Tag: Mota

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

Death of Our Democracy?

Every day we learn of some new way in which it seems we live in dangerous, changing times. The troubled environment such as America is experiencing is not exclusive to our nation; as we will see there are currently many troubled places on our planet.

The Urantia Book states we are moving out of the sheltered bays of tradition and into rough waters before we will find a more secure harbor based on inclusion, brotherhood and love.[1] Society is moving from one level, materialism, to another more spiritual level. These changes define our times: they test our values; also they present opportunities for spiritual growth and service. The nature of our eternal future will depend on how we respond to current challenges. We definitely need to be certain of our moral foundation before moving into the troublous times ahead.

The Urantia Book gives guidance for this transition period. One section discusses philosophic statements, called mota, which are aimed at increasing our spiritual awareness and guiding us toward a more balanced viewpoint.[2] Selected entries will be discussed with the aim of gaining insight into how we should proceed in the times ahead.

These mota lessons are aimed at teaching the less advanced students on the transition worlds where we will be repersonalized after physical death. The goal is to help them attain a higher awareness of applied philosophy before they proceed to more advanced spiritual realms.

These statements guide us as we seek to deal with the troubling times ahead. They provide guidance as to how we should act, react and seek a better world for each one of our sisters and brothers.

Selected mota:

Few persons live up to the faith which they really have. Unreasoned fear is a master intellectual fraud practiced upon the evolving mortal soul.[3] There is no reason we should fear because each one of us is indwelt by an actual spark of God.[4] All we need do is cooperate with our God within, also called our Thought Adjuster, knowing we have an internal perfect guide who has a plan for our lives. There is no place for fear in the lives of faith motivated individuals.

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.[5] By this measure our civilization does not qualify as being particularly “high,” we need only read the signs of our times to see troubled waters ahead.

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.[6] If we follow the internal guidance each of us receives, if we act upon our own light of truth we will be assisted by celestial beings and forces. We are certainly not alone.

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.[7] This does not need further comment except to say that the consequences brought by God are strongly influenced by the nature of our actions.

The greatest affliction of the cosmos is never to have been afflicted. Mortals only learn wisdom by experiencing tribulation.[8] Experience certainly seems to be the best teacher and lessons learned during trying times are long remembered. Those who have not been afflicted do not know the thrill of choosing God’s will over lesser choices in times of desperate needs. {Spiritual Free Will}

Impatience is a spirit poison; anger is like a stone hurled into a hornet’s nest.[9] Impatience and anger each bring damage to our soul, they deflate our true self. If we have true faith we will not be tempted into these destroying emotions. True faith is certain guard against them. {True Religion}

Anxiety must be abandoned. The disappointments hardest to bear are those which never come.[10] How often do we worry incessantly about something that never takes place? We might imagine some bad thing that may or may not happen, then waste valuable time worrying about it. Again, we have a perfect guide, God within, showing us the true way; all we need do is listen within and we will know the true path.

The evolving soul is not made divine by what it does, but by what it strives to do.[11] Our goals define us more certainly than do our accomplishments. What we wish to become has more lasting (spiritual) value than who we have been or what we have done.

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.[12] Each insignificant action in our daily lives appears to be without meaning, but the truth of the matter is there is no such thing as an insignificant act. Each decision may signal a change in the soul’s attitude or it may be a reaffirmation of our dedication to do God’s will at all times.[13]

The argumentative defense of any proposition is inversely proportional to the truth contained.[14] This mota gives deep insight into much rancor in our lives and in our political environment. Stated otherwise, the more violently we shout and argue, the less truth we have. A sign we have no facts or truth to make our point is when it becomes necessary to shout and raise a fuss. If we had reasonable points we would calmly make them, if that is not the case we wave our arms and get red in the face. This is a vital point to remember.

Where we are going?

What are some indications that severe changes are imminent?

Our nation, the United States of America, is currently experiencing political turmoil; there is no point in dwelling further on this. Our neighbor to the north, Canada, recently had an election where no party gained a majority; the current ruling party will need to form some sort of a coalition to be able to pass legislation. Another nation that is politically unsettled is Great Britain, which has voted to secede from the European Union but there is no mechanism for them to do this. The recent election in Israel also gave no clear winner and negotiations to form a government are ongoing.

There are other nations where there are riots and anti-government protests.[15] Among these are: Hong Kong, Lebanon, Iraq, Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia, Egypt, France, Ethiopia, and Syria. Including some from earlier in the year adds the following:[16] Guinea, Haiti, Nicaragua, Malawi, Russia, Sudan, Spain and Zimbabwe. These are generally protesting unfair government practices. More than ten percent of the nations on Earth have some sort of political turmoil, and these are only the ones that are in the news.

There are also movements protesting the effects of climate changes such as Extinction Rebellion, which started in London and FridaysForFuture, started by Greta Thunberg.

Each one of these movements has a valid, important point to make; each one declares more must be done to bring about a better life for all citizens.

We are witnessing the beginning of the collapse of state-ism; our patchwork of individual sovereign nations will not work in an increasingly interconnected world. The transition from our current state of affairs to recognition that every person on Earth must have individual and equal sovereignty will necessarily be contentious, but eventually the transformation will be recognized as being vital to the survival of life on Earth.[17]

If we look at our democracy, or any statist democracy, as one of the so-called individual sovereign nations on planet Earth then, “yes” this should be the end of our democracy, and the end of every sovereign nation on our blue orb in space. The only valid sovereignty is the sovereignty of all mankind or that of each individual. There is nothing in between. The universe name for our planet is Urantia.

War on Urantia will never end so long as nations cling to the illusive notions of unlimited national sovereignty. There are only two levels of relative sovereignty on an inhabited world: the spiritual free will of the individual mortal and the collective sovereignty of mankind as a whole.[18]

There is already a framework for global government called the Earth Federation. There is a masterful constitution for this world government. When the citizens of Earth recognize that statism has failed they will seek to join the Earth Federation and accept the constitution of Earth. Only this way can there be peace on Earth and good will among all humanity.

  1. All references are to The Urantia Book unless stated otherwise. The number refers to the single column version in the format page.paragraph; 1086.6 ↑

  2. see pages 556-7 for the full list of mota ↑

  3. 556.4 ↑

  4. Bible: I Corinthians 3:16 ↑

  5. 556.8 ↑

  6. 556.9 ↑

  7. 556.13 ↑

  8. 556.14 ↑

  9. 557.4 ↑

  10. 557.5 ↑

  11. 557.8 ↑

  12. 557.10 ↑

  13. 1475.1 ↑

  14. 557.14 ↑

  15. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-protests-markets-graphic/global-protests-gaining-attention-in-financial-markets-idUSKBN1X326E, retrieved 10/24/2019. ↑

  16. https://reliefweb.int/report/world/press-briefing-note-protests-and-unrest-around-world-25-october-2019 retrieved 10/26/2019 ↑

  17. 1489.1 ↑

  18. 1487.9 ↑