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Personal Communion

Surrounded by Love

Click on photo for information about it.

The communion sacrament is important for many Christian religions. It is the only sacrament Jesus implemented during his life on our planet. In this posting we explore a personal communion with God. Our Father is present within each of us, therefore it is possible to have personal communion with our Heavenly Father. He is not only faraway on Paradise, also He literally dwells within every thinking mortal on Earth; He is also within those on all other inhabited planets. Communion with God is possible for every individual everywhere.

Having a personal relationship with our Heavenly Father is vital if we wish to grow spiritually. In this way we grow closer to Him; we can ask His advice in dealing with difficulties. We have a perfect guide, and through such personal communion we can experience guidance flowing into our being.

This posting, like most on this website is based on revelations in The Urantia Book, click on this link for information about this revelation.

What it is

Dictionaries recognize three meanings for the word communion; first is the Christian sacrament, second is an act of sharing, third is an intimate fellowship or rapport. The Christian sacrament, performed in a religious setting, has a profound and personal significance. An act of sharing can be communion if it is done in service, such as when Jesus washed the feet of his apostles before the Last Supper. An intimate relationship can also be spiritual, such as Jesus had many times with chance encounters. When we are spiritually motivated, avenues of rapport and communion open up before us.

 The Father desires all his creatures to be in personal communion with him.…  To each of you and to all of us, God is approachable, the Father is attainable, the way is open….[1]

The communion sacrament can be moving, a few years ago during a communion service at an Urantia Book mini-conference I had a strong spiritual experience; it nearly overpowered me. Personal communion with God is an example of the third meaning; it is an intimate fellowship with our inner God presence. A personal communion with God can be a lasting and deep experience.

There are three levels in our relationship with Heavenly Father. First we enter mind consciousness where we understand the idea of our Father; we consider what our Father might be like, who He is. Secondly, we enter soul consciousness; we seek His ideals. We want to know what He wants from each one of us and how we can serve Him. After that we enter the dawn of spirit consciousness where we know the spirit reality of our Heavenly Father because we know about His working within us; we have felt His gentle guidance in our lives. We know. Throughout all these interactions with our Father we realize He is dedicated to guiding each of us into a greater awareness of His nature. [2] He is the greatest Father we could possibly imagine.

When Jesus instituted the communion supper his goal was to not initiate a formalized ritual. He wanted to suggest meanings so each individual would have a personal communion experience instead of a shallow ritualized experience. He rather sought to set man’s reborn soul free upon the joyous wings of a new and living spiritual liberty.[3]

We have hidden ourselves

The Father is not in spiritual hiding, but so many of his creatures have hidden themselves away in the mists of their own willful decisions and for the time being have separated themselves from the communion of his spirit and the spirit of his Son by the choosing of their own perverse ways and by the indulgence of the self-assertiveness of their intolerant minds and unspiritual natures.[4]

Our Father has done everything possible to draw His wayward children nearer to Him. He will do nothing to limit our free will choices, but beyond that fixed boundary every effort is directed at bringing each of His children closer to Him; we have to make the choice to follow His guidance. He gives every thinking mortal an actual fragment of His being, our indwelling Thought Adjuster. We also have Guardian Angels, the Spirit of Truth, adjutant mind spirits, and other spirit influences. With all this spiritual assistance, the question comes down to this: “Is it your will that God’s will be done?” If so, then we will be assisted every step along the way.

Citizens in our materialistic society are so immersed in materialism they think they live in a spiritual vacuum. They view our Heavenly Father as being the kind old guy depicted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The creator of everything in existence could not possibly be such a familiar figure. Physical reality deals with facts, and appearance. Spiritual reality deals with value, relationship with our Heavenly Father.

Before we can progress spiritually we must get rid of our materialistic tendencies which contaminate our spiritual concept of Heavenly Father.[5] We need to realize Heavenly Father who created all things and beings, is not physical. Our Heavenly Father is a spirit being; He is the ultimate spirit being. We must become aware of the spirit nature of our Heavenly Father.

