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Posts
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Andre – merci beaucoup!! It is my pleasure and honor to present my thoughts and understanding of these Middle Papers that have been so important to me over the years and this long strange trip!
I would remind everyone that anything I post which is not the UB text itself is but my opinion after all and my current understanding of the meanings I discern from the text….which means it is subject to and welcomes your comments, critique, challenges, corrections, and own perspective. It is, we are taught, an important tool of learning to be able to glean from many different lenses and angles of perspective which can only be harvested by those others who are willing to share their own thoughts and feelings. In such a manner does insight, revelation, confirmation, and paradigm shifts bless the student who can lay aside preconception and prejudice in the pursuit of understanding and appreciation!!
I have just completed and recommend a re-read of Paper 42 Energy-Mind and Matter which is very helpful in considering the concepts here in 103. Some supporting quotes to my previous posts from Paper 103:
42:11.1 (481.5) In the evaluation and recognition of mind it should be remembered that the universe is neither mechanical nor magical; it is a creation of mind and a mechanism of law. But while in practical application the laws of nature operate in what seems to be the dual realms of the physical and the spiritual, in reality they are one. The First Source and Center is the primal cause of all materialization and at the same time the first and final Father of all spirits. The Paradise Father appears personally in the extra-Havona universes only as pure energy and pure spirit—as the Thought Adjusters and other similar fragmentations.
42:11.2 (481.6) Mechanisms do not absolutely dominate the total creation; the universe of universes in toto is mind planned, mind made, and mind administered. But the divine mechanism of the universe of universes is altogether too perfect for the scientific methods of the finite mind of man to discern even a trace of the dominance of the infinite mind. For this creating, controlling, and upholding mind is neither material mind nor creature mind; it is spirit-mind functioning on and from creator levels of divine reality.
42:11.3 (482.1) The ability to discern and discover mind in universe mechanisms depends entirely on the ability, scope, and capacity of the investigating mind engaged in such a task of observation. Time-space minds, organized out of the energies of time and space, are subject to the mechanisms of time and space.
42:11.6 (482.4) Extremely complex and highly automatic-appearing cosmic mechanisms always tend to conceal the presence of the originative or creative indwelling mind from any and all intelligences very far below the universe levels of the nature and capacity of the mechanism itself. Therefore is it inevitable that the higher universe mechanisms must appear to be mindless to the lower orders of creatures. The only possible exception to such a conclusion would be the implication of mindedness in the amazing phenomenon of an apparently self-maintaining universe—but that is a matter of philosophy rather than one of actual experience.
42:12.14 (484.2) The spirit is the creative reality; the physical counterpart is the time-space reflection of the spirit reality, the physical repercussion of the creative action of spirit-mind.
42:12.15 (484.3) Mind universally dominates matter, even as it is in turn responsive to the ultimate overcontrol of spirit. And with mortal man, only that mind which freely submits itself to the spirit direction can hope to survive the mortal time-space existence as an immortal child of the eternal spirit world of the Supreme, the Ultimate, and the Absolute: the Infinite.
The more we progress in our universe adventure, the more will we recognize and appreciate the unity that is inherent in matter and spirit as mind intervenes between the two and integrates the two. Knowledge, experience, and wisdom will combine to replace faith as that which now integrates the universe. Universe reality is not hidden but it requires more than mortal mind to truly discern. The religious experience of faith and the impulse of curiosity become the bridge that crosses that chasm of ignorance and inexperience in which we are born (which is often sufficient to create all manner of superstitions, fables, and falsehoods) and they compel us forward in the adventure of discovery where experiential wisdom and knowledge combine to reveal the same reality in new ways with ever greater meaning and value. And it is only by the lowly origins of us tadpoles that the greatest of all spectrums of experience and growth might be achieved.
The potential of the Tadpole is extraordinary to consider. Behold the Tadpole Way!!
I often find myself confused, even confounded, by many of the complexities and relational aspects of many concepts in the UB. Besides some college, I am mostly self taught by endless reading driven by keen curiosity, not to be confused with “educated” or having great intellect!! Hahaha. So I do find myself in deep water once in awhile and even “in over my head” time to time. I’ve been there for some time now, in this Paper especially and what comes next.
