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It would appear to me that there are 3 primary stages of Religion In Human Experience to consider:  first is that mindal and evolutionary growth which brings about the birth of soul by the development of morality and the moral-response in-mind – and this happens in children and in primitives alike we are told; the second is that experience we can describe as spiritization and/or spiritualization after the birth of soul and prior to that intentional and cognitive decision of volitional will described as being ‘born-again’ – and, evidently a mortal mind and soul can experience/express a love response and faith and worship and we are naturally ‘wired’ for such a reality-response and are certainly ministered to by the Spirits of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – and this too can and does happen in all minds.

And while it would be inaccurate to claim such progress is unintentional, it is not a cognitive exercise of volition I do not think so much as a naturally occurring response and reflex to our naturalized state of being – the dual nature is very real…both sides or aspects of it have profoundly natural drives and responses – for example the hunger and thirst and oxygen needs of the material body are no less represented by the spirit nature; and then there is that religious experience which is intentionally and deliberately pursued after being born again.

I cannot determine how many of the 7 psychic circles can be traversed prior to the 3rd Stage I describe above (caution and disclosure: the 3 stages are my own invention and study aid so far as I know…subject to review and change!) and how many, if any, require the conscious and deliberate and intentional pursuit of the spirit led life…..the transfer of the seat of identity does, I think, require such intention but again, I speculate here. 

I have noticed, and it was my own personal experience, that when some mortals enter Stage 3, there often ensues a season of exuberance which can often lead to impatience for enlightenment and wisdom and more radical practices in that pursuit.  Transferring the seat of identity is, perhaps, something best done methodically and deliberately but patiently, awaiting that growth and experience over time that comes from prayer and thoughtful maturation by seeking out meanings and values over simple and radical change.

Below is an interesting list of warnings and dangers in certain beliefs and practices which may inflate certain distortions of experience in our religious pursuits.

100:5.8 (1099.6) There is great danger associated with the habitual practice of religious daydreaming; mysticism may become a technique of reality avoidance, albeit it has sometimes been a means of genuine spiritual communion. Short seasons of retreat from the busy scenes of life may not be seriously dangerous, but prolonged isolation of personality is most undesirable. Under no circumstances should the trancelike state of visionary consciousness be cultivated as a religious experience.

100:5.9 (1099.7) The characteristics of the mystical state are diffusion of consciousness with vivid islands of focal attention operating on a comparatively passive intellect. All of this gravitates consciousness toward the subconscious rather than in the direction of the zone of spiritual contact, the superconscious. Many mystics have carried their mental dissociation to the level of abnormal mental manifestations.

100:5.10 (1100.1) The more healthful attitude of spiritual meditation is to be found in reflective worship and in the prayer of thanksgiving. The direct communion with one’s Thought Adjuster, such as occurred in the later years of Jesus’ life in the flesh, should not be confused with these so-called mystical experiences. The factors which contribute to the initiation of mystic communion are indicative of the danger of such psychic states. The mystic status is favored by such things as: physical fatigue, fasting, psychic dissociation, profound aesthetic experiences, vivid sex impulses, fear, anxiety, rage, and wild dancing. Much of the material arising as a result of such preliminary preparation has its origin in the subconscious mind.

100:5.11 (1100.2) However favorable may have been the conditions for mystic phenomena, it should be clearly understood that Jesus of Nazareth never resorted to such methods for communion with the Paradise Father. Jesus had no subconscious delusions or superconscious illusions.

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The stages I described don’t have clear lines of distinction or debarkation or transition...spiritual experience and soul growth is more like the flow of a river.

I was reborn long ago but there’s been lots of growing and progressing and considerable time spent with more good intentions than truly redirected motives and adjusted priorities.  But the more my motives for living and my priorities in my daily choices become spirit directed and aligned, the greater the propulsion and current as I learned to “trust in one’s highest hopes” and I became dedicated to my “highest ideals”. 

Experience delivered knowledge of the blessings of loyalty to the Father and a growing trust in his friendly universe.  It’s all been very progressive and unconscious….if also obvious in its effects and outcomes in my life.