How we do it

While God is in nature, it is difficult to discern Him there; but being in a beautiful natural setting facilitates the search for communion with our Father Fragment because external stimulations are peaceful and soothing. Where we live is like a nature sanctuary; we do not have the constant rumble of city life or the deceptively ordinary existence of gossipy small towns. Even rural places have focuses of life to capture attention: cows, the occasional truck, crops and fields. Here in Poplar Cove we are surrounded by nature, her trees and her critters; it is comforting yet vibrant, not distracting our attention. In places such as this we can better commune with Father.

Wherever we may happen to be when we seek our Heavenly Father, we need to accept His guidance. Our spirit presence within will lovingly lead us, but there will be no compulsion. If we sincerely wish to attain the eternal goal we will surely be guided thereto. And when such a life of spirit guidance is freely and intelligently accepted, there gradually develops within the human mind a positive consciousness of divine contact and assurance of spirit communion….[6]

The communion Jesus instituted with the apostles at the Last Supper can be adapted to our own spiritual striving. He was speaking to those in the Upper Room, but his words were directed to everyone in his creation, including each of us today. First is the cup of remembrance;[7] the vital part of the communion experience is remembrance. We remember the life of Jesus among us; this remembering is now more satisfying because we have The Urantia Book giving a fuller description of the life and teachings of Jesus. His life was one of total service to all, even the little children.[8] Contemplating the life of Jesus, Michael of Nebadon, is the core of this personal communion with Heavenly Father. The main reason for his mortal life on Earth is to portray to his universe children the nature of our Heavenly Father.

The second portion of this personal communion is the bread of remembrance; Jesus is the bread of life. This bread is the symbol of the living word of truth incarnated in the likeness of mortal flesh[9]…. This living word of truth is with us today as the Spirit of Truth. Jesus wants each of us to have a personal experience in our communion with Father.

The meaning of this remembrance supper is a symbolic meeting with our creator father, Michael of Nebadon, Jesus. This communion is a supreme meeting: the mortal personality, the Thought Adjuster, and the spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of Truth.[10]

The reason Jesus had such a remarkable religious life was this consciousness of the presence of God; and he attained it by intelligent prayer and sincere worship — unbroken communion with God….[11]

This communion with Father can be done anytime, anyplace. We review the various periods in the life of Jesus: childhood, the teenage years, raising the family of Joseph, the Mediterranean tour, teaching and guiding the apostles, resurrection, and ascension. The goal of our Earthly existence should be to gain unbroken personal communion with our Heavenly Father by meditating on the life and teachings of our creator, Jesus of Nazareth who is Michael of Nebadon. We gain eternity by seeking oneness with our Heavenly Father; communion with Father Infinite.

Destiny

What is the goal of our spiritual striving? Where are we going? What will we be doing for the rest of eternity? The gospel Jesus gave us illuminates a better way for each of us. This new gospel of the kingdom renders a great service to the art of living in that it supplies a new and richer incentive for higher living. It presents a new and exalted goal of destiny, a supreme life purpose.[12]

The joy in our eternal future will be to choose to do the will of our Heavenly Father; that is where we find eternal purpose, meaning and value. When presented with the glory of an eternal life of service, why would any of our Father’s creatures choose the narrow confines of physical materialism? Such materialism is based upon physical reality which has no lasting value.

Man’s greatest adventure in the flesh consists in the well-balanced and sane effort to advance the borders of self-consciousness out through the dim realms of embryonic soul-consciousness in a wholehearted effort to reach the borderland of spirit-consciousness—contact with the divine presence.[13]

[1] 63.6

[2] 69.6

[3] 1942.3

[4] 64.1

[5] 1123.4

[6] 381.6

[7] 1941.6

[8] 1839.6

[9] 1942.2

[10] 1942.5

[11] 2088.5

[12] 1778.3

[13] 2097.2

Mota – Bridge to Spiritual

Wilderness is Paradise Enough

Click on photo for information about it.

