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Such facts and knowledge “illuminate” the spiritual teachings which accompany the facts/knowledge presented and also illuminate the truths discovered by personal revelation as well….or so I understand.
Isn’t it the other way around? Isn’t it the spirit who illuminates?
As I understand it, revelation is the means by which we discover truth, beauty and goodness within the material world of facts and knowledge. Revelation is the bridge between material facts and spiritual truth.
Inspired to me means from the human mind, . . .
What does this mean? What kind of inspiration are you referring to?
I think inspiration takes many forms but is primarily a personal response to a cause or source that can be described as discernment, appreciation, confirmation or understanding which results in insight or intuition – inspiration is an experience that delivers an effect in mind which also often brings a response and an expression based on the inspiration. Music, art, math, science, social relationship, emotional feelings, wisdom, creative thinking and expressions of all sort….all manner of minded experiences might be caused and affected by inspiration and also be expressions of those so inspired. Inspiration is certainly not limited to mortals or mortal mind – it is universal and includes morontia beings/mind and spirit beings/mind too. Inspiration is related directly to truth far more than it is to fact.
In mortal experience, I think personal revelation is far more related to truth discovery and the Real Nature of Religion and Religion In Human Experience is principally based on this source of inspiration and spiritual insight…the ministry of and relationship to the Spirit within.
36:5.8 [Part II]
3. The spirit of courage — the fidelity endowment — in personal beings, the basis of character acquirement and the intellectual root of moral stamina and spiritual bravery. When enlightened by facts and inspired by truth, this becomes the secret of the urge of evolutionary ascension by the channels of intelligent and conscientious self-direction.Link to keyword search for “inspirational OR inspired”:
And “inspire OR inspires”:
3:6.8 [Part I]
God the Father loves men; God the Son serves men; God the Spirit inspires the children of the universe to the ever-ascending adventure of finding God the Father by the ways ordained by God the Sons through the ministry of the grace of God the Spirit.Question: were Newton and Einstein inspired? Plato and Aristotle? The engineers who designed the pyramids and described the universe by math and equations? Mozart? Da Vinci? Is inspiration limited to spiritual truths? Or is evolution of science and the progress of civilization also driven by the inspired mind….what role do curiosity and discovery and problem solving have with inspiration I wonder?
Each of the Spirits – the adjutants of the Holy Spirit, the Father’s Spirit of the TA, and the Son’s Spirit – the Spirit of Truth are sources of inspiration in the mortal mind…each with their own effect and power to transform the mind and bring forth the very best of all our potentials.
20:6.4 [Part I]
When a bestowal Son has mastered the experience of living the mortal life, when he has achieved perfection of attunement with his indwelling Adjuster, thereupon he begins that part of his planetary mission designed to illuminate the minds and to inspire the souls of his brethren in the flesh. As teachers, these Sons are exclusively devoted to the spiritual enlightenment of the mortal races on the worlds of their sojourn.Me here: Finally, for now, the UB is very clear in its warnings of what we might construe as inspirited or inspirational – for much that inexperience and immaturity might perceive as inspired is, after all, just the mind at its mischief! We are told that which is true or truthful in its inspiration as to source and meaning can be subjected to tests to verify its value:
91:7.4 (1000.5) The human mind may perform in response to so-called inspiration when it is sensitive either to the uprisings of the subconscious or to the stimulus of the superconscious. In either case it appears to the individual that such augmentations of the content of consciousness are more or less foreign. Unrestrained mystical enthusiasm and rampant religious ecstasy are not the credentials of inspiration, supposedly divine credentials.
91:7.5 (1000.6) The practical test of all these strange religious experiences of mysticism, ecstasy, and inspiration is to observe whether these phenomena cause an individual:
91:7.6 (1000.7) 1. To enjoy better and more complete physical health.
91:7.7 (1000.8) 2. To function more efficiently and practically in his mental life.
91:7.8 (1000.9) 3. More fully and joyfully to socialize his religious experience.
91:7.9 (1000.10) 4. More completely to spiritualize his day-by-day living while faithfully discharging the commonplace duties of routine mortal existence.
91:7.10 (1001.1) 5. To enhance his love for, and appreciation of, truth, beauty, and goodness.
91:7.11 (1001.2) 6. To conserve currently recognized social, moral, ethical, and spiritual values.
91:7.12 (1001.3) 7. To increase his spiritual insight — God-consciousness.
I think inspiration takes many forms but is primarily a personal response to a cause or source that can be described as discernment, appreciation, confirmation or understanding which results in insight or intuition – inspiration is an experience that delivers an effect in mind which also often brings a response and an expression based on the inspiration.
Can a person be negatively inspired?
Such facts and knowledge “illuminate” the spiritual teachings which accompany the facts/knowledge presented and also illuminate the truths discovered by personal revelation as well….or so I understand.
Isn’t it the other way around? Isn’t it the spirit who illuminates? As I understand it, revelation is the means by which we discover truth, beauty and goodness within the material world of facts and knowledge. Revelation is the bridge between material facts and spiritual truth.
Rather than “the other way around”, perhaps it is that both facts and revelation are sources of illumination? Perhaps they each offer a different spectrum of light for a more complete view and appreciation of reality?
101:4.10 (1110.3) 5. Presenting cosmic data in such a manner as to illuminate the spiritual teachings contained in the accompanying revelation.
