To see the video of this presentation, please see https://vimeo.com/album/3537836/video/137485727
A plenary presentation given at Bishops University, Peterborough, Quebec, July 2015
Isn’t evolution awesomely cool? Cosmic evolution, planetary evolution, personal growth—all integrated in the evolving Supreme Being? Don’t you want everyone to experience that thrill? The next question is not rhetorical. Are you willing to enhance that thrill by disciplining yourself to the demands of evolutionary wisdom?
Now I want you please to take a few silent moments to allow the soul to speak to God your honest answer. Here’s the question again, put in the first person singular. Am I willing to enhance the thrill of evolution by disciplining myself to the demands of evolutionary wisdom?
This speech is sprinkled with a handful of occasions when I invite you to take a few moments of silence. Two more of these occasions come very soon.
Higher wisdom comes first from the personalities of the central universe, who live with the Universal Father in the eternal now. Please take a few moments of silence to enhance your receptivity to the wisdom of the eternal now.
We also receive wisdom from the realm of the Supreme Being, the past-present-future of evolution. Now please take a few moments to spread out in your imagination the movement of this age from its origin, through its history to its destiny. Imagine the process in fast-forward mode. Find some image or symbol or gesture or somehow try to get a feel for the whole sweep of evolution.
These two sources weave together. We are children of the Universal Father, from whom we have our personality and the indwelling spirit. For the rest, we are children of the Supreme.
Power up! I want everyone to leave this session more empowered and integrated. Just think of all your powers of mind, soul, and body, and see how the Supreme is involved in our growth.
The Supreme is God-in-time; his is the secret of creature growth . . . . And the final fruits of all finite growth are: power controlled through mind by spirit by virtue of the unifying and creative presence of personality. (117.2/1280)
When we are ready to control the power of our lower nature, ready for self-mastery, Jesus shows us how.
By the old way you seek to suppress, obey, and conform to the rules of living; by the new way you are first transformed by the Spirit of Truth and thereby strengthened in your inner soul by the constant spiritual renewing of your mind, and so are you endowed with the power of the certain and joyous performance of the gracious, acceptable, and perfect will of God. (143:2/1609)
As we turn to the Spirit of Truth, which is just like Jesus except for his body, we can remember Jesus’ connection with the Supreme.
In passing through the experience of revealing the Seven Master Spirit wills of the Trinity, the Creator Son has passed through the experience of revealing the will of the Supreme. . . . In this universe age he reveals the Supreme . . . . (119:8/1318)
We also have our Creative Mother Spirit to help us grow. And remember that she, too, is connected with the Supreme.
All spirit influences are one . . . being the spirit ministry of God the Sevenfold in and to the creatures of the grand universe; and as [we] grow in appreciation of, and receptivity for, this unifying ministry of the spirit, it becomes in [our] experience the ministry of God the Supreme. (34:6/380)
As we labor for personal growth and planetary progress, we find that things usually go slowly. To understanding why, start by pondering the fact that are part of the whole; our one-to-one relationships take place within a larger whole or totality. It helps to recall that the Paradise Trinity plays the same role in the Supreme Being that the Thought Adjuster plays in us (117:3/1282).
The Paradise Trinity, like the Supreme Being, is concerned only with the total — total planet, total universe, total superuniverse, total grand universe. (10:7/115)
Here are two paragraphs about part and whole that explain our evolutionary experience.
The Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man present the paradox of the part and the whole on the level of personality. God loves each individual as an individual child in the heavenly family. Yet God thus loves every individual; he is no respecter of persons, and the universality of his love brings into being a relationship of the whole, the universal brotherhood. . . .
Let’s interrupt this quote. Why is there a paradox here? Because as individual personalities we are of infinite value, while in the whole we are finite in the mathematicians’ sense of the word: non-zero. The part of the destiny of the future of the Supreme that we control is called “infinitesimal” (117:4/1285), which refers to “an indefinitely small quantity, approaching zero.” Actually this humbling reminder of how small we are in comparison with the whole helps us acquire the “willingness to serve without human recognition and rewards” (114:7/1257).