Nearly a month ago my hard disk crashed; it has been a struggle to get everything about the website back in order. This entry was ready a couple weeks ago, but only now have I been able to post. I could not wait to share these thoughts about the bridge between physical and spiritual reality: mota.

Mortal beings have great difficulty comprehending spiritual realty. To us it seems incomprehensible that there is more to reality than what we can see, touch or feel. For example many times we have been asked “What do angels look like?” the answer is they are spirit beings, in the purely physical sense they do not exist. They exist in spiritual reality, not in physical reality. A vague analogy is love; like spiritual reality, love cannot be seen or analyzed, yet it is certainly real. The bridge guiding us into spiritual reality is called mota.

I do not pretend to be a philosopher; that being said, I have thoughts on this subject based on revelations in The Urantia Book. Mortal philosophy functions well except when it ventures beyond the physical realm into the swamp of metaphysics, which is generally something beyond the physical. A material philosophy cannot safely go outside the physical without some sort of guidance from beyond the physical. Our revelation calls this guidance mota. Revelation is the only technique which can compensate for the absence of the truth sensitivity of mota in a material world. Revelation authoritatively clarifies the muddle of reason-developed metaphysics on an evolutionary sphere.[1]

Mota presents philosophical statements highlighting superphysical value. It also implicitly rejects many other conflicting ideas; filtering out the unworthy. This clarification helps us begin to comprehend spiritual reality and gives hints as to how we can increase our level of spiritual awareness.

Mota is more than a superior philosophy; it is to philosophy as two eyes are to one; it has a stereoscopic effect on meanings and values. Material man sees the universe, as it were, with but one eye—flat.[2] As we grow in spiritual understanding we attain a wider viewpoint, we superimpose our physical experiences onto the mota guided by revelation; thereby being able to distinguish between the worthy and the unworthy. We begin to achieve a more spiritual outlook; we see with both the physical and the spiritual, gaining a stereoscopic world vision.

The mota statements have been rearranged into various categories to assist our understanding of these vital concepts. Each statement is referred to by its number; they are on 556.3 to 557.14 in The Urantia Book.

Spiritual and Physical Reality

3. Inherent capacities cannot be exceeded; a pint can never hold a quart. The spirit concept cannot be mechanically forced into the material memory mold.

There is only one mota in this topic, but it is a vital one. Understanding that the spiritual is something other than the physical is fundamental to spiritual growth. We cannot grow into the spiritual from the physical unless we know there is something beyond, above, and more desirable; something other than the physical. Our eternal life and growth depends on this.

Falsehoods Revealed

1. A display of specialized skill does not signify possession of spiritual capacity. Cleverness is not a substitute for true character.

15. Affectation is the ridiculous effort of the ignorant to appear wise, the attempt of the barren soul to appear rich.

18. Impatience is a spirit poison; anger is like a stone hurled into a hornet’s nest.

19. Anxiety must be abandoned. The disappointments hardest to bear are those which never come.

28. The argumentative defense of any proposition is inversely proportional to the truth contained.

Weeding out falsehoods, pointing out undesirable characteristics, is a vital aspect of mota. The first of these is cleverness; which might be useful in the short term, but it is shallow and does not give true lasting character. Often we try to appear more than we really are; we may pretend to be successful while inwardly we are barren; these are shallow personalities. Being aware of and avoiding spirit poisons is a vital aspect of spiritual growth; among these poisons are impatience and anger. God is guiding and helping us; therefore there is no need for anxiety. We worry endlessly over things which never happen.

The last mota in this section is a classic commentary on our current political, societal, and interpersonal discourse. The louder and stronger we defend our position, the less truth we have to offer. In this respect, the soft word of truth falls like a great stone into the arena of discourse, however the loud shouting of untruth means many who listen only to the shouting without thinking will be misled by the noise. They listen to the form, not the substance. And so it is in our society.