Religious living aligned with reality delivers a sublime confidence in the flow of the river of life.  There is a growing trust also in the course and the intersections of choice I am led to by the angels and my TA and the ministers of and to my adventures in time.  I am delivered to those places, people, and times where I can find opportunities to serve, and love, and learn….moments where new meanings are discovered and meanings already learned are reinforced and with new angles of perception to further expand my perspective of life and destiny.

Now, lest any feel I am bragadocious in my reflections, I assure you all I still consider myself but a tadpole, a child in this spiritualization and growth of soul….I do not understand this transfer of the seat of identity and am no guru of style and technique…..I only claim that when we believe the teachings of the Master and act on such belief with trust and faith, that such will change one’s motives for living, intentions in living, priorities of our choices, and our decisions at the intersections of choice….and that, over time, most definitely changes ME and my life and my perspective and my ideals and hopes.  It does not deliver ease, fame, wealth, or make the material vicissitudes any less real or uncertain….only less difficult and less important compared to the growth in spirit and of soul.

The transition is hard to describe without sounding pompous.  But I can assure all that there is also an accompanying humility and smallness that always comes as one begins to realize how much greater is all reality and how much more truth, beauty, and goodness there is compared to that which I can recognize or grasp or realize myself.  I have only begun, over decades of my life, this inner journey; the beginning of this endless path of progress is still in sight to me…I am such a tadpole still.  But a joyous one and a confident one.  Only my direction is certain and not the distance of my not so great progress!  But to those who knowingly embark on this road and river of faith, it is a great adventure!

6. Marks of Religious Living

100:6.1 (1100.3) Evolutionary religions and revelatory religions may differ markedly in method, but in motive there is great similarity. Religion is not a specific function of life; rather is it a mode of living. True religion is a wholehearted devotion to some reality which the religionist deems to be of supreme value to himself and for all mankind. And the outstanding characteristics of all religions are: unquestioning loyalty and wholehearted devotion to supreme values. This religious devotion to supreme values is shown in the relation of the supposedly irreligious mother to her child and in the fervent loyalty of nonreligionists to an espoused cause.

100:6.2 (1100.4) The accepted supreme value of the religionist may be base or even false, but it is nevertheless religious. A religion is genuine to just the extent that the value which is held to be supreme is truly a cosmic reality of genuine spiritual worth.

100:6.3 (1100.5) The marks of human response to the religious impulse embrace the qualities of nobility and grandeur. The sincere religionist is conscious of universe citizenship and is aware of making contact with sources of superhuman power. He is thrilled and energized with the assurance of belonging to a superior and ennobled fellowship of the sons of God. The consciousness of self-worth has become augmented by the stimulus of the quest for the highest universe objectives — supreme goals.

100:6.4 (1100.6) The self has surrendered to the intriguing drive of an all-encompassing motivation which imposes heightened self-discipline, lessens emotional conflict, and makes mortal life truly worth living. The morbid recognition of human limitations is changed to the natural consciousness of mortal shortcomings, associated with moral determination and spiritual aspiration to attain the highest universe and superuniverse goals. And this intense striving for the attainment of supermortal ideals is always characterized by increasing patience, forbearance, fortitude, and tolerance.

8)

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Godliness is the most lofty of aspirations and/or ambitions and all behaviors and choices that might be considered noble originate in God and come from God and come by the branch’s attachment to the vine. And this is why nobility of character and its expressions are, in their purest form and function, unconscious. Nobility is a reflection of character in action…the ‘character’ of soul, the embodiment of truth, beauty, and goodness. It cannot be self centered or self serving and be noble.

I do think mortals can strive to be or become noble and to act nobly by volition….a conscious effort based on a noble aspiration and idealism. But one becomes noble as a result of growth and spiritization. And I think it can be argued, based on the UB teachings on Religion In Human Experience that all such nobility and all that is noble in all people who are noble can only be a result of religious experience….whether conscious or unconscious, a true result of religious experience and personal transformation…and this is true because all that is noble in its expression comes from God to the person within – from the vine through the branch flows all that is or can be noble….recall the cave man!