Now let’s continue with the next paragraph.
Brotherhood constitutes a fact of relationship between every personality in universal existence. No person can escape the benefits or the penalties that may come as a result of relationship to other persons. The part profits or suffers in measure with the whole. The good effort of each man benefits all men; the error or evil of each man augments the tribulation of all men. As moves the part, so moves the whole. As the progress of the whole, so the progress of the part. The relative velocities of part and whole determine whether the part is retarded by the inertia of the whole or is carried forward by the momentum of the cosmic brotherhood. (12:7/138)
The other major reason why evolution takes so long has to do with rules of sequence. To understand them, begin with a truth of eternity.
Time is not reckoned on Paradise; . . . [but] . . . the sequence of successive events is inherent in the concept of those who are indigenous to the central Isle. (14:1/153)
Here are examples of rules of sequence in time.
When physical conditions are ripe, sudden mental evolutions may take place; when mind status is propitious, sudden spiritual transformations may occur; when spiritual values receive proper recognition, then cosmic meanings become discernible . . . . (65:8/740)
In other words, there are sequences that are inherent on Paradise, where there is no consciousness of time; and these sequences imply necessary conditions of progress in an evolutionary world. X has to be in place, before Y can follow. Wisdom requires more than patience. Revealed religion is excellent as well as genuine. It takes cosmic insight to motivate epochal maturity.
As the self matures, it reaches further and further back into the past for experience, while its wisdom forecasts seek to penetrate deeper and deeper into the unknown future. (118:1/1295)
We can learn the lessons of previous epochal revelations and anticipate the next thousand years of the mission of The Urantia Book. Then we can attempt to contemplate “the affairs of each generation as they are designed to fit into the mosaic of the age in which they occur” (114:6/1255).
For students of The Urantia Book the most important rule of sequence governs our truth-sharing as we help people enter the kingdom and advance in it. I call it the receptivity principle: present entry-level truth before giving advanced teachings. Following this rule we do not complicate evolution (66:5/747), but promote it. Here’s what Jesus told Simon and the apostles.
Go then, Simon, teaching and preaching the kingdom, and when you have a man safely and securely within the kingdom, then is the time, when such a one shall come to you with inquiries, to impart instruction having to do with the progressive advancement of the soul within the divine kingdom. . . .
That night Jesus discoursed to the apostles [and] said in part: “When you enter the kingdom, you are reborn. You cannot teach the deep things of the spirit to those who have been born only of the flesh; first see that men are born of the spirit before you seek to instruct them in the advanced ways of the spirit. Do not undertake to show men the beauties of the temple until you have first taken them into the temple.” (141:6/1591-92)
Entry-level truth is not only about the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. Jesus’ many-sided gospel comprises a cluster of themes, including the indwelling spirit, worship and service, becoming like God, joy and liberty, eternal life, and doing the Father’s will.
The gospel message is not only for two-thousand years ago; it’s for today. It’s not only the fourth epochal revelation in contrast to the fifth epochal revelation. In Part III we read this from a Melchizedek of Nebadon.
All Urantia is waiting for the proclamation of the ennobling message of Michael . . . . The hour is striking for presenting to Buddhism, to Christianity, to Hinduism, even to the peoples of all faiths . . . the living, spiritual reality of the gospel of Jesus. (94:12/1041)
Disciplined respect for sequences is serious business.
Never, in all your ascent to Paradise, will you gain anything by impatiently attempting to circumvent the established and divine plan by short cuts, personal inventions, or other devices for improving on the way of perfection, to perfection, and for eternal perfection. (75:8/846)
Jesus’ great decisions restrained his use of the power at his disposal. With The Urantia Book in our hands, we have power that we, too, need to use wisely.
A new law of sequence comes into play as physical, mental, and spiritual layers are combined. A system needs balance, proportion in order to sustain progress. The dimensions of personal and planetary development need to stay balanced in order for civilization to continue to progress.