When we know which characteristics to avoid, we are better prepared to begin our spiritual growth.

Action

7. Blind and unforeseen accidents do not occur in the cosmos. Neither do the celestial beings assist the lower being who refuses to act upon his light of truth.

9. Action achieves strength; moderation eventuates in charm.

11. The weak indulge in resolutions, but the strong act. Life is but a day’s work—do it well. The act is ours; the consequences God’s.

22. The evolving soul is not made divine by what it does, but by what it strives to do.

24. The destiny of eternity is determined moment by moment by the achievements of the day by day living. The acts of today are the destiny of tomorrow.

25. Greatness lies not so much in possessing strength as in making a wise and divine use of such strength.

When we seek spiritual growth it is important to act, and Jesus was certainly known for acting decisively. The statement in the middle, #22, might appear to have a different message, but this is not the case; blind unthinking actions would be dangerous. The important thing is what is the goal of our actions, what are trying to accomplish? Action guided by firm spiritual goals should be our objective; when we have a worthy goal we must act.

When we act based on our light of truth we will be assisted by celestial beings. As we seek growth, fortuitous things happen as a result of such assistance. When we act we become strong but when we restrain ourselves from acting unwisely, charm is acquired. When we act based upon our spiritual goals, God decides the consequences. Today’s actions determine our destiny tomorrow. Being strong is not as important as is using our strength wisely. If we know truth we must act upon that truth.

Difficulties

5. Difficulties may challenge mediocrity and defeat the fearful, but they only stimulate the true children of the Most Highs.

8. Effort does not always produce joy, but there is no happiness without intelligent effort.

12. The greatest affliction of the cosmos is never to have been afflicted. Mortals only learn wisdom by experiencing tribulation.

13. Stars are best discerned from the lonely isolation of experiential depths, not from the illuminated and ecstatic mountain tops.

16. You cannot perceive spiritual truth until you feelingly experience it, and many truths are not really felt except in adversity.

The gulf between the physical and the spiritual is wide indeed; therefore efforts to personally connect the two are difficult. As we seek to personally bridge this formidable gap we must address our personal shortcomings, face them and change them; when we do this we move toward spiritual awareness.

Any goal that is truly worthy will be challenging; such goals only stimulate the true seekers of righteousness. There may not always be joy, but there can be no joy unless we strive to improve. “The greatest affliction,” if everything is given to us without striving, why would we put forth any effort to improve? Such individuals get stuck in the doldrums. In the depths of difficult personal experience we gain experiential insights that are not possible if we are in the illuminated heights of ecstasy. Spiritually worthwhile growth always comes with a struggle.

It is certainly true that spiritual truth has to be experienced, it cannot be obtained from a book; only in the depths of personal adversity, personal experience, can we glimpse it. Spiritual truth is available for anyone who earnestly desires it.

The Arts

20. Only a poet can discern poetry in the commonplace prose of routine existence.

21. The high mission of any art is, by its illusions, to foreshadow a higher universe reality, to crystallize the emotions of time into the thought of eternity.

On the first reading these are difficult to understand, why is it that a poet can pull poetry out of everyday experiences? How can the arts make this happen?

Art proves that man is not mechanistic…. Art is mortal morontia, the intervening field between man, the material, and man, the spiritual. Poetry is an effort to escape from material realities to spiritual values.[3]

The arts are similar to mota; they act as a bridge between the physical and the spiritual. The purpose of the photos on this website is to encourage a spiritual emotion. For example, the photo of a rose on the Talking Points page “God Within” is not merely a rose photo; the goal of the photos is to evoke a feeling that is related to the subject of the article. This is a fuzzy area, but that is the aim: to highlight something physical in a way that evokes spiritual emotions.