This issue goes to those who claim (and they attend here and other on-line study groups and student gatherings) that knowledge and fact are irrelevant or that the TA is the source of fact and is a sufficient source of fact – the point and agenda of such ones is to attempt to discredit the UB as an epochal revelation OF universe fact at all – the claim is to diminish and minimize the UB and its claims. Who needs the UB and all its false claims of reality facts and knowledge??
Priests hate knowledge and facts….because they illuminate their own deceit and fraud.
The lack of knowledge and facts is to perpetuate the primitive state and mortal confusions and errors. The purpose of Epochal Revelation and its factual knowledge of reality (if limited, incremental, and partial) is to reduce those confusions and eliminate those errors perpetuated by the lack of knowledge, information, and facts. Nothing eliminates fear and reduces anxiety like facts do….that is, when combined with faith and truth!!
While soul birth and circle progress and soul survival can all be achieved by faith alone and by the truth experience within as delivered by the Spirit, who can achieve fusion in ignorance and without knowledge of the facts of reality? Few indeed. What is the Mansion World experience for? In addition to spiritual deficiency ministry, is it not also a school of knowledge for the learning of the reality of universe facts? Is there not science and physics and order and process and language and culture to learn in heaven…as well as truth, beauty, and goodness? We are told the entire universe of the universes of time and space is one giant university for the learning by all beings in both the accumulation of knowledge and wisdom.
I’m certain that fact and truth are both lights for the illumination of the experiential mind.
Isn’t universe reality and life itself a balance between the two? Reality is factual as much as it is truthful….no?
But I am often confused…by much!!
I think inspiration takes many forms but is primarily a personal response to a cause or source that can be described as discernment, appreciation, confirmation or understanding which results in insight or intuition – inspiration is an experience that delivers an effect in mind which also often brings a response and an expression based on the inspiration.
Can a person be negatively inspired?
Ahhhh…..absolutely I think. There’s some pretty dark so-called ‘art’ and music and books and people who have allowed their minds to be twisted and torn and become focused on darkness. Was Lucifer ‘inspired’?
Thus, we are provided the “test” above to determine if there’s any truth in what is claimed or thought to be inspirational!! The test in Paper 97 came after this warning:
7. Mysticism, Ecstasy, and Inspiration
91:7.1 (1000.2) Mysticism, as the technique of the cultivation of the consciousness of the presence of God, is altogether praiseworthy, but when such practices lead to social isolation and culminate in religious fanaticism, they are all but reprehensible. Altogether too frequently that which the overwrought mystic evaluates as divine inspiration is the uprisings of his own deep mind. The contact of the mortal mind with its indwelling Adjuster, while often favored by devoted meditation, is more frequently facilitated by wholehearted and loving service in unselfish ministry to one’s fellow creatures.
I think the mind which is poisoned and self important can distort all forms of revelation – both personal and epochal. We’ve suffered students of the UB here who read and study and remain very dark and paranoid and suspicious and yet claim an understanding they believe to be inspired…even when obviously based on fear, anxiety, self importance, ignorance, prejudice, and multiple forms of primitivism and vestiges of the animal nature.
So glad you’re back Bonita…..you’re working me hard right now…..hahahahahha…..thank you!
Gone now until Sunday….Peace….and carry on…..!
In 101:4.5-10 below it is clear that epochal revelation is or certainly can be facts and knowledge, yes. The UB is filled with many tens of thousands of facts….about God, creation, beings, circuits, physics, history, relationships, sources, destinies, mind, spirit, evolution, progress, etc., etc.
Epochal revelation may include facts and knowledge, but is that what epochal revelation is really all about? Were Jesus and Melchizedek about facts and knowledge?
Okay…one more…missed this question….and I understand these questions are important and should be considered AND answered by every student attending or reading along….good stuff for reflection.
When you say “really all about”, I wonder if you mean ‘primarily‘ about? For certainly, the Master’s mission had more than one “about” or purpose. But yes I do think that one of the principal purposes and intentions of both ERs was the fact of one God over all who creates and controls and is the master of all that is created and has always been – profound facts intended to propel evolutionary religion into personally revelatory religion beyond the adjutants ministry.
And yes also about Jesus – his facts were revolutionary to his audience and time. But his facts came with his gift of the Spirit of Truth and the flood of TA’s….the completion of the circuitry for fully functional personal revelation. The Master delivered both fact and truth in ways no other might ever do before or since or again!! Repeated from above:
20:6.4 [Part I]
When a bestowal Son has mastered the experience of living the mortal life, when he has achieved perfection of attunement with his indwelling Adjuster, thereupon he begins that part of his planetary mission designed to illuminate the minds and to inspire the souls of his brethren in the flesh. As teachers, these Sons are exclusively devoted to the spiritual enlightenment of the mortal races on the worlds of their sojourn.Me here: And now, we are given the 5th Epochal Revelation of fact and knowledge to correct, improve, enhance, magnify, and “illuminate” the personal revelation within. Can a book contain truth? Or only fact? Isn’t truth only discovered and discerned by mind? I mean a book may be truthful but isn’t it the mind only that can discern truth? Many read the UB and do not easily, quickly, or sometimes ever come to find the truth written within. It’s many facts may come to be accepted as factual (and thus truthful) but can they become so accepted or should they be so accepted until such facts deliver meanings and the personal revelations received within and by our own personal experience and wisdom become truth?