100:6.1 (1100.3) Evolutionary religions and revelatory religions may differ markedly in method, but in motive there is great similarity. Religion is not a specific function of life; rather is it a mode of living. True religion is a wholehearted devotion to some reality which the religionist deems to be of supreme value to himself and for all mankind. And the outstanding characteristics of all religions are: unquestioning loyalty and wholehearted devotion to supreme values. This religious devotion to supreme values is shown in the relation of the supposedly irreligious mother to her child and in the fervent loyalty of nonreligionists to an espoused cause.

I think it might be important to consider how the truth seeker and religionist in pursuit of understanding and wishing to express the transformative power of the religious experience does so or may do so in the normal day to day life we all live as we pass by. The UB is very clear that no one must abandon or forsake daily life, family life, material obligations, etc. Religious living is not an escape from material life and its demands….rather, it is or becomes an effective method and WAY OF LIVING that life. Religious living is NOT austere, severe, quixotic, isolated, mystical, or any other “technique of reality avoidance”.

Religion, personal religion should be a “mode of living”….our WAY of life itself, our daily life…our life in home and at work and in community, and as citizen, child, sibling, parent, and grandparent, etc. All that this means is that we remain loyal to God and truth, beauty, and goodness to attach our branch to God’s vine and this guiding principal guides us at every intersection of relationship, circumstance, situation, and decision. And that we do so with the understanding that we seek meanings and values in these intersections and hope to express our ideals in our decisions, knowing we have much to experience and learn, developing patience with our shortcomings, failures, disappointments while striving to get it a little better next time, and with a growing confidence and trust in God’s purpose, power, and plan and this friendly universe where love rules. And as we children of time learn to live this way, our branch will grow the fruit of the vine, and we will be blessed for our loyalty and attachment to the Devine Vine of Love.

When I first read this Paper so long ago (and the following dozen), I immediately recognized it as the most practical how-to-guide ever written!!! What are the connections and the motives and the priorities and the practical steps which may be implemented and employed. How could I DO what the Master taught in the 4th Revelation? How to interpret the parables and beatitudes and apply them to my daily life…and do so without extremisms and radicalization and displacement and isolation but with effect and meaning and transcendent results? Suddenly the pearl of great price seemed ‘affordable’ and attainable to me. It all seemed so practical suddenly and clearly.

My idealism became money in the bank and results came quickly and certainly by embracing this new philosophy of living which became a mode of living. To be sure, immaturity and error and disappointment and failure did not vanish….but confidence, patience, persistence, and trust became more constant companions through all of those….which completely and profoundly changes and defangs those other things, softening their sting and relieving the anxieties that they so often bring along in our daily life. In this way, and over time, uncertainty changes in its very nature…it truly becomes the reality of adventure, the source of adventure….for there can be no adventure or anticipation without uncertainty in what comes next and what will happen when it does!

In our daily life change is the only changeless thing it seems (and we will learn, God’s love is likewise changeless – another story and lesson….)…we cannot prevent change or resist change or avoid change….to be anxious and constantly fearful about change is, by definition insane, dysfunctional, and impractical…we must learn to face change and embrace the fact, function, and reality of change. The best method to embrace change is our attachment to the vine, for by that attachment to reality and the source of reality and the flow of truth, beauty, goodness, and love then does change reflect growth, maturity, wisdom, power, skill, capability, functionality, and the ability to better serve our Lord and all our fellow children in this friendly universe.

And this leads us to the secret of the universe….the more of us who embrace this mode of being and living, the more of us who serve one another, and the more wise and powerful is that service, and this experiential growth in wisdom, love, and power will eventuate sometime, but incrementally right now and every moment of time in aggregation, in the future, a better future, a better and better and then more better future….the story of the Supreme in Paper 115.

And all we must do is be loyal…loyal to God and his Spirit/Fragment within…and the prize of the eternal adventure becomes ours – right now!

“…Loyal persons are growing persons, and growth is an impressive and inspiring reality. Live loyally today — grow — and tomorrow will attend to itself. The quickest way for a tadpole to become a frog is to live loyally each moment as a tadpole.”

The Tadpole Way!!!