The photo for this posting of our little cove in Western North Carolina shows peace and tranquility; we appreciate these opportunities to share our life and the ecosystem in these ancient mountains. Nearly 400 million years ago these mountains were as high as the Alps are today.[4]

Faith

2. Few persons live up to the faith which they really have. Unreasoned fear is a master intellectual fraud practiced upon the evolving mortal soul.

4. Few mortals ever dare to draw anything like the sum of personality credits established by the combined ministries of nature and grace. The majority of impoverished souls are truly rich, but they refuse to believe it.

10. Righteousness strikes the harmony chords of truth, and the melody vibrates throughout the cosmos, even to the recognition of the Infinite.

At first blush it would appear that “unreasoned fear” should be in the first category, “Falsehoods Revealed;” however, it says that we do not live up to the faith we have, if we did we would not experience unreasoned fear. We may feel we have faith, but it does not impact our daily lives strongly enough. If we truly have faith, then we will live it every moment of our existence. The many gifts given us by the ministries of God are rich indeed; we must accept them and use them in faith. When we fully live our faith, our righteousness fills creation. Have faith in God to the end of your days on earth.[5]

Civilization

6. To enjoy privilege without abuse, to have liberty without license, to possess power and steadfastly refuse to use it for self-aggrandizement—these are the marks of high civilization.

17. Ambition is dangerous until it is fully socialized. You have not truly acquired any virtue until your acts make you worthy of it.

26. Knowledge is possessed only by sharing; it is safeguarded by wisdom and socialized by love.

27. Progress demands development of individuality; mediocrity seeks perpetuation in standardization.

No surprise, our civilization fares poorly when measured by these statements. Characteristics of society are a sum of the traits of its leaders, thinkers, and citizens. We cannot seek to improve values of society as a whole; efforts to encourage these characteristics have to be addressed to the components of society, its individual citizens. Each of us should be careful we do not abuse privilege or use power for selfish gains. We must use ambition for the betterment of society; share our knowledge tempered by wisdom and love. Progress requires individuality, it needs individuals to stand up and declare there are better ways of doing things. Only when a significant number of our fellow citizens embrace these ideas will our society improve, begin the shift toward a greater understanding of spiritual reality for our society.

Thoughts

14. Whet the appetites of your associates for truth; give advice only when it is asked for.

23. Death added nothing to the intellectual possession or to the spiritual endowment, but it did add to the experiential status the consciousness of survival.

After assigning the mota to categories these were left over, last but certainly not least.

Giving advice out randomly is rarely productive. Those of us who are students of The Urantia Book certainly know this. Handing the book out randomly is rarely productive. Give advice only when there is a real interest.

We call death graduation; we graduate from life in the flesh to a better life on high. Friends of ours call it getting a promotion; we are promoted to better life beyond the physical.

Comments

This posting is too long already; we close with a quote.

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.[6]

It is up to each one of us to increase our understanding of these truths, to truly live them every moment of our existence. If we do, we can go forth and share these revelations in our lives. Become a Light of Truth.

[1] 554.1; all references are to The Urantia Book one column version in the format page:paragraph.

[2] 554.2

[3] 2079.10

[4] 673.8

[5] 2049.4

[6] 1137.3

Goal of Life

Bird of Paradise

Bird of Paradise

We who have been granted The Urantia Book and seek to comprehend its revelations have some idea what lies ahead of us after physical death. If we so choose, there will be a glorious eternal future of everlasting growth and service for each one of us. How would our global society be transformed if this truth were widely accepted? The goal of studying this revelation should not be to totally understand every concept; rather each of us should constantly strive to live its truths to the best of our ability; allow them to expand our spiritual awareness by everyday living these teachings, making them the core of our being. The goal of this blog is to help realize a greater spiritual awareness among sisters and brothers; to spread these teachings of love and brotherhood.