The facts of reality are real and not subject to our own knowledge or belief or application….reality does not care about one’s awareness or acceptance of reality….but does truth exist except within the individual mind and experience of each being? Can your truth be mine? Or mine be yours? Did Jesus teach truth….or did his teachings of fact combined with his own example of living deliver truth to those who were so blessed by his very presence? His presence today within us each and all as his spirit is certainly the voice of and confirmer of truth and not fact so much now I do not think. Curious…..and….
Interesting……thanks again Bonita!
Rather than “the other way around”, perhaps it is that both facts and revelation are sources of illumination?
I suppose so, if you use a broad definition of the word illumination. But I’m a real stickler for words and their meanings (a bad habit of mine, unfortunately).
There are three kinds of light: material, intellectual and spiritual (0:6.8). Generally, I think the word illumination is meant to mean spiritual illumination. Enlightenment develops as the the intellect is illuminated by spiritual luminosity.
I suppose facts may illuminate the material mind, but only in material ways. Facts require spiritual illumination in order to gain new and higher meanings. Revelation concerns the discovery of new meanings in old facts (101:1.4), and this is accomplished by those facts being spiritually illuminated (spiritized).
101:1.4 Religion lives and prospers, then, not by sight and feeling, but rather by faith and insight. It consists not in the discovery of new facts or in the finding of a unique experience, but rather in the discovery of new and spiritual meanings in facts already well known to mankind.
This is what Jesus did with epochal revelation. He took the current facts, knowledge and beliefs of his time and gave them new meanings. This is also how our angels aid our Adjusters with personal revelation. They take the facts of our lives, as we understand them, and challenge them in ways which demand the discovery of new meanings. Those new meanings are the ones spiritized, spiritually illuminated, by the Adjuster within the soul.
The lack of knowledge and facts is to perpetuate the primitive state and mortal confusions and errors.
I think it’s more than just knowledge and facts. I think spiritual illumination of the meaning of facts is what keeps mankind from devolving and regressing. Facts are useless without meaning. We all know that facts can be misinterpreted and assigned false meanings. It happens all the time. That’s what causes falsehood, error and evil. It’s the meaning of facts that really matter, which is why education is so crucial.
Primitive man experienced the facts of existence and did not understand them. Anything mysterious was assumed to be magical or mystical. Without education as to the meaning of facts, the human material mind will resort to magical, mystical thinking, which is a distortion of reality and erroneous. True education, of course, is by our inner Teacher, the Master himself. But there are epochal methods of teaching as well, which is what TUB is all about – revealing new meanings to old facts.
While soul birth and circle progress and soul survival can all be achieved by faith alone and by the truth experience within as delivered by the Spirit, who can achieve fusion in ignorance and without knowledge of the facts of reality?
This statement doesn’t make sense to me, but I’m not sure if I should parse it or just let it go.
Isn’t universe reality and life itself a balance between the two? Reality is factual as much as it is truthful….no?
Don’t you mean integration and coordination? And don’t you mean between the three?
Bradly wrote:Ahhhh…..absolutely I think. There’s some pretty dark so-called ‘art’ and music and books and people who have allowed their minds to be twisted and torn and become focused on darkness. Was Lucifer ‘inspired’?This is why I think when using words, their meanings must be specified. Inspiration can come from many different sources, both true and false. And false (evil) inspiration has many gradations (misinterpretation of reality). Even true inspiration is only relatively true.You said:Bradly wrote:Inspired to me means from the human mind, . . .Here again, I think you have to be very careful when using the word inspired. Inspiration comes from many sources. The human material mind (conscious and subconscious) may be the source of all manner of inspiration, but true inspiration, I think, can only come from one source. That source is not the human mind, but the Adjuster who lives at the borderland of the soul.When the revelators say that their cosmology is not inspired, I think they mean cosmology is presented as is. It is not qualified by cocreative inspiration which would give new meanings to those facts. It’s just the facts. It’s up to us to give them new meanings in cooperation with our spiritual instructors – illuminators, which is what would make them inspired. We humans are given the raw material from which we will be inspired to give new meanings. Hope that makes sense.When you say “really all about”, I wonder if you mean ‘primarily‘ about? For certainly, the Master’s mission had more than one “about” or purpose. But yes I do think that one of the principal purposes and intentions of both ERs was the fact of one God over all who creates and controls and is the master of all that is created and has always been – profound facts intended to propel evolutionary religion into personally revelatory religion beyond the adjutants ministry. And yes also about Jesus – his facts were revolutionary to his audience and time. But his facts came with his gift of the Spirit of Truth and the flood of TA’s….the completion of the circuitry for fully functional personal revelation. The Master delivered both fact and truth in ways no other might ever do before or since or again!!
In TUB we’re told that there were two purposes for Michael’s bestowal on this world. The first involved mastering the experience of living a human life in order to gain sovereignty; the second was to reveal the nature of the Universal Father to mortals so we may better understand him. (128:0.3-4).
Yes, there are facts involved in both of those purposes but the crux is really about experience: The Creator experiencing the creature and the creature experiencing the Creator. The fact of the existence of one loving God, as you mention, is not as important as the experience of discovering the actual relationship between creature and Creator. God is the first truth and the last fact. Truth involves God himself because that is where it originates; facts are about God and they are always relative to him (102:6.6).
And now, we are given the 5th Epochal Revelation of fact and knowledge to correct, improve, enhance, magnify, and “illuminate” the personal revelation within. Can a book contain truth? Or only fact? Isn’t truth only discovered and discerned by mind? I mean a book may be truthful but isn’t it the mind only that can discern truth?