Just because I have the confidence and nerve to begin these studies and posts of these Middle Papers does not indicate any confidence in my own understanding…which tends to be very evolutionary the more often I study them. I always find new concepts hiding in the rough and the weeds which I find myself in so frequently conceptually. But new meanings from prior understanding and perception deliver endless “Ah-Ha” moments….juicy and delectable tidbits and occasional brilliant moments of insight (moments of satori) – the great reward for the sincere and earnest truth seeker!! Discovery and Discernment!! I am sure you know what I mean.
I look forward to the insights of others and the meanings discovered by others within these incredible teachings about The Reality of Religious Experience!! I have come to depend upon and take delight in others’ discoveries and descriptions of truth and meaning which help me to attain ever more insight and perception of reality. Thanks to all who so share here.
Before we continue in Paper 103, I discovered this little gem in my reading today, which helped me understand and accept my own lack of understanding. It is the second quote I’ve found that teaches that the mind will invent facts and reality constructs and do so in complete or partial ignorance of reality itself. The mind requires frames of reference and will construct its own when facts are unavailable or unknown or disbelieved!! Incredible! And the very reason we are provided Epochal Revelation to clarify, specify, and articulate universe reality to reduce confusions and eliminate the errors that mind will boldly embrace without the facts and knowledge presented by such Epochal Revelation. So reasonable and logical don’t you think??!!
1. Relativity of Concept Frames
115:1.1 (1260.2) Partial, incomplete, and evolving intellects would be helpless in the master universe, would be unable to form the first rational thought pattern, were it not for the innate ability of all mind, high or low, to form a universe frame in which to think. If mind cannot fathom conclusions, if it cannot penetrate to true origins, then will such mind unfailingly postulate conclusions and invent origins that it may have a means of logical thought within the frame of these mind-created postulates. And while such universe frames for creature thought are indispensable to rational intellectual operations, they are, without exception, erroneous to a greater or lesser degree.
115:1.2 (1260.3) Conceptual frames of the universe are only relatively true; they are serviceable scaffolding which must eventually give way before the expansions of enlarging cosmic comprehension. The understandings of truth, beauty, and goodness, morality, ethics, duty, love, divinity, origin, existence, purpose, destiny, time, space, even Deity, are only relatively true. God is much, much more than a Father, but the Father is man’s highest concept of God; nonetheless, the Father-Son portrayal of Creator-creature relationship will be augmented by those supermortal conceptions of Deity which will be attained in Orvonton, in Havona, and on Paradise. Man must think in a mortal universe frame, but that does not mean that he cannot envision other and higher frames within which thought can take place.
And back to our reading and study of Paper 103:
103:6.11 (1137.1) Science must always be grounded in reason, although imagination and conjecture are helpful in the extension of its borders. Religion is forever dependent on faith, albeit reason is a stabilizing influence and a helpful handmaid. And always there have been, and ever will be, misleading interpretations of the phenomena of both the natural and the spiritual worlds, sciences and religions falsely so called.
103:6.12 (1137.2) Out of his incomplete grasp of science, his faint hold upon religion, and his abortive attempts at metaphysics, man has attempted to construct his formulations of philosophy. And modern man would indeed build a worthy and engaging philosophy of himself and his universe were it not for the breakdown of his all-important and indispensable metaphysical connection between the worlds of matter and spirit, the failure of metaphysics to bridge the morontia gulf between the physical and the spiritual. Mortal man lacks the concept of morontia mind and material; and revelation is the only technique for atoning for this deficiency in the conceptual data which man so urgently needs in order to construct a logical philosophy of the universe and to arrive at a satisfying understanding of his sure and settled place in that universe.
103:6.13 (1137.3) Revelation is evolutionary man’s only hope of bridging the morontia gulf. Faith and reason, unaided by mota, cannot conceive and construct a logical universe. Without the insight of mota, mortal man cannot discern goodness, love, and truth in the phenomena of the material world.