But what is the life goal for any individual human being? The vast majority of our brothers and sisters have no eternal goal for their existence, they feel alone in creation; cosmically friendless. They do not know every thinking human being has within them a fragment of God, a divine and personal pilot gently guiding them into eternity. The goal of our existence should be to find God, the infinite creator of all things and beings. We begin this eternal journey by choosing to do God’s will, then communicating with and finally fusing with our inner spark of God; that is our certain entrance into eternity. The goal of our earthly life in the flesh must be to actively seek communion with our inner spark of God.

Choosing an Eternal Life

We begin this quest for spiritual growth by making a definite choice to do grow spiritually. For most of humanity this has not been a conscious choice; it should however be a determined choice for us to do God’s will and seek to become more like Him.

Our lives are beset with choices; every moment of our existence we make choices. Most of them seem innocent and unimportant, but in the long term there always will be consequences of any choice; in the moment we never know which of our choices will be significant to our eternal future. Every choice has to be treated as being vital to our eternal future. Every one. The nature of our choices indicates what we wish to become. Do our choices say we are selfish or sharing, materialistic or spiritual, living in the moment or seeking eternal life? By your choices you shall be known. Eternally.

A related aspect is how we choose to respond to difficulties; when something unpleasant happens are we going to shout something emotional or are we going to deal with the situation? These reactions must be natural; anything forced would not be effective. An emotional outburst may feel satisfying in the moment, but it does nothing to improve anything. Such a reaction might seem to be automatic, but these responses are the culmination of countless other choices. Our ordinary everyday choices truly determine the nature of, or even the existence of, our eternal future. By your choices you shall be known.

In our most mundane and earthly choices our desires become apparent. These choices appear as a result of our innermost longings; they arise as a result of our striving toward a specific goal. Without such a goal we are without any purpose in life; a ship in a storm without a rudder. What is your rudder?

Goal of Life

Before starting anything we need a plan leading toward any goal. If we are going to grandmother’s house we must know what we need to take and what route to follow. If we want a vacation there are plans and reservations to make. Certainly if we are building a house there are a multitude of plans with the goal of producing a pleasant, comfortable home. But what about our life? We cannot achieve what we want out of life if there is no plan, no goal. Having our goal of life gives us a purpose in life; this is vital.

The vast majority of brothers and sisters have no such plan. We are fixated on material goals which are of importance in the moment but after this mortal existence ends they are as ashes in the wind.

What should our goal be? Consider this:

Seek the greater thing, and the lesser will be found therein; ask for the heavenly, and the earthly shall be included. The shadow is certain to follow the substance.[1]

There can be no greater goal for any Earthly mortal than to seek our Heavenly Father who is the ultimate in substance. Having chosen to do the will of God, our Goal of Life must be to communicate directly with our internal spark of God, our Thought Adjuster. Seeking and eventually finding our Heavenly Father is the goal of goals.

Even though we continually have our life goal in mind we need to deal with each and every physical difficulty that will confront us. Everyday chores and extraordinary events are a part of life on Earth. Each of them has to be swiftly and lovingly taken care of while above these daily mortal events, our goal of life is always uppermost in our being.

Our Goal of Life is to find God within.

Eternity

It would take a large book indeed to adequately describe our journey into eternity; this is an ultra-condensed version. For a more complete version, see The Urantia Book.

After physical death we awaken in the resurrection hall on high to begin our journey into eternity. When we become conscious we will be exactly the same as we are here on Earth, except we no longer have a physical body; instead we will have one that is part physical and part spirit. Our growth from a mostly physical form to a true spirit being is long and gradual. It may take millions of years before we leave the evolutionary realms of time and enter the perfect, eternal, central portion of creation.

At the center of creation are one billion eternal and perfect worlds circling Paradise and its 21 satellite worlds. These perfect worlds circle in seven circuits and we must spend considerable time on each circuit. Once we fuse with our Thought Adjuster we have become eternal beings, time is no longer an issue; we have all the time we need to pursue worthy goals. We spend the necessary time on each circuit before proceeding inward to the next level. At last we proceed to Paradise and are able to literally stand in the presence of the creator of all things and beings: our Heavenly Father. Once on Paradise there is much more to learn as we interact with many types of spirit beings; our eternal future will always be filled with growth and finding new levels of awareness. We will finally be entered into the Corps of Finality for further service.