All of the epochal revelations are concerned with the revelation of divine truth, embracing, ” . . . the highest existing concepts of spiritual values as a part of the new and enhanced co-ordination of planetary knowledge. (0:12.12)” I think that means that Michael’s bestowal was a revelation of spiritual values. It’s up to us to discover, recognize, interpret and choose them in coordination with our current knowledge. Revelation is a gift; knowledge is earned. Revelation is a gift that supplements earned knowledge.
So yes, mind does discern truth, but again, be specific. What level of mind does that? It’s only the soul level of mind that is capable of discerning truth (130:4.10). And that is because truth is a relationship, a living relationship. The Spirit of Truth illuminates relationships: the relationships between all persons and all things (56:10.13).
56:10.13 The recognition of true relations implies a mind competent to discriminate between truth and error. The bestowal Spirit of Truth which invests the human minds of Urantia is unerringly responsive to truth—the living spirit relationship of all things and all beings as they are co-ordinated in the eternal ascent Godward.
130:4.10 Knowledge is the sphere of the material or fact-discerning mind. Truth is the domain of the spiritually endowed intellect that is conscious of knowing God. Knowledge is demonstrable; truth is experienced. Knowledge is a possession of the mind; truth an experience of the soul, the progressing self. Knowledge is a function of the nonspiritual level; truth is a phase of the mind-spirit level of the universes. The eye of the material mind perceives a world of factual knowledge; the eye of the spiritualized intellect discerns a world of true values. These two views, synchronized and harmonized, reveal the world of reality, wherein wisdom interprets the phenomena of the universe in terms of progressive personal experience.
So no, the Spirit of Truth does not live in TUB or any other book. He lives in your head (Sorry George). Books are merely a collection of words, but words, like facts, have meanings which are discerned by mind. And meanings are primarily determined by what level of mind is doing the discerning and whether or not the living relationships, which are part of truth, are being illuminated by the Spirit of Truth. It is interesting that the Spirit of Truth can only function in a mind that has accepted the “sum and substance” of Jesus’ bestowal mission (34:5.5).
. . . reality does not care about one’s awareness or acceptance of reality…
I think all reality responds to its appropriate gravity and the cosmic mind reality responses reveal reality’s response to the mind of the cosmos. (The elliptical symmetry of all reality relationships.) I do think reality prefers stability, which means that a person’s willingness to discern and unify the fact, the law and the love of God is paramount. Reality and chaos cannot exist indefinitely.
. . . but does truth exist except within the individual mind and experience of each being?
Truth exists on high spiritual levels where the individual personality (rather than mind, as you say) realizes its relationship with a Divine personality. It’s an inner experience with external consequences because it involves the relationship of all persons and all things. Living truth must involve the experience of the entire personality on all levels of reality (180:5.2).
Can your truth be mine? Or mine be yours?
No one has the exact same experience, but there are kindred spirits who share similar experiences with truth. But, I don’t think you can own truth. There is no such thing as my truth or your truth. Each person has his/her own personal relationship with truth (who is a person). There may be individual interpretations of meanings based upon that relationship, which when shared, becomes a person’s individual expression of living truth.
79:8.8 Truth is relative and expanding; it lives always in the present, achieving new expression in each generation of men–even in each human life.
2:7.3 Divine truth, final truth, is uniform and universal, but the story of things spiritual, as it is told by numerous individuals hailing from various spheres, may sometimes vary in details owing to this relativity in the completeness of knowledge and in the repleteness of personal experience as well as in the length and extent of that experience.
I think the mind which is poisoned and self important can distort all forms of revelation – both personal and epochal. We’ve suffered students of the UB here who read and study and remain very dark and paranoid and suspicious and yet claim an understanding they believe to be inspired…even when obviously based on fear, anxiety, self importance, ignorance, prejudice, and multiple forms of primitivism and vestiges of the animal nature.
To be frank, I think even an honest and sincere mind can distort revelation. When a personality receives a new piece of reality data that does not fit into the scaffolding of its mental structure, for the sake of sanity, it attempts to adapt it in order to make it fit. Even a healthy mind will attempt to assign new meanings to incoming data in order for it to comfortably fit into their current mind structure, notwithstanding that it might have to slightly twist the truth a bit to make it happen. Although twisting is evil, I think it’s more a symptom of an immature thought scaffolding. That’s more or less what happened with Christianity, it compromised with truth in order to make it work within the philosophical environment of the time. It happens with generations and it also happens with individuals.
Recall the person who came here claiming to have been alive before her birth. When confronted with new information from TUB which negated that belief, she tried desperately to find a way to twist and turn the new information to fit into her mental structure. When such machinations do not work, there are only a few options: put it on the back burner and wait, continue to mangle it until it seems to fit, or simply toss it out. It’s having a fit about it that bothers me.I don’t think it’s possible to tear down one’s own mind scaffolding and make a new one from scratch based on just a bit of new revelation. I think doing so would lead to insanity of some sort. It’s no wonder people get very emotional and leave here in hysterics, screaming ad hominem once they realize their scaffolding is teetering. It’s a scary thing I’m sure.
I have not found a way to deal with this dilemma without changing the entire format of the forum from a study-based group to a self-help support group. Perhaps there’s a middle ground somewhere . . . don’t know. I’ll tell you one thing I do know for sure. There are a lot of people who react negatively if they suspect they’re being taught something by someone they consider to be an equal. It’s better for them if they think they’ve learned something all on their own, even if it’s a little loopy.