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While composing my prior post, I got to thinking about the parable of the talents. As I said, being quite the student of the Jesusonian Gospel and 4th Epochal Revelation as it is recorded in the KJV in my youth, I found the UB so helpful….not only in its detail and expansion of the story and teachings of Jesus but also in the teachings about the inner light and life and spirit and mind ministries and networks that truly wire us each and all spiritually and most definitively in our dual natures. Our spiritual life is not unnatural but just the opposite, it is completely natural and even more powerful than the material nature….for those who listen, respond, and seek this reality.

I think the parable of the talents teaches us that the “return” ON our talents (as opposed to the return OF our talent to its bestower) is simply a function of our pursuit of the spirit led life. It does not require great intellect or cleverness or risk taking….it only requires loyalty and confidence – that is the vehicle of investment of our talent(s), be they many or few, large or small.

102:3.3 (1121.5) Material feelings, human emotions, lead directly to material actions, selfish acts. Religious insights, spiritual motivations, lead directly to religious actions, unselfish acts of social service and altruistic benevolence.

When our “mode of living” is determined by and defined by our religious life, insights, and motivations within, then do we automatically and directly begin to bear the fruits of the Spirit which always… “lead directly to religious actions, unselfish acts of social service and altruistic benevolence”….at home, work, community, and world!!

The parable is NOT about what to do or when or to whom or how much or how often….the parable of the talents is about a religious philosophy of living and our mode of daily living….day by day as we pass by. Reading this Paper dissolved all the mystery as what I was to do and how I was to invest my talent(s). And it absolved me from any concern as to the amount of ‘return’ I might deliver by my earnest and sincere efforts, no matter how meager or how grand. What a relief!!! I am not measured by how many souls I ‘save’ or how many good deeds I perform or the great and glorious outcomes of my service or even the wisdom I employ or success I might achieve. My return is in the hands of God….only the act and the sincerity are mine – the outcomes are God’s. I lost so much confusion and doubt and anxiety by this simple understanding….finally!

Such recognition was immediately rewarded by this truth and its personal realization over time:

100:6.5 (1100.7) But true religion is a living love, a life of service. The religionist’s detachment from much that is purely temporal and trivial never leads to social isolation, and it should not destroy the sense of humor. Genuine religion takes nothing away from human existence, but it does add new meanings to all of life; it generates new types of enthusiasm, zeal, and courage. It may even engender the spirit of the crusader, which is more than dangerous if not controlled by spiritual insight and loyal devotion to the commonplace social obligations of human loyalties.

100:6.6 (1101.1) One of the most amazing earmarks of religious living is that dynamic and sublime peace, that peace which passes all human understanding, that cosmic poise which betokens the absence of all doubt and turmoil. Such levels of spiritual stability are immune to disappointment. Such religionists are like the Apostle Paul, who said: “I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else shall be able to separate us from the love of God.”

100:6.7 (1101.2) There is a sense of security, associated with the realization of triumphing glory, resident in the consciousness of the religionist who has grasped the reality of the Supreme, and who pursues the goal of the Ultimate.

Glory Be!

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100:6.7 (1101.2) There is a sense of security, associated with the realization of triumphing glory, resident in the consciousness of the religionist who has grasped the reality of the Supreme, and who pursues the goal of the Ultimate.

100:6.8 (1101.3) Even evolutionary religion is all of this in loyalty and grandeur because it is a genuine experience. But revelatory religion is excellent as well as genuine. The new loyalties of enlarged spiritual vision create new levels of love and devotion, of service and fellowship; and all this enhanced social outlook produces an enlarged consciousness of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man.

100:6.9 (1101.4) The characteristic difference between evolved and revealed religion is a new quality of divine wisdom which is added to purely experiential human wisdom. But it is experience in and with the human religions that develops the capacity for subsequent reception of increased bestowals of divine wisdom and cosmic insight.

As students of the Papers we know that revelatory revelation comes in two forms – personal and epochal – to the each and to the all (but not to the one for another or others). And we know that personal revelation has been empowered and personalized the past 2000 years by the Son’s Spirit – the Spirit of Truth. Those whose religious experience is guided by the creeds and doctrines of evolutionary/institutional religion are also influenced by personal revelation and the work of the God Fragment/TA and the Spirit of Truth and the Holy Spirit. Our personal religious experience is multi-faceted and unique to our own mind, soul, and being….we each must traverse the 7 psychic circles in our own way and time.