As members of the Corps of Finality we will go forth to serve in the currently inhabited region of space. There is a requirement that we serve in other regions of creation before receiving permission to return to the world of our nativity. At all times we will be assisting others to grow spiritually. True service to others is always the key to spiritual growth.

That is the current known destiny for the Corps of Finality. When astronomers use powerful telescopes to peer into the skies, they see billions of galaxies, the vast majority of which are uninhabited. This brings the question: what will be our task in these outer space regions when they become inhabited? Nobody knows, but it is certain there will be many types of interesting ways to serve the future inhabitants of this vast region

This glorious future is available to everyone; all we need do is choose it by affirming this Goal of Life.

  1. 1823.3; The Urantia Book in the formal page.paragraph. ↑

Chicken or the Egg

Checking Things Out

Checking Things Out

This posting is very short, but it addresses a question that has puzzled people for years. This question has finally been solved!

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

We begin by defining our terms. Chicken refers to a specific type of bird; it does not refer to an Ostrich or a Hummingbird. On the other hand, the term egg is general. An Ostrich or a Hummingbird may produce an egg but each is vastly different from a chicken-egg. Reptiles such as turtles and snakes also may produce eggs; again very different.

The appearance of the first chicken would be an evolutionary product. Science generally assumes evolution occurs gradually; exceptions, namely mutations, are considered mistakes which may or may not survive. The Urantia Book states evolution produces sudden changes.

From era to era radically new species of animal life arise. They do not evolve as the result of the gradual accumulation of small variations; they appear as full-fledged and new orders of life, and they appear suddenly.

The sudden appearance of new species and diversified orders of living organisms is wholly biologic, strictly natural. There is nothing supernatural connected with these genetic mutations.[1] (Emphasis added)

When this happens for the chicken, we can imagine a chicken ancestor lays an egg, actually a chicken-ancestor-egg, and a true chicken emerges. The chicken, a specific species, came after the egg, a general term. When the question is posed we generally assume the question is: “Which came first, the chicken or the chicken-egg?” Such a proposition is an example of circular logic.

An egg came before the chicken. Case solved.

  1. The Urantia Book 669:4-5; this refers to the one column edition in the format page:paragraph. ↑

Our Soul’s Soil

Choosing Beauty

We use our mind every moment of our conscious existence; yet we are largely unaware of what an impact a stray thought may have on our mind and our potentially eternal future. This is where, without realizing it, we constantly make decisions that could have consequences into all future eternity. As a result of decisions we make in our mind our soul grows, becomes stronger. In a very real sense, our thoughts determine our future.

Material mind is the arena in which human personalities live, are self-conscious, make decisions, choose God or forsake him, eternalize or destroy themselves.[1] (1216.4)

This posting is based on “The Mind Arena of Choice,” which is section 1 of paper 111 in The Urantia Book, starting at page 1216.

Mind

When we contemplate anything we must use our mind; for human beings our mind is the core of our being. This is where we observe, compare, analyze, plan, and grow or slide based upon our mental decisions. It could be said, especially for those having experienced little spiritual growth, mind is nearly all there is to our being.

Every thinking human being has within them a spark of God; every mortal literally has God within; this divine fragment works with our mind, gently guiding us Godward. Mind is the human soil from which the spirit Monitor must evolve the morontia soul with the co-operation of the indwelt personality. (1216.2)

Our soul, which will be eternal if we so choose, grows as a result of the guidance of our God Within working on our mind where we make decisions to cooperate, or not. Our mind is so important to the growth of our soul that it certainly is our soul’s soil. The nature of our soul soil depends on how we use our mind. Where are our thoughts directed? As evolutionary human beings on a planet in rebellion against universe authority, a significant portion of our thoughts are in response to outside events impacting us. But we must have a deep purpose guiding us through our personal trying times. If our mind is filled with materialism, greed, lust, hatred, or fear it will be poor soil indeed for our soul. On the other hand, if we are concentrated on following God’s will and accept love, brotherhood, and divine guidance, our soul’s soil will be rich indeed.