103:6.14 (1137.4) When the philosophy of man leans heavily toward the world of matter, it becomes rationalistic or naturalistic. When philosophy inclines particularly toward the spiritual level, it becomes idealistic or even mystical. When philosophy is so unfortunate as to lean upon metaphysics, it unfailingly becomes skeptical, confused. In past ages, most of man’s knowledge and intellectual evaluations have fallen into one of these three distortions of perception. Philosophy dare not project its interpretations of reality in the linear fashion of logic; it must never fail to reckon with the elliptic symmetry of reality and with the essential curvature of all relation concepts.
103:6.15 (1137.5) The highest attainable philosophy of mortal man must be logically based on the reason of science, the faith of religion, and the truth insight afforded by revelation. By this union man can compensate somewhat for his failure to develop an adequate metaphysics and for his inability to comprehend the mota of the morontia.
Please note 6.13 above…this, I think, explains all those in the world, (and among UB students in particular!!!) who wallow in doom and gloom and cannot seem to see the brilliance of reality and progress and the religious light and love of 7 billion souls on our world. All that some can see is the evil and suffering and dark patches on the glorious white background of truth, beauty, and goodness. It is as if they are blind or unable to focus or perceive the realities of the spirit in the world today, yesterday, and every day….no matter the calamities and tragedies that are the repercussions of evil and error. I say UB students in particular because they/we have this Revelation of fact and knowledge and truth which clearly tells us – over and over again! – how wonderful is reality and how friendly is the universe and how certain in our progress on Urantia and how inevitable is our planetary destiny! Still do they fail to perceive it!!
Personal revelation AND epochal revelation deliver the insights needed to “see” and to “hear” and to “believe” in those realities that mota will make clear to us as we mature in the Spirit. But, we are taught, the evidence of reality is truly all around us…but some of us simply do not and cannot perceive it….we lack the faith and are blinded to reality by our fears and lack of personal Circle Progress which prevents us from discerning the truth and beauty and goodness all around us IN the MATERIAL world and life. Jesus certainly saw it and took great delight in the people of this world and found the light of the Spirit everywhere he traveled. Some of us are blinded by the beams in our eyes while we judge others and the world around us so harshly. Some of us starve at the banquet table and thirst at the edge of the fountain of life.
Yet so many of us 7 billion mortals take delight in life and serve one another and love others and lead the blinded ones forward toward inevitable Light and Life!! Glorious!!
Thanks Bradly! Regarding the skepticism and confusion holding back so many students of these things, maybe those students are still leaning upon — or trying to accommodate — some familiar but insufficient metaphysics?
From ( 103:6.14, 1137.4 )
“When philosophy is so unfortunate as to lean upon metaphysics, it unfailingly becomes skeptical, confused.”
Nigel
Greetings Nigel!!
We are taught that happiness is a fruit of the spirit and is derived by and from our unshakable confidence in God’s love and mercy and power and plan…the faith and truth assurance of our personal religious experience. Indeed, it is written that a growing happiness accompanies such growing assurance!
It is true there is much in life which causes sorrow and suffering and grief and that which is unfair and that which seems inexplicable and cruel in a friendly universe ruled by love. This is no small matter and a severe test of faith…no doubt about it. But the world is also filled with love and truth and goodness and beauty!! Jesus had an eye and ear for such and recognized it wherever he went…and did his best to support and uplift and uphold all that he found which shined the light of the spirit within us.
Personally, I had to work through a season of blaming God for suffering and unfairness….what I considered an indifference of God for human misery. Took me awhile to abandon such falsehood too and come to the realization that humanity pretty much creates its own misery and has the power to cure and eliminate it too….collectively and individually. But only by the spiritization of the each and the spiritualization of the all. My contribution to the ALL is according to my ability to become spiritized within and change my own perspective and lens of view of reality….for truly is there truth, beauty, goodness, and love throughout our world and our communities all around us as we walk by wherever we may be….if only we have the eyes to see it and the ears to hear it. Reality is a joyful noise and symphony of light and life.