When culture advances overfast, when material achievement outruns the evolution of worship-wisdom, then does civilization contain within itself the seeds of retrogression; and unless buttressed by the swift augmentation of experiential wisdom, such human societies will recede from high but premature levels of attainment, and the “dark ages” of the interregnum of wisdom will bear witness to the inexorable restoration of the imbalance between self-liberty and self-control. (118:6/1302)
In other words, our world has in it a lot of cosmic insanity—lack of balance between material, intellectual, and spiritual development. That imbalance can get so extreme that we slide back into the chaos of foolishness and have to learn our lessons all over again. What planetary civilization needs for its salvation is swift growth in an integration of worship and wisdom. This pair of concepts makes us think of the adjutants of worship and wisdom, and of the integration of the functions of cosmic mind—causation, duty, and worship.
As children of the Supreme, we naturally want to do our part. We want to follow the divine way of evolutionary wisdom for teachers of truth. We want our light to shine in ways that are beautiful and good and responsible to all levels of truth. We want to work in a way that is consistent with supreme values. And guess who walks on stage again:
God the Supreme is truth, beauty, and goodness, for these concepts of divinity represent finite maximums of ideational experience. The eternal sources of these triune qualities of divinity are on superfinite levels, but a creature could only conceive of such sources as supertruth, superbeauty, and supergoodness. (117:1/1279)
In order for us to sincerely care about such ideal values, we need to develop a passion, a taste for jumping into
“. . . the thrilling adventures of . . . evolving . . . harmony out of chaos, beauty out of potentials, truth out of meanings, and goodness out of values” (117:7/1293).
Please take a few moments to allow these phrases to sink in deep: “. . . the thrilling adventures of . . . evolving . . . harmony out of chaos, beauty out of potentials, truth out of meanings, and goodness out of values.”
And if we begin to thrill to the adventure of supreme values, and if we would seek wisdom for living these values, the end of Paper 2 provides an outline for a philosophy of living in cosmic truth, universe beauty, and divine goodness.
Do such difficult things really affect the success of our work? Listen to what Jesus had to say after the crisis at Capernaum. Their gospel book sales were down. Their kingdom study groups weren’t multiplying as hoped. Their ministry conferences had fewer participants. The old leaders were not attracting new converts from the younger generation. Religious conservatives abused their reputation on the internet, and most people were too preoccupied to care. Jesus said,
“Why do you languish in futile yearning? Because you obey not the truth. Cease your useless yearning and go forth bravely doing that which concerns the establishment of the kingdom.
“In all that you do, become not one-sided and overspecialized. . . . The Greeks . . . have a science without religion, while the Jews have a religion without science. And when men become thus misled into accepting a narrow and confused disintegration of truth, their only hope of salvation is to become truth-co-ordinated — converted.
“Let me emphatically state this eternal truth: If you, by truth co-ordination, learn to exemplify in your lives this beautiful wholeness of righteousness, your fellow men will then seek after you that they may gain what you have so acquired.” (155:1/1726)
Notice: the truth-coordinated life is about living the meanings of facts and values in such a way that righteousness results from it with a quality of beauty about it. Then you begin to attract inquiry from others.
Having taken over 3000 students through experiential projects in truth, beauty, and goodness, I am now setting up new programs for this work. If you are interested, get in touch with me.
The teachings on the Supreme open up an enhanced spirituality. We know that
“the Father walks beside [us] each step of the way, while the very way that [we are] traversing is the presence of the Supreme. (117:6/1291)
The Supreme is the way, the Tao. The spirituality of engagement in cosmic process was realized by the ancient Chinese Confucian teacher Mencius.
A noble man steeps himself in the Way (Tao) because he wishes to find it in himself. When he finds it in himself, he will be at ease in it; when he is at ease in it, he can draw deeply upon it; when he can draw deeply upon it, he finds its source wherever he turns. [IVB14]
Wherever we turn we find evolving material things, mind meanings, and supreme values. Truth, beauty, and goodness are blended in human experience, even as God is one in our experience. When we experience the whole of life through the dynamics of supreme value, we have a taste of supremacy, and we know the way to the Father. After all, God is love, and love is the source, sum, and destiny of truth, beauty, and goodness.