I think a new revelation, if it’s going to be incorporated, must fit in comfortably, or at least seem to fit comfortably with what’s already in a person’s mind, so as not to upset the structure and cause mental upheaval. No wonder the Adjuster has so much trouble with us! Jesus taught, when sharing truth always add something and not take away. I think this is a difficult teaching, especially in a study group such as this. There are some people who are so hungry for truth and so open minded that you can share any idea with them and they’ll gobble it up. That has its own risks, to be sure. I think a balanced mind naturally has a level of skepticism and honest doubts. Jesus had no problem with honest doubt as far as I can tell. He did have a problem with vicious attacks though.
We’re told that our mental scaffolding must eventually give way in the face of enlarging cosmic comprehension. I think that is what Jesus meant when he said that truth will eventually crowd out falsehood. Of course, this only works if the mind allows truth to enter in the first place. Perhaps some people’s scaffolding is so unsuited for revelation, that “giving way” takes on the characteristic of bending, twisting, shifting and decaying before it eventually rusts away. A mind structure so flexible that truth is able to always find a home without any disruption to its daily affairs, is a very special mind. I think the sleeping subject who was used for the generation of TUB material might have had such a mind. The authors say it was rare and very fortuitous.
Now that I’ve said all that, I can think of about a dozen different quotes that apply: 48:6.33; 90:3.10; 92:4.1; 93:7.4; 101:2.1; 102:1.1; 103:6.12; 110:5.7; 115:1.2; 132:0.4; 141:6.2; 146:3.2; 181:2.21
This is why I think when using words, their meanings must be specified. Inspiration can come from many different sources, both true and false. And false (evil) inspiration has many gradations (misinterpretation of reality). Even true inspiration is only relatively true.
You said: Bradly wrote: “Inspired to me means from the human mind,” . . .
Here again, I think you have to be very careful when using the word inspired. Inspiration comes from many sources. The human material mind (conscious and subconscious) may be the source of all manner of inspiration, but true inspiration, I think, can only come from one source. That source is not the human mind, but the Adjuster who lives at the borderland of the soul.
So many good points…thank you Bonita! Yes…I can be lazy and careless or hurried and inarticulate…or otherwise lacking specificity. It is accurate to point it out and important to acknowledge the value of clarity. As I’ve said, I’ve always found the authors of the Papers specific, intentional, and articulate in their presentations…and it is no service to the Revelation to be otherwise in our own reflections and discussions.
Yes, I agree….the human or celestial expression of inspiration received is from the human mind…or perhaps more accurately through the human mind but not from the human mind…as I misspoke above. Any good musician or painter or writer always refuses to take credit for their expressions of inspiration but describe themselves as a conduit or instrument of expression rather than the creative source of origination. I believe Einstein made a similar claim…he felt inspired and the recipient of insight, not the source of either. As is obvious, some of us are better at the expression of such inspiration experienced than others….hahahaha!
I agree we must be cautious in considering the spectrum of inspiration, the sources along that spectrum, the value of those spectral points, and the truth that the most important and valuable of all inspiration is from the TA and is related to The Real Nature of Religion and Religion In Human Experience!
Thanks for reminding me of the importance of personality and our soul in conjunction with mind in this transformative process of transferring the seat of our identity and circle progress as it relates to inspiration and the ministering Spirits.
No one has the exact same experience, but there are kindred spirits who share similar experiences with truth. But, I don’t think you can own truth. There is no such thing as my truth or your truth. Each person has his/her own personal relationship with truth (who is a person). There may be individual interpretations of meanings based upon that relationship, which when shared, becomes a person’s individual expression of living truth.
79:8.8 Truth is relative and expanding; it lives always in the present, achieving new expression in each generation of men–even in each human life.
2:7.3 Divine truth, final truth, is uniform and universal, but the story of things spiritual, as it is told by numerous individuals hailing from various spheres, may sometimes vary in details owing to this relativity in the completeness of knowledge and in the repleteness of personal experience as well as in the length and extent of that experience.
Again, I appreciate the clarification and correction to my own description(s)….one does not posses truth but has a relationship with it. A dynamic relationship indeed. Excellent point!! Truth is like love in this regard? We have a relationship with truth that is not and cannot be static or held or owned or possessed – there is a fluidity in both realities. Love must be given to be appreciated or experienced…we are loved even if we do not give love to others but what value or meaning does such love have until we do share it and give it freely as we receive it. We do not have to give love to receive it but we must to recognize it and feel its power in our own life.
Truth is like a trail of bread crumbs through the forest – if you stop following the trail of truth, it cannot lead you anywhere except where you are when you stop moving forward…this is often the point in progress when we grip too tightly the prior accumulation of bread crumbs, described as prejudice and ignorance….as ignorance is simply a lack of information or experience, we are always relatively ignorant compared to our future when growing…or upon pausing or stopping!
Truth is also a form of nourishment for growth and progress on the trail…as is love…both feed us and change us….they are the nutrients of the vine through the branch which grows the fruits which deliver the seeds of our service to others in the vineyard of this friendly universe…truth is and love flows….the more truth in the branch, the fatter it gets and the stronger the attachment to the vine and the healthier the branch to increase the flow of the love or sap of the vine. The metaphors of the Master hold great example for consideration in this discussion!