The Reality of Religious Experience is expressed by the joy and happiness and contented confidence of believers I think.
keyword search for “happy OR happiness”:
5. Lesson Regarding Contentment
149:5.1 (1674.3) When Jesus was visiting the group of evangelists working under the supervision of Simon Zelotes, during their evening conference Simon asked the Master: “Why are some persons so much more happy and contented than others? Is contentment a matter of religious experience?” Among other things, Jesus said in answer to Simon’s question:
149:5.2 (1674.4) “Simon, some persons are naturally more happy than others. Much, very much, depends upon the willingness of man to be led and directed by the Father’s spirit which lives within him. Have you not read in the Scriptures the words of the wise man, ‘The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts’? And also that such spirit-led mortals say: ‘The lines are fallen to me in pleasant places; yes, I have a goodly heritage.’ ‘A little that a righteous man has is better than the riches of many wicked,’ for ‘a good man shall be satisfied from within himself.’ ‘A merry heart makes a cheerful countenance and is a continual feast. Better is a little with the reverence of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith. Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fatted ox and hatred therewith. Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without rectitude.’ ‘A merry heart does good like a medicine.’ ‘Better is a handful with composure than a superabundance with sorrow and vexation of spirit.’
149:5.3 (1674.5) “Much of man’s sorrow is born of the disappointment of his ambitions and the wounding of his pride. Although men owe a duty to themselves to make the best of their lives on earth, having thus sincerely exerted themselves, they should cheerfully accept their lot and exercise ingenuity in making the most of that which has fallen to their hands. All too many of man’s troubles take origin in the fear soil of his own natural heart. ‘The wicked flee when no man pursues.’ ‘The wicked are like the troubled sea, for it cannot rest, but its waters cast up mire and dirt; there is no peace, says God, for the wicked.’
149:5.4 (1674.6) “Seek not, then, for false peace and transient joy but rather for the assurance of faith and the sureties of divine sonship which yield composure, contentment, and supreme joy in the spirit.”
149:5.5 (1675.1) Jesus hardly regarded this world as a “vale of tears.” He rather looked upon it as the birth sphere of the eternal and immortal spirits of Paradise ascension, the “vale of soul making.”
Thanks Bradly! Regarding the skepticism and confusion holding back so many students of these things, maybe those students are still leaning upon — or trying to accommodate — some familiar but insufficient metaphysics? From ( 103:6.14, 1137.4 )
“When philosophy is so unfortunate as to lean upon metaphysics, it unfailingly becomes skeptical, confused.”
Nigel
Me here: There are several quotes in the UB which include “metaphysics OR metaphysical” that help illuminate the current topic of The Reality of Religious Experience. There are also some aspects related to the dictionary definition of “metaphysics” which are very helpful as well.
NOUN
Metaphysics is a traditional branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world that encompasses it.
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the essence of a thing. This includes questions of being, becoming, existence, and reality. The word “metaphysics” comes from two Greek words that, together, literally mean “after physics”.
the branch of philosophy that deals with the first principles of things, including abstract concepts such as being, knowing, substance, cause, identity, time, and space.
also: abstract theory with no basis in reality.
Me here: Notice above that metaphysics, in a very real way, is a form of substitute for spiritual and morontial realities and explanations for observable facts and ponderable meanings. This is why, I think, the UB says philosophy which depends too much on metaphysics always confuses and fails….it is a falsehood and fictional foundation for the understanding and explanation of universe realities.
Metaphysics comes after the scientific explanations for reality which would, it seems to me, include scientific theories too. Not scientific knowledge of fact and not the scientific method. But consider how much of historical and contemporary scientific theory has the very purpose of explaining what science has not yet been able to explain that is either observable or ponderable (such as the cause of observable effect or the effects of observable causes – works both ways!).
Let us take two principal examples of what some theorists claim to be science but students of the UB know to be “abstract theory with no basis in reality”: the big bang theory and the evolution of humankind. Some religionists offer their own non-scientific and “abstract theory with no basis in reality” with their own fictional form of creationism. Another example is the notion of a million years duration that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west which observation proves that our world is the center of the observable universe. All 4 of the above theories are designed to answer and determine the causes of observable effects/results…and all 4 are absolutely false. If belief is based on falsehood, then belief is driven by metaphysics…not on science or religious fact or truth. Explanations of reality without actual basis in reality!!
