Tag: Paradise

No Space on Paradise

This posting is more technical than most of my posts, it raises interesting ideas and gives us food for thought.

Einstein talked about the fabric of space; there is more to space than emptiness.  He used this concept to explain gravity; large planets distort the fabric of space creating what we call gravity. This applies to the universe we are familiar with. However, our revelation, The Urantia Book, states there is no space on Paradise; what does this mean? The explanation is somewhat lengthy so let’s get started.

Material Reality

We all live and breathe in material reality; this is all we have ever known. We have great difficulty imagining anything beyond what we see and know. In this matter let us trust this revelation and see where it takes us.

The reality we are familiar with is based on space and time. To get from here to timeless and spaceless Paradise will take a very long time; we here take baby steps to reach a partial understanding.

We live in material reality and know something about it. In our awareness there are three dimensions to reality; that defines our space, material reality. In this context, the number of dimensions in a given region equals the number of mutually perpendicular lines that can be drawn through any point. A floor is two dimensional and a room is three dimensional.

Spiritually, we recognize God as our Heavenly Father, creator of all things and beings. We also somewhat comprehend the Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit. Our highest comprehension of God, the trinity, is three dimensional. Perhaps there is a relationship between our understanding of God and the reality we perceive.

Morontia Reality

In Paper 130, “On the Way to Rome,” Jesus says: Ultimately, surviving mortals achieve identity in a seven-dimensional universe.[1]

I interpret this to mean three dimensions for material reality, one for mind, and three for spiritual reality. Since we are grounded in material reality, we cannot fully understand any reality beyond it until we get there and actually experience it.

When we meet our Creator Son, Michael, we have experienced the first level of God the sevenfold. Before we leave Salvington we will begin to understand God the sevenfold: Creator Sons, Ancients of Days, Master Spirit, Supreme Being, Infinite Spirit, Eternal Son, Heavenly Father. Again, both perceived reality and comprehension of God have the same number of apparent dimensions.

Havona

Occasionally while studying our revelation I become aware of a truth so strongly, I am positive it is in the book but I can never find it. I call these “virtual” quotes. One of these is that when pilgrims of the evolutionary worlds prepare to enter the perfect and eternal central universe Havona, they struggle to comprehend God the 49 fold. This suggests Havona is in 49 dimensional space and that God is approachable there in 49 dimensions. This is certainly way beyond our current ability.

Paradise – no Space no Time

This brings us to Paradise at the center of all things. God, who is infinite, cannot have a dwelling place that is less than infinite. True, it is limited physically, but spiritually it must have an infinite number of dimensions. Twice it is called the center of infinity. Highlands on Paradise are not physical but spiritual highlands.

In the seven evolving superuniverses, space is configured to seven dimensions; in the perfect central universe it is configured to 49 dimensions. It is reasonable that space could not be configured into an infinite number of dimensions; therefore, either God would have no home, or space could not exist on Paradise.

Actually, Paradise is involved in the respiration of space, but that is a topic for another time.

This brings us to time. They state that space and time are related, but few details are given. Space is measured by time, but the reverse is not true. No concise definition of time is given. If space does not exist then time does not exist.[2]

For our purposes the best we can do is to select various events and examine how time functions therein. First is easy, movement. The more space we must travel through, the more time it takes. Walking across the room would be instantaneous relative to a journey to Mars.

Another aspect is chemical reactions. They do not involve a change in space, but time is certainly a factor in any such reaction. An example of this is rust appearing on iron exposed to the elements.

A final aspect we examine is a succession of events. Imagine a library with many people reading books. One is a proof reader who takes a long time studying each page. Another is a student taking notes. One is reading a novel for relaxation and the final reader is a speed reader. Each does the same action, turn a page, but at a different rate.

An event in the life of Jesus illustrates the final two aspects: the wedding at Cana. Many more guests attended than were expected and they ran out of wine; Mary was concerned. Angels working with Jesus knew something was going to happen so they gathered ingredients to make wine; this was a succession of events. When Mary confronted Jesus, he had pity and thought if it were according to God’s will….  And there was wine. This production of wine was an instantaneous reaction because the Personalized Adjuster (who said God was OK with it) is a non-time being and Jesus has creator powers.

Adjusters experience a succession of events. They start as virgin adjusters and gain experience as they indwell various beings. They are non-time beings but experience a sequence of events. It will take a considerable length of time before we can truly comprehend this dichotomy.

On Paradise movement is volitional; we move from place to place by an act of will, there is no walking. Yoda would say “on Paradise you are here or there—is no travel.” Except for the substance of Paradise, called Absolutum, everything else is pure spirit. This reality is radically different from what we are accustomed to on Urantia. 

Even though there is no space on Paradise, there is plenty of room. There is room for every evolutionary mortal who has attained residence on Paradise and this takes up considerably less than one percent of the available room. There will be room for everyone who attains Paradise from the seven superuniverses and the outer space levels throughout our eternal future.

Tags: Paradise, space, time

[1] 1439.5; The Urantia Book, one column edition in the format page:paragraph. All references are to The Urantia Book.

[2] 120.3 describes this.

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. ↑