I once sought enlightenment….that is until my enlightening inspired my understanding sufficiently to realize that enlightening is an endless pursuit and adventure, and thusly enlightenment is a fool’s errand or can become a trap of entrenchment in prejudice and spiritual pride if one comes to believe in their own enlightenment. Prejudice is a real challenge…for every mind I think…except the more disciplined and reasoned and discerning minds; those who have some experience with personal misconceptions and preconceptions which have been lain aside and abandoned over time. Truly, one simply cannot be much of a truth seeker who grips and clings tightly to our current knowledge, beliefs, and perspective. Tadpole pride!! How silly and immature. We’re told if we had any objectivity, abject humility would be its result! Our own foolishness is to become one of our primary sources of mirth and humor in time to come.
There is no doubt that even honest and sincere minds distort revelation and inspiration is transitional in its utilization and expression and not absolute in message, meaning, or value….to the maturing mind that is.
That is why I am so grateful for such study as I enjoy here….it is so helpful to hear the understanding of others and share differing angles of perspective and various perspectives of understanding….and why, I think, Jesus taught we are to associate with other religionists – we need each other to avoid isolation and prejudice and expand our personal progress opportunities….if we can but learn from others. And this is just as true for those religionists, truth seekers, and students of the Urantia Papers….perhaps even more so! So much to learn and discern and apply in our tadpole lives….
To be frank, I think even an honest and sincere mind can distort revelation. When a personality receives a new piece of reality data that does not fit into the scaffolding of its mental structure, for the sake of sanity, it attempts to adapt it in order to make it fit. Even a healthy mind will attempt to assign new meanings to incoming data in order for it to comfortably fit into their current mind structure, notwithstanding that it might have to slightly twist the truth a bit to make it happen. Although twisting is evil, I think it’s more a symptom of an immature thought scaffolding. That’s more or less what happened with Christianity, it compromised with truth in order to make it work within the philosophical environment of the time. It happens with generations and it also happens with individuals.
Recall the person who came here claiming to have been alive before her birth. When confronted with new information from TUB which negated that belief, she tried desperately to find a way to twist and turn the new information to fit into her mental structure. When such machinations do not work, there are only a few options: put it on the back burner and wait, continue to mangle it until it seems to fit, or simply toss it out. It’s having a fit about it that bothers me. I don’t think it’s possible to tear down one’s own mind scaffolding and make a new one from scratch based on just a bit of new revelation. I think doing so would lead to insanity of some sort. It’s no wonder people get very emotional and leave here in hysterics, screaming ad hominem once they realize their scaffolding is teetering. It’s a scary thing I’m sure.
I wonder if the UB is intended to find or be found by those minds who are rational enough to seek and learn? It is very reasonable and rational to acknowledge the truth and fact that we are designed to learn….to be curious and seek understanding….and no mind can do so that cannot manage the foolishness and immaturity of progress ending prejudice!! This is not rocket science! I cannot learn more if I refuse to understand I don’t know everything now. Do I want to learn more? Well then….think about it…I may learn something I think I know or believe is wrong or at least incomplete and transitionally faulty considering new information and/or context.
Ego must be managed for so many forms of progress and growth…not just spiritual and religious. If we cannot manage ego then we cannot grow or learn. While it may be challenging in its way…the alternative is self defeating pride and insanity….tadpole pride. We are taught that one’s dependence upon evolutionary religion and it authorities, creeds, ceremonies, and doctrinal beliefs (so called knowledge) is weak, immature, primitive, and inferior in function and results to revelatory religious experience.
I am also at a loss to understand how best to relate to and deal with such primitive religionists or religionists with primitive religion. We are taught that faith trumps understanding and to be careful not to harm or diminish the faith of others. But Jesus did not mince and parse truth or suffer fools gladly either. Those who share falsehood, despair, anxiety, darkness, even paranoia and obvious prejudice are not to be coddled or suffered in silence – especially within a student body of an epochal revelation when its contents are twisted, tormented, contradicted, or otherwise vilified and misrepresented by those with an agenda or spiritual pride. It is not important to convince anyone of the fact or truth of what the Papers teach…but it is vital that the student body allow the Papers to speak for themselves….they say what they say and don’t say what they don’t….
And this is why I am so appreciative of your dedication to clarity and specificity Bonita, for it is only by such dedication that the Papers might best be understood and become a source of more than fact and knowledge as the Spirit delivers revelation and its insights and inspirations to our mind and soul. Thank you Sister! (No doubt, there are additional opportunities I have provided you here for further clarification? Hahahahah….)
101:5.3 (1110.6) 1. Evolutionary religion. The experience of primitive worship, the religion which is a mind derivative.
101:5.4 (1110.7) 2. Revealed religion. The universe attitude which is a spirit derivative; the assurance of, and belief in, the conservation of eternal realities, the survival of personality, and the eventual attainment of the cosmic Deity, whose purpose has made all this possible. It is a part of the plan of the universe that, sooner or later, evolutionary religion is destined to receive the spiritual expansion of revelation.
In my reflections of the two quotes above, I would offer that there are 3 phases described….and not two. In 5.3, we know that faith develops without knowledge or even experience….the religion of primitives and young children…by the Mother’s Spirit – the Adjutants in mind and the free will expressions of personality. But in 5.4 we are introduced to the effects of revelation but of two kinds! Personal revelation most often attends us by the function of faith resulting in the “universe attitude”, “assurance”, and beliefs in eternal realities and personality survival (I AM), and the purpose and intention of cosmic realities. But personal revelation only delivers such by spiritual insights and truth discernments….not the factual knowledge and understanding of universe realities in any detail.
