Seeking Beauty
I have been thinking about this blog posting for some time but various issues around the house claimed priority. Interestingly, the thought for today (September 4) on one of our Urantia Book calendars was an important addition.
We who have studied The Urantia Book for many years probably will never come to a complete comprehension of all its teachings; in spite of this, we should experience a compulsion to apply what we do understand in daily interactions with sisters and brothers. However, more is expected from those who believe in the full teachings of Jesus; we are expected to seek something more, something wider, something spiritual. Exactly how can we do this?
This posting presents an outline of our quest for Heavenly Father.
These inner spiritual strivings can be undertaken while going about everyday activities; there is no need to be isolated on some remote mountaintop.
Mind is the Gateway
Jesus taught the appeal to the emotions as the technique of arresting and focusing the intellectual attention. He designated the mind thus aroused and quickened as the gateway to the soul.[1] Our thoughts are driven by our emotions; if we can consciously channel our emotions, thoughts will be gradually guided. Strong emotions can be difficult to control; we discuss powerful urges below. This emotional guidance can be used in our personal efforts at spiritual growth as well as our council with others. In his personal teachings, Jesus was able to appeal to the individual’s soul by appealing to their emotions.
Negative emotions block efforts at spiritual growth; they must first be subdued. One approach is to remember each of us is indwelt by a spark of God, our Thought Adjuster. We have a fragment of perfection as a part of our being. We must have faith that countless spirit beings and forces are conspiring to guide us toward spiritual goals. Are we assisting them? Are our goals founded upon materialism or are we seeking God’s will in all things?
Jesus also said we must seek the spiritual simplicity of a small child.[2] Finding God does not have to be a complicated process, but the desire has to be strong. The spirit fragment of God within each of us wants to guide us; all we need do is follow this inner guidance.
While the mind is not the seat of the spiritual nature, it is indeed the gateway thereto.[3] Our decisions are made in our mind, this is where we choose to do God’s will or reject His love and guidance. Our thoughts to a large degree determine what we become.
Hunger for Righteousness
Spiritual progress is predicated on intellectual recognition of spiritual poverty coupled with the self-consciousness of perfection-hunger, the desire to know God and be like him, the wholehearted purpose to do the will of the Father in heaven.[4]
Spiritual growth cannot occur unless the individual sees a need for it, recognizes spiritual poverty within. Physical poverty is debilitating, it can only be overcome by physical means. Spiritual poverty, once recognized, can be easier to attack because we have all the spiritual forces of creation assisting us. This hunger for righteousness is the very foundation of all our efforts at spiritual growth. The first step for each of us is to develop within this hunger for righteousness.
Your deepest nature — the divine Adjuster — creates within you a hunger and thirst for righteousness, a certain craving for divine perfection.[5] We have within a perfect guide wanting to assist us in our efforts to find Heavenly Father; this guidance becomes stronger as we develop our hunger for righteousness. And when such disheartened souls sincerely seek for God — hunger for truth and thirst for righteousness — there is nothing that can hold them in further captivity.[6]
As we struggle for spiritual growth our eternal salvation is assured by our hunger and thirst for righteousness.[7] There will always be difficulties in our quest for spiritual growth. When our innermost loyalty is to Heavenly Father, necessary adjustments in other relationships can be made; therefore, we can “render onto Caesar.”
Perfection Hunger
“And I have not come to call the would-be righteous but sinners and all who hunger and thirst for the righteousness of divine perfection.”[8] We certainly are millions of years away from perfection, but our hunger for such perfection gives impetus to all efforts at spiritual growth. The best way to achieve any goal is to have a strong desire to reach it.
There must be perfection hunger in man’s heart to insure capacity for comprehending the faith paths to supreme attainment…. “Human things must be known in order to be loved, but divine things must be loved in order to be known….” Childlike trust secures man’s entrance into the kingdom of heavenly ascent, but progress is wholly dependent on the vigorous exercise of the robust and confident faith of the full-grown man.[9]
Spiritual growth has different requirements from physical growth. Each depends on the characteristics of the corresponding reality level. Physical growth follows certain laws; a tree, or a human being, cannot become full grown in an instant. Spiritual growth depends on perfection hunger.
Seeking Spiritual Reality
Spirit substance (quality) is just as responsive to spirit gravity as the organized energy of physical matter (quantity) is responsive to physical gravity. Spiritual values and spirit forces are real. From the viewpoint of personality, spirit is the soul of creation; matter is the shadowy physical body.[10]
The reality of the spiritual realm is the foundation of our efforts at spiritual growth. If our faith in spiritual values and in Heavenly Father is not strong, spiritual growth will be impossible.
Human beings are frequently driven by strong desires, urges. The Urantia Book has a lot to say about them; the word urge is mentioned over 90 times. We certainly have the urge to eat and breathe, and the sex urge can be problematic. Other urges are greed and lust for power. The best way to deal with negative or excessive urges is to push them aside by concentrating on spiritual growth.
The most powerful urge is sadly lacking on planet Earth. The spiritual forward urge is the most powerful driving force present in this world; the truth-learning believer is the one progressive and aggressive soul on earth.[11]
The urge for spiritual growth, once embraced, can transform the individual. This urge is strengthened by seeking spiritual growth, cooperating with our Thought Adjuster, and seeking God’s will at all times. This spiritual urge can be approached by focusing on God’s will while interacting normally with those around us. These social interactions are necessary to minimize the possibility of fanaticism.
What happens to those driven by the spiritual urge?
Urantia is now quivering on the very brink of one of its most amazing and enthralling epochs of social readjustment, moral quickening, and spiritual enlightenment.[12]
They will participate in bringing about an epoch of spiritual enlightenment, for starters.
In Paper 110, a Solitary Messenger offers these observations. I cannot but observe that so many of you spend so much time and thought on mere trifles of living, while you almost wholly overlook the more essential realities of everlasting import…. The great goal of human existence is to attune to the divinity of the indwelling Adjuster…. But a devoted and determined effort to realize eternal destiny is wholly compatible with a lighthearted and joyous life and with a successful and honorable career on earth.[13]
What should be the primary goal of our life: the trifles of living, or realities of everlasting importance – seeking communion with our Thought Adjuster?
Quivering on the Edge
Since we received The Urantia Book about a century ago our efforts at living the teachings have grown over the years. It is now time to take these efforts to the next level, activate our spiritual forward urge, and assist bringing about an epoch of social readjustment, moral quickening, and spiritual enlightenment to planet Earth.
[1] The Urantia Book 1705.4; this is page.paragraph of the one column edition. All references are to The Urantia Book.
[2] 1732.5
[3] 1733.1
[4] 1095.5
[5] 1107.4
[6] 1428.2
[7] 1459.4
[8] 1537.3
[9] 1118.4
[10] 82.2
[11] 2063.2
[12] 2082.7
[13] 1206.2