Metaphysics is a good thing, like evolutionary religions I think, in that it is a function of the mind seeking solution and explanation of reality and can lead the mind, by evolutionary faith and revelation based truth insights, to the truth that a higher power and mind and personality is the source of everything and everyone and that we live in a created and managed system of reality that science itself cannot explain.
Link to UB quotes:
Thanks Nigel!!
103:6.2 [Part III]
When man approaches the study and examination of his universe from the outside, he brings into being the various physical sciences; when he approaches the research of himself and the universe from the inside, he gives origin to theology and metaphysics. The later art of philosophy develops in an effort to harmonize the many discrepancies which are destined at first to appear between the findings and teachings of these two diametrically opposite avenues of approaching the universe of things and beings.This seems a good time to consider the evolutionary bridge of philosophy related to The Reality of Religious Experience.
5:4.4 [Part I]
The domains of philosophy and art intervene between the nonreligious and the religious activities of the human self. Through art and philosophy the material-minded man is inveigled into the contemplation of the spiritual realities and universe values of eternal meanings.5:5.5 [Part I]
Evolutionary religion is the mother of the science, art, and philosophy which elevated man to the level of receptivity to revealed religion, including the bestowal of Adjusters and the coming of the Spirit of Truth. The evolutionary picture of human existence begins and ends with religion, albeit very different qualities of religion, one evolutional and biological, the other revelational and periodical. And so, while religion is normal and natural to man, it is also optional. Man does not have to be religious against his will.27:6.1 [Part I]
Next to the supreme satisfaction of worship is the exhilaration of philosophy. Never do you climb so high or advance so far that there do not remain a thousand mysteries which demand the employment of philosophy in an attempted solution.The Reality of Religious Experience encompasses many concepts and functions – all of which are designed for and result in a very personalized religious experience….or so is the inherent potential. Individual free will and the choices we make which result in our own motives for living, intentions at each intersection of choice, our priorities which reflect our philosophy of living, and the mind’s reality grasp…all of these combine to deliver our own reality….either a false construct or a viable discovered reality delivered by a true religious experience combining fact and truth with experience and wisdom. The human mortal is so complex. Again do I wonder at the amazing achievements of the Adjutants and the Life Carriers. Incredible!
Bradley – that’s an excellent reflection on the nature and purpose of our mota-starved human metaphysics!
This relationship, between (1) what we can “know” and (2) our best “conceptual reach”, is now the source of much tension at the cutting edge of physics. Having no (material) evidence for the non-measurable and immaterial, our best and brightest feel compelled to “postulate conclusions and invent origins” (1260.2, 115:1.1) so that they may “have a means of logical thought within the frame of these mind-created postulates.”
For my take on this (what happens when some precocious mind thinks it’s found a “full philosophic limit” 115:1.1), see from time 1:57 here,
“So here we are, stuck within our frame. And yet, tickled by numinous intuitions that take our breath away.“
For context, dial back to time 1:30, around here: “Well, this is where philosophy steps in to take us all the way, “to the full philosophic limit” (1141.5, 103:9.7):
“[…] and then goes on with wisdom to the full philosophic limit; and then it dares to launch out upon the limitless and never-ending universe journey in the sole company of TRUTH.” (1141.5, 103:9.7)
Regarding the “supreme satisfaction of worship” and the “exhilaration of philosophy” (27:6.1, 302.5), I like to add the idea of that “Eureka!” moment in science. I once described this to a friend as an orgasmic response in one of the adjutant circuits…
Talk about “strong feeling”
(27:6.1, 302.5) “Next to the supreme satisfaction of worship is the exhilaration of philosophy. Never do you climb so high or advance so far that there do not remain a thousand mysteries which demand the employment of philosophy in an attempted solution.“
Nigel
Two additional pseudo-scientific, metaphysical inventions resulting from partial understanding, or application, of reality are astrology and chakras. Astrology eventually lead to astronomy and chakras to medicine, yet these myths persist, one wonders why.