That requires Epochal Revelation! Our world now has its 5th Edition and in some ways our most detailed and exhaustive in number of facts and expansive presentation of universe realities. For those who live and die on their world of mortal birth without the addition and contribution of factual knowledge, the Mansion World experience is designed for such additional education to supplement and compliment the on-going personal revelation our TA will continue to provide us. The accumulation of factual knowledge is a functional form of our continuing education and growth as capable beings who are also completing our circle progress and spiritization prior to and subsequent to fusion with our TA.
There would not be personal revelation if epochal were sufficient. There would not be epochal revelation if personal/auto were sufficient. They are not the same in form or function…or they would not both be utilized. What are those distinctions? They obviously exist if they are also less apparent to discern. I understand that Epochal Revelation is specifically related to the Mortal Epochs described in Paper 52 and the Revelations of Universe Facts and Knowledge on the Mansion Worlds and beyond are something else…but they are also a continuation of epochal revelation….and/or a supplemental and corrective tool for those ascenders who have not benefited by such facts and knowledge.
Facts and knowledge also have meaning and value related to truth and growth and the transfer of the seat of identity and the spiritization and spiritualization of mind and soul (our morontia mind). Even fusion does not deliver all facts and knowledge to us and still will we become educated in the many centers of learning in this university of experience and endless education.
101:5.9 (1110.12) Scientists assemble facts, philosophers co-ordinate ideas, while prophets exalt ideals. Feeling and emotion are invariable concomitants of religion, but they are not religion. Religion may be the feeling of experience, but it is hardly the experience of feeling. Neither logic (rationalization) nor emotion (feeling) is essentially a part of religious experience, although both may variously be associated with the exercise of faith in the furtherance of spiritual insight into reality, all according to the status and temperamental tendency of the individual mind.
101:5.10 (1110.13) Evolutionary religion is the outworking of the endowment of the local universe mind adjutant charged with the creation and fostering of the worship trait in evolving man. Such primitive religions are directly concerned with ethics and morals, the sense of human duty. Such religions are predicated on the assurance of conscience and result in the stabilization of relatively ethical civilizations.
101:5.11 (1111.1) Personally revealed religions are sponsored by the bestowal spirits representing the three persons of the Paradise Trinity and are especially concerned with the expansion of truth. Evolutionary religion drives home to the individual the idea of personal duty; revealed religion lays increasing emphasis on loving, the golden rule.
101:5.12 (1111.2) Evolved religion rests wholly on faith. Revelation has the additional assurance of its expanded presentation of the truths of divinity and reality and the still more valuable testimony of the actual experience which accumulates in consequence of the practical working union of the faith of evolution and the truth of revelation. Such a working union of human faith and divine truth constitutes the possession of a character well on the road to the actual acquirement of a morontial personality.
101:5.13 (1111.3) Evolutionary religion provides only the assurance of faith and the confirmation of conscience; revelatory religion provides the assurance of faith plus the truth of a living experience in the realities of revelation. The third step in religion, or the third phase of the experience of religion, has to do with the morontia state, the firmer grasp of mota. Increasingly in the morontia progression the truths of revealed religion are expanded; more and more you will know the truth of supreme values, divine goodnesses, universal relationships, eternal realities, and ultimate destinies.
101:5.14 (1111.4) Increasingly throughout the morontia progression the assurance of truth replaces the assurance of faith. When you are finally mustered into the actual spirit world, then will the assurances of pure spirit insight operate in the place of faith and truth or, rather, in conjunction with, and superimposed upon, these former techniques of personality assurance.
Yes, I agree….the human or celestial expression of inspiration received is from the human mind…or perhaps more accurately through the human mind but not from the human mind…as I misspoke above. Any good musician or painter or writer always refuses to take credit for their expressions of inspiration but describe themselves as a conduit or instrument of expression rather than the creative source of origination. I believe Einstein made a similar claim…he felt inspired and the recipient of insight, not the source of either. As is obvious, some of us are better at the expression of such inspiration experienced than others….hahahaha!
Yeah, it’s the personality enjoying the inspiration and acting on it. That’s what contributes to the Supreme. It’s the final part of discovery, recognition, interpretation and choice. Divine inspiration occurs in the soul. It is discovered and recognized there. The mind interprets it with help from the Spirit of Truth who directs the loving flow of truth, beauty and goodness, thus making it ready for action. All the personality has to do is participate in those steps. Once the decision is made to act, fruit is produced. And this fruit is always true, beautiful and good. TUB does tell us though that many people today are afraid of Jesus/Spirit of Truth because of what he will do to them and through them. I guess they think they have to give up control, when in fact, it’s all about self-control which permits truth dominance.
I wish there was another word for the “so-called” inspiration TUB refers to. Such psychological inspirations are more like impulses I think. They can come from anywhere in the mind and if they come from the subconscious mind, they seem mysterious and other-worldly. I’m pretty sure that’s where most of the creepy stuff comes from, often in the form of tortured metaphysical symbolism. Fascination with signs and wonders, preoccupation with numbers on clocks, and longing for secret knowledge are all psychological machinations of “so-called” inspiration. I don’t think it’s really inspiration at all because it doesn’t come from the spirit within. Can we instead call it mental infatuation or enchantment? Such activities can certainly be very enticing to the myth-loving human mind, but they bypass the soul where divine, spiritual inspiration has its origin. Way too much time is spent on self-stimulating mental infatuation rather than genuine prayer.