One of the effects of this experience, we are told above, is an enlarged spiritual vision and an enhanced social outlook resulting in an enlarged consciousness of our parent/child relationship, a personal relationship based in love, with God and also an enlarged concept or consciousness of the brotherhood of all humanity. Anyone who claims to be religious and yet does not have such an expanded concept and consciousness may not be having a “genuine” religious experience at all. This insight and realization will and must change one’s perspective of the world in which we live and the people who live on this world…both. If our religious experience does not change us and transform our attitude and views and our motives and priorities, then we must wonder how genuine is our experience and how sincere is our religion.

Notice there is a new “quality” of divine wisdom with revelation – both personal and epochal but perhaps especially so for epochal? Epochal revelation is given to reduce confusions and eliminate errors of evolutionary religion…and also personal revelation as limited and distorted by human experience and material mindedness.

Also it should be noted above that only experience in and with Religion In Human Experience that develops additional capacity for “subsequent reception of increased bestowals of divine wisdom and cosmic insight”. I recall we are told that a pint cannot hold a quart! But evidently a pint container can grow into a quart with time and experience and the growth of wisdom….especially when we can receive, discern, and utilize divine wisdom as it is received. This is a lesson on the progressive nature of Religion In Human Experience. There should be growth…growth of the fruits of the spirit, growth in the size of the branch, and more fruit…the pint growing into the quart and then the gallon, etc.

The next and final section of Paper 100 examines the attributes of Religion in Jesus’ Experience as a human….The Acme of Religious Living.

7. The Acme of Religious Living

100:7.1 (1101.5) Although the average mortal of Urantia cannot hope to attain the high perfection of character which Jesus of Nazareth acquired while sojourning in the flesh, it is altogether possible for every mortal believer to develop a strong and unified personality along the perfected lines of the Jesus personality. The unique feature of the Master’s personality was not so much its perfection as its symmetry, its exquisite and balanced unification. The most effective presentation of Jesus consists in following the example of the one who said, as he gestured toward the Master standing before his accusers, “Behold the man!”

I suggest this is a good time to read Paper 196 again! Section 7 and Paper 196 compliment each other so.

The Faith of Jesus

196:0.1 (2087.1) JESUS enjoyed a sublime and wholehearted faith in God. He experienced the ordinary ups and downs of mortal existence, but he never religiously doubted the certainty of God’s watchcare and guidance. His faith was the outgrowth of the insight born of the activity of the divine presence, his indwelling Adjuster. His faith was neither traditional nor merely intellectual; it was wholly personal and purely spiritual.

196:0.4 (2087.4) In the Master’s life on Urantia, this and all other worlds of the local creation discover a new and higher type of religion, religion based on personal spiritual relations with the Universal Father and wholly validated by the supreme authority of genuine personal experience….

196:1.3 (2090.4) To “follow Jesus” means to personally share his religious faith and to enter into the spirit of the Master’s life of unselfish service for man. One of the most important things in human living is to find out what Jesus believed, to discover his ideals, and to strive for the achievement of his exalted life purpose. Of all human knowledge, that which is of greatest value is to know the religious life of Jesus and how he lived it.

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115:0.1 (1260.1) WITH God the Father, sonship is the great relationship. With God the Supreme, achievement is the prerequisite to status — one must do something as well as be something.

8)

….which got me to thinking: our personal and religious quest is to discern meanings and discover values which requires both sincerity and the act of choosing/deciding within while facing the intersections of circumstance, situation, incident, and relationship….one must do something and be something both…a sincere faith child acting as such! Faith is an expression or an action – acting upon belief….in other words Religion In Human Experience is in no way a passive thing….one must do something and be about the doing and the living to have such experience and to grow soul and to develop wisdom. And while the sincere religionist is seeking meaning and value (doing), apparently we are also becoming and actualizing meaning and value! The soul aggregates and integrates our personalized meaning and value and all of that goes to the Supreme whereby our achievements contribute TO the Supreme and all of creation….we gain meaning and value by its discovery!

By our simple existence are we cherished and valued by God the Father/Parent but only by what we righteously choose and do may we contribute value and meaning to the experiential creation and the Supreme. Which means our value IN