Bonita wrote:
“Two additional pseudo-scientific, metaphysical inventions resulting from partial understanding, or application, of reality are astrology and chakras. Astrology eventually lead to astronomy and chakras to medicine, yet these myths persist, one wonders why.”
Good examples, Bonita. Regarding why they persist, my guess is that when a collection of familiar justifications (no matter how contorted) gets tangled into society’s mainstream frame, it can be hard to untangle.
I think this is what the authors mean when they explain (throughout paper 103) our need for revelation; untangling such conceptual knots requires either being told how things really are, or at least that “authoritative elimination of error” mentioned here:
“1. The reduction of confusion by the authoritative elimination of error.” (1109.7, 101:4.6)
Nigel
Maybe astrology and chakras are stepping stones to astronomy and medicine that still need to be here because many still need to take these steps.
an anology to the material could be some species that have been here for many eons but will not go extinct.
got to be reasons for a this that have value and meaning.
Then there’s this:
(956.1) 86:6.5 Each passing generation smiles at the foolish superstitions of its ancestors while it goes on entertaining those fallacies of thought and worship which will give cause for further smiling on the part of enlightened posterity.
My thought to ponder I received for the day today was:
1:4.7 (27.2) As a reality in human spiritual experience God is not a mystery. But when an attempt is made to make plain the realities of the spirit world to the physical minds of the material order, mystery appears: mysteries so subtle and so profound that only the faith-grasp of the God-knowing mortal can achieve the philosophic miracle of the recognition of the Infinite by the finite, the discernment of the eternal God by the evolving mortals of the material worlds of time and space.
Which led me to Paper 1, Section 4:
4. The Mystery of God
1:4.1 (26.3) The infinity of the perfection of God is such that it eternally constitutes him mystery. And the greatest of all the unfathomable mysteries of God is the phenomenon of the divine indwelling of mortal minds. The manner in which the Universal Father sojourns with the creatures of time is the most profound of all universe mysteries; the divine presence in the mind of man is the mystery of mysteries.
1:4.2 (26.4) The physical bodies of mortals are “the temples of God.” Notwithstanding that the Sovereign Creator Sons come near the creatures of their inhabited worlds and “draw all men to themselves”; though they “stand at the door” of consciousness “and knock” and delight to come in to all who will “open the doors of their hearts”; although there does exist this intimate personal communion between the Creator Sons and their mortal creatures, nevertheless, mortal men have something from God himself which actually dwells within them; their bodies are the temples thereof.
1:4.3 (26.5) When you are through down here, when your course has been run in temporary form on earth, when your trial trip in the flesh is finished, when the dust that composes the mortal tabernacle “returns to the earth whence it came”; then, it is revealed, the indwelling “Spirit shall return to God who gave it.” There sojourns within each moral being of this planet a fragment of God, a part and parcel of divinity. It is not yet yours by right of possession, but it is designedly intended to be one with you if you survive the mortal existence.
1:4.4 (26.6) We are constantly confronted with this mystery of God; we are nonplused by the increasing unfolding of the endless panorama of the truth of his infinite goodness, endless mercy, matchless wisdom, and superb character.
1:4.5 (26.7) The divine mystery consists in the inherent difference which exists between the finite and the infinite, the temporal and the eternal, the time-space creature and the Universal Creator, the material and the spiritual, the imperfection of man and the perfection of Paradise Deity. The God of universal love unfailingly manifests himself to every one of his creatures up to the fullness of that creature’s capacity to spiritually grasp the qualities of divine truth, beauty, and goodness.
1:4.6 (27.1) To every spirit being and to every mortal creature in every sphere and on every world of the universe of universes, the Universal Father reveals all of his gracious and divine self that can be discerned or comprehended by such spirit beings and by such mortal creatures. God is no respecter of persons, either spiritual or material. The divine presence which any child of the universe enjoys at any given moment is limited only by the capacity of such a creature to receive and to discern the spirit actualities of the supermaterial world.
1:4.7 (27.2) As a reality in human spiritual experience God is not a mystery. But when an attempt is made to make plain the realities of the spirit world to the physical minds of the material order, mystery appears: mysteries so subtle and so profound that only the faith-grasp of the God-knowing mortal can achieve the philosophic miracle of the recognition of the Infinite by the finite, the discernment of the eternal God by the evolving mortals of the material worlds of time and space.
Naturally I reread the whole Paper….don’t miss Section 2!!!!!
The Reality of Religious Experience begins and ends with God. The mind we are given strives to understand universe reality and God and our relationship with God and universe reality by the exercise of metaphysics (when scientific facts are unavailable or insufficient) and by philosophy (the attempt to harmonize the material and spiritual experiences and to create a perspective of reality that delivers the art of living to us)…both of which are profoundly influenced by our personal religious experience delivered by both evolutionary faith and revelatory truth as presented by the Spirits within to mortal mind and to soul….and corrected and enhanced by epochal revelation and the factual and truthful presentation of universe realities by celestial beings.
Metaphysics and philosophy have had so much to explain and harmonize for so long!!! And so much of that has been fiction to one degree or another (if not completely false altogether!) because mind requires reality constructs and conceptualization. But faith experience overcomes all falsehoods and fictions of knowledge and offers a direct and personal relationship with God which delivers truth, beauty, and goodness regardless of the fact content in our material science, metaphysical constructs and theories, and our unifying philosophies. But when and as these all become aligned more and more with actual universe realities, does The Reality of Religious Experience more deeply approach the mystery that is God. And once we are fused, do we have a means of understanding that is unique to mortal born beings from time and space as participants in what is described above as: “…the divine presence in the mind of man is the mystery of mysteries.”
How blessed are we tadpole adventurers from time and space!!!
Thanks to all!
Wherever there is mystery, there is bound to arise creative imagination in an attempt to unify thought, but the source of creativity matters. Human-powered creative imagination can easily lead to metaphysics, myths, mysticism and magic, whereas co-creative imagination, in partnership with transcendent spirit, will, with trust and faith, lead to TRUTH, which is reality.
These sections of the Paper are describing the many elements of mortal reality discernment and the transitional experience of personal identity transfer. Going ahead a few Papers, we read:
112:1.13 (1227.3) Life is really a process which takes place between the organism (selfhood) and its environment. The personality imparts value of identity and meanings of continuity to this organismal-environmental association…..
112:1.14 (1227.4) Physical life is a process taking place not so much within the organism as between the organism and the environment….
112:1.15 (1227.5) It is through the mediation of mind that the self and the environment establish meaningful contact….
112:1.19 (1227.9) In aggregations parts are added; in systems parts are arranged. Systems are significant because of organization—positional values….
112:2.20 (1229.7) The material self, the ego-entity of human identity, is dependent during the physical life on the continuing function of the material life vehicle, on the continued existence of the unbalanced equilibrium of energies and intellect which, on Urantia, has been given the name life. But selfhood of survival value, selfhood that can transcend the experience of death, is only evolved by establishing a potential transfer of the seat of the identity of the evolving personality from the transient life vehicle—the material body—to the more enduring and immortal nature of the morontia soul and on beyond to those levels whereon the soul becomes infused with, and eventually attains the status of, spirit reality. This actual transfer from material association to morontia identification is effected by the sincerity, persistence, and steadfastness of the God-seeking decisions of the human creature.
Our awareness of the material world/universe and our awareness of the inner being of “me” and the “us” or “other within me” leads to an inner reconciliation, if you will, of these two apparently divergent realities and causes of reality (the material and the non-material). As we have already learned, these two realities are not divergent except in our limited perception and experience. Faith and faith assurance, truth and truth assurance, reason and logic, intuition and insight, the outward view and inward perspective….all of these work together to unify and harmonize reality by the experience of reality in mind and the mind’s inherent predisposition to explore, organize, understand, and explain the reality we see and experience. This experience is truthful, religious, real, meaningful, and successful only to the degree that it leads to the transfer of the seat of our personal identity and bears the fruits of the Spirit…for these are the only evidence of The Reality of Religious Experience. Or so I understand the teachings….so far!!