After the death of Adam and Eve, the culture of the second garden declined to the level of the surrounding peoples—because it had not evolved; it was in that sense artificial. Reading and talking about big concepts in The Urantia Book is also an artificial culture. If we are going to bring to our world the living spiritual reality of the gospel of Jesus, there is no short-cut: we must be living prophets. If we want to be pioneers of a new age of religion, we must take the time to do the work needed to experience truth, beauty, and goodness as the Tao and as our way of living.
We are being transformed. Our experience is often unfocused; the Supreme is the focalizer. We often go from one activity to the next without bringing our previous experience to completion in a suitable summary; the Supreme is the summarizer. And our own path often seems unconnected to others’ paths—so we need the Supreme, the encompasser, to harmonize our diverse trajectories in what will eventually be a harmonious whole.
“God the Supreme . . . is the indispensable focalizer, summarizer, and encompasser of evolutionary experience . . . .” (115:7/1266)
Now let’s take our desire for the will of God up a notch to the level of a supreme desire. Jesus taught this as an essential.
“The kingdom of heaven consists in these three essentials: first, recognition of the fact of the sovereignty of God; second, belief in the truth of sonship with God; and third, faith in the effectiveness of the supreme human desire to do the will of God — to be like God. And this is the good news of the gospel: that by faith every mortal may have all these essentials of salvation.” (140:10/1585-86)
OK. So what can we do if our desire to do the will of God—to be like God—is not quite at the level of supremacy? What if there are other desires that are more or less incompatible with that desire that are not yet subordinated?
We can have this essential by faith. We can ask for it. This request is a prayer, and it becomes more effective if we heed the magnificent prayer process, the conditions for effective prayer (91:9/1002). 91:9/1002). Notice the first two conditions of supreme evolutionary. We mobilize our cosmic stamina. We are industrious. We take inventory: what are the wishes of my mind and the cravings of my soul? The wishes of mind represent our best intellectual understanding, the fruit of our study and reflection. Our cravings of soul represent the highest values that we want to actualize for the planet. Is it conceivable that God may have something greater than those wishes of mind and cravings of soul to reveal to us? Of courses it is. So then we go into surrender mode. Then it happens.
“God answers man’s prayer by giving him an increased revelation of truth, an enhanced appreciation of beauty, and an augmented concept of goodness.” (91:8/1002)
Then we are ready to decide. “Man’s evolution does in some ways resemble the growth of the Supreme. Man consciously grows from the material toward the spiritual by the strength, power, and persistency of his own decisions . . . (117:3/1282; /118:8/ 1303). We take the long view of mature time-consciousness and consecrate ourselves to actually completing the course of action indicated by the answer to prayer. In faith, seeking only divine wisdom to help us with the human problems of our ascent to Paradise perfection, we trust God supremely in everything.
Now, let us take a few moments one last time here to express to God our supreme or almost supreme desire to do his will, to become like him.
And finally, as we labor for planetary progress, we join Jesus in the repair shop as he focuses all his powers of mind, soul, and body on the task immediately in hand. Living like him, faithful in big things and small things, we love every family member, client, neighbor, and caravan traveler with a love that is not contingent on liking the person, knowing the person, agreeing with the person about God, Jesus, or The Urantia Book. This is the love for the anxious and downhearted, the souls who are hurt, torn, lost, or rebellious. This is a desire to do good to others, and more than desire. It is the outworking of the divine and inner urge of life—based on understanding, nurtured by unselfish service, and perfected in wisdom.
The great circuit of love is from the Father, through sons to brothers, and hence to the Supreme. The love of the Father appears in the mortal personality by the ministry of the indwelling Adjuster. Such a God-knowing son reveals this love to his universe brethren, and this fraternal affection is the essence of the love of the Supreme. (117:6/1289)
“Man can discover the Father in his heart, but he will have to search for the Supreme in the hearts of all other men” (117:6/1290).
I am looking forward to opportunities to discover part of the Supreme in your hearts, and I hope you will find part of him in mine.