Thought Adjusters are a spark of God and therefore perfect, but if the soul’s soil is spiritually poor as a result of human choices, nothing can save mortals other than more spiritually based decisions; choosing to follow God’s will.

…it is by mind that you live or die. It is within this mind and with this mind that you make those moral decisions which enable you to achieve Adjusterlikeness, and that is Godlikeness. (1216.5)

Mind is our soul’s soil. This is where we grow our soul.

Choosing

Making choices is such an everyday thing we seldom pay any attention to the process. We choose what to eat, what to wear, whom we associate with, and how we react to difficulties. However, any decision may present complications. Suppose we are going home from work or the store and have two possible routes to choose from, one might be scenic while the other is quicker. We have no idea if there is a problem with either choice; there may be an accident or any kind of delay. We don’t always know what the consequences of any decision might be.

One class of decisions is especially important: moral choices. If someone insults us will we hit back or seek a peaceful reply? Frequently we respond to such a situation in the spur of the moment without considering what might happen, but this is precisely when careful thoughts are essential. We have to consider what affect each choice will have on our soul’s soil. That is vital. Choosing what to wear will probably not damage our soul soil but a moral choice will have an impact.

When we are making moral choices we are guided by our indwelling spark of God, our Thought Adjuster, acting gently on our superconsciousness. The mortal has to make the decision to follow the guidance of the Adjuster, or not. (1216.3)

Cooperating with our Adjuster is not a master-slave relationship; it is a true partnership. They are our wise advisor. This advisor cannot run the show for us; we must choose which aspects to follow and which to reject. (1217.3) We might ask how to know exactly what your Adjuster is recommending, but that is exactly the point; if the Adjuster shouted “DO THIS!” that would be compulsion not cooperation. When you honestly listen for guidance, you KNOW how to choose.

And it is not so much what mind comprehends as what mind desires to comprehend that insures survival; it is not so much what mind is like as what mind is striving to be like that constitutes spirit identification…. What you are today is not so important as what you are becoming day by day and in eternity. (1216.6) Our soul’s soil is enriched by our spiritual desires.

What we are becoming is the direct result of our choices. Our mortal free will, more accurately called spiritual free will, makes choices that will have a profound effect on what our mind is like, and what it is becoming day by day.

Our choices determine the nature of our eternal future, or lack thereof. We enhance our mental soil by the choices we make.

The Captain

Mind is your ship, the Adjuster is your pilot, the human will is captain. (1217.4) The first thing to notice about this quotation is that our body, our physical mechanism, is not even considered; that is because our mind and our moral choices are more important than our physical mechanism which is susceptible to the ravages of time while our soul is not. Elsewhere, The Urantia Book compares our body to a building built by our mind with guidance from our Adjuster. (483.12) Our mind has some control over our body and influences what it becomes. Guided by our human will, our mind is where things happen; the captain gives an order and the ship, our mind, responds.

The captain, our human will, must have control over the ship, our mind; this is where the real action is: the captain gaining control over the ship. The human will has to have control. It is the mind that ultimately fashions and maintains the body. Our pilot is guiding our captain who gives orders so the mind goes safely through the troubled waters of life. The captain has to trust the pilot when making moral choices in difficult times.

With your consent, this faithful pilot will safely carry you across the barriers of time and the handicaps of space to the very source of the divine mind and on beyond, even to the Paradise Father of Adjusters. (1217.4)

  1. All references are to The Urantia Book one column version in the format page.paragraph. ↑