Thanks to all….I appreciate the insights and lens of perspective each of you presents here!!
Loved the video Nigel….feel free to post links as you wish….very helpful visualizations and picturizational aids. In case anyone missed this link above, please view now:
https://youtu.be/ZerrvI4dLTQ?t=98
7. Science and Religion
103:7.1 (1137.6) Science is sustained by reason, religion by faith. Faith, though not predicated on reason, is reasonable; though independent of logic, it is nonetheless encouraged by sound logic. Faith cannot be nourished even by an ideal philosophy; indeed, it is, with science, the very source of such a philosophy. Faith, human religious insight, can be surely instructed only by revelation, can be surely elevated only by personal mortal experience with the spiritual Adjuster presence of the God who is spirit.
103:7.2 (1137.7) True salvation is the technique of the divine evolution of the mortal mind from matter identification through the realms of morontia liaison to the high universe status of spiritual correlation. And as material intuitive instinct precedes the appearance of reasoned knowledge in terrestrial evolution, so does the manifestation of spiritual intuitive insight presage the later appearance of morontia and spirit reason and experience in the supernal program of celestial evolution, the business of transmuting the potentials of man the temporal into the actuality and divinity of man the eternal, a Paradise finaliter.
103:7.3 (1138.1) But as ascending man reaches inward and Paradiseward for the God experience, he will likewise be reaching outward and spaceward for an energy understanding of the material cosmos. The progression of science is not limited to the terrestrial life of man; his universe and superuniverse ascension experience will to no small degree be the study of energy transmutation and material metamorphosis. God is spirit, but Deity is unity, and the unity of Deity not only embraces the spiritual values of the Universal Father and the Eternal Son but is also cognizant of the energy facts of the Universal Controller and the Isle of Paradise, while these two phases of universal reality are perfectly correlated in the mind relationships of the Conjoint Actor and unified on the finite level in the emerging Deity of the Supreme Being.
103:7.4 (1138.2) The union of the scientific attitude and the religious insight by the mediation of experiential philosophy is part of man’s long Paradise-ascension experience. The approximations of mathematics and the certainties of insight will always require the harmonizing function of mind logic on all levels of experience short of the maximum attainment of the Supreme.
103:7.5 (1138.3) But logic can never succeed in harmonizing the findings of science and the insights of religion unless both the scientific and the religious aspects of a personality are truth dominated, sincerely desirous of following the truth wherever it may lead regardless of the conclusions which it may reach.
103:7.6 (1138.4) Logic is the technique of philosophy, its method of expression. Within the domain of true science, reason is always amenable to genuine logic; within the domain of true religion, faith is always logical from the basis of an inner viewpoint, even though such faith may appear to be quite unfounded from the inlooking viewpoint of the scientific approach. From outward, looking within, the universe may appear to be material; from within, looking out, the same universe appears to be wholly spiritual. Reason grows out of material awareness, faith out of spiritual awareness, but through the mediation of a philosophy strengthened by revelation, logic may confirm both the inward and the outward view, thereby effecting the stabilization of both science and religion. Thus, through common contact with the logic of philosophy, may both science and religion become increasingly tolerant of each other, less and less skeptical.
Wherever there is mystery, there is bound to arise creative imagination in an attempt to unify thought, but the source of creativity matters. Human-powered creative imagination can easily lead to metaphysics, myths, mysticism and magic, whereas co-creative imagination, in partnership with transcendent spirit, will, with trust and faith, lead to TRUTH, which is reality.
One of the most amazing and important truths the UB presented to me is that mystery continues after this life and that beings far greater and higher also and still enjoy the functionality and wonder of mystery!! Some UB students seem stunned and disappointed and suspicious that so many of the authors (perhaps all of them?) so boldly share their own puzzlements and paradoxes and mysteries related to universe realities. Some students have gone so far as to disparage the entire Revelation and to suspect its contents’ accuracy due to this wonderful truth and truthfulness shared by the authors. But all beings in time and space and even those from Havona face the inexplicable and unexplained and must study, learn, experience, and progress to acquire new meanings from known facts. Wondrous!!
Thanks Bonita! = )
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