91:7.4 The human mind may perform in response to so-called inspiration when it is sensitive either to the uprisings of the subconscious or to the stimulus of the superconscious. In either case it appears to the individual that such augmentations of the content of consciousness are more or less foreign. Unrestrained mystical enthusiasm and rampant religious ecstasy are not the credentials of inspiration, supposedly divine credentials.
195:9.6 . . . Modern men and women of intelligence evade the religion of Jesus because of their fears of what it will do to them — and with them. . . .
I could talk about this all day and into tomorrow. I’ve spent plenty of time myself engaged in mental infatuation, looking for truth in places it does not live. Learned a lot though.
I cannot learn more if I refuse to understand I don’t know everything now. Do I want to learn more? Well then….think about it…I may learn something I think I know or believe is wrong or at least incomplete and transitionally faulty considering new information and/or context.
I’m not sure everyone is interested in learning new things. There are a lot of people quite content with the status quo either totally lacking in desire or simply contented with things as they are. Then there are those folks who qualify as deep thinkers but for some reason allow themselves to become victims of cultural bondage. I think it’s due to a lack of courage, or at least that’s a part of it. Curiosity alone is not enough, one must dare to act. Thankfully, these habits are merely vestiges of the beast which are removed during the mansion world experience. (And for BB, the beast is not the devil, but our animal heritage.)
101.7.4 The great difference between a religious and a nonreere are four phases in the evolution of religious philosophy: Such an experience may become ligious philosophy of living consists in the nature and level of recognized values and in the object of loyalties. Thmerely conformative, resigned to submission to tradition and authority. Or it may be satisfied with slight attainments, just enough to stabilize the daily living, and therefore becomes early arrested on such an adventitious level. Such mortals believe in letting well enough alone. A third group progress to the level of logical intellectuality but there stagnate in consequence of cultural slavery. It is indeed pitiful to behold giant intellects held so securely within the cruel grasp of cultural bondage. It is equally pathetic to observe those who trade their cultural bondage for the materialistic fetters of a science, falsely so called. The fourth level of philosophy attains freedom from all conventional and traditional handicaps and dares to think, act, and live honestly, loyally, fearlessly, and truthfully.
Ego must be managed for so many forms of progress and growth…not just spiritual and religious. If we cannot manage ego then we cannot grow or learn. While it may be challenging in its way…the alternative is self defeating pride and insanity….tadpole pride. We are taught that one’s dependence upon evolutionary religion and it authorities, creeds, ceremonies, and doctrinal beliefs (so called knowledge) is weak, immature, primitive, and inferior in function and results to revelatory religious experience.
I’m not sure that’s entirely true. I think growth and progress can be made even if the ego gets in the way, but such growth is slow and evolutionary. Evolution happens regardless of ego, but the kind of growth and progress we’re required to make as kingdom dwellers is above and beyond evolutionary growth. That’s where revelation comes in. What is the relationship between the ego and revelation, one might ask? Certainly the ego must play a role because without it, there wouldn’t be a contrast between selfishness and selflessness. I think the ego is a learning tool, which makes the alter-ego a fantastic gift for learning too. It comes down to, which one wins?
I suppose I should take my own advice here and be more specific about the alter ego. There are those who balk at the idea, presumably because there is always the chance that a person could create an evil alter ego. And I’m sure there are plenty who have done just that. What I’m talking about is a spiritual alter ego. I think Jung was getting close with his concept of the superego, but he stalled out at the level of conscience rather than elevating it to the spirit/soul level. Yet he did recognize that there are two types of egos, that humans have conversations with themselves, especially during decision making. TUB tells us that the conversation is meant to evolve to one between creature and Creator, where the alter ego becomes the source of inspiration and revelation. That’s when the contrast between the two egos becomes starkly illuminated. Opting for the spiritual alter ego’s ideals is how identity gets transferred. It’s the same personality but with dual egos; it’s which ego the personality chooses to identify with that makes all the difference.
I think people who create evil alter egos are the class of people we call anti-social. And don’t we have an overabundance of them these days? They are the ones we’re supposed to figure out how to identify, control and eventually eliminate. A different conversation altogether though. Sorry to digress.
There would not be personal revelation if epochal were sufficient. There would not be epochal revelation if personal/auto were sufficient. They are not the same in form or function…or they would not both be utilized.
I agree that the parts and the whole are inter-dependent. Without the support of epochal revelation, personal revelation can lose its grip. Recall the third epochal revelation was an emergency intervention because the light of revealed living truth was dying out (93:1.1). Why was the living truth of personal revelation becoming hazy in the minds of men? Probably due to planetary confusion and chaos. I think epochal revelation is meant to be stabilizing, to provide the best environment for continued personal revelation. I’m not sure facts are the main thrust of epochal revelation, except that they might be necessary for proper grounding and perspective. I think of epochal revelation as a means of upstepping the theatre in which personal revelation takes place. One type of revelation leads to planetary light and life, the other to personal light and life, and both are very much inter-dependent.
(1014.3) 93:1.1 Revealed truth was threatened with extinction during the millenniums which followed the miscarriage of the Adamic mission on Urantia. Though making progress intellectually, the human races were slowly losing ground spiritually. About 3000 B.C. the concept of God had grown very hazy in the minds of men.
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