience supreme disappointment, but on the bright side, are admitted to a special group of finaliters.
22:7.6 And not always do these devoted couples meet with success; many times they fail, and that through no discoverable error on their part. Candidates for trinitization who thus fail are admitted to a special group of finaliters who are designated as beings who have made the supreme effort and sustained the supreme disappointment.
In fact, there are so many ways an ascender can fail, even after making it to Paradise, that it seems disappointment is an on-going potential. Might as well get used to it now.
To do a tangent on this thought I go to paper 40:10:3 Where the author walks us through an explanation of what could be thought of as an error in the ascension plan – where adjuster fusion does not happen in spite of best and faultless effort and the alternative is spirit or son fusing. They correct our possible misconception by taking us to the bright side of son fusing and spirit fusing and contrast the grandiose destiny possibilities open to these beings as opposed to those mortals that fuse with their Adjusters. There really is no destiny that is preferential and Adjuster fused mortals will never experience what those that spend eternity in the local or super universes experience and visa-viz. It is part of the master plan.
There is no mention in this paper about the beings that fail to fuse with Adjuster under the above conditions as being disappointed.
In places TUB describes “disappointed pilgrims”, but also explains that this disappointment does not shake the faith or disturb the trust of the ascender. “Disappointment-proof” I don’t think means there are no more disappointments to be faced, but rather that disappointment becomes a source of encouragement instead of defeat.
How about some success?
Just a little while ago an enormous hungry demon started eating the sun. I beat the drums, lit a fire and danced around it, fired my rifle at it, chanted incantations that were nonsensecal and even repented my sins and lo and behold I scared it away – the sun remains intact and the demon went toward beetlejuice – probably because its bigger and im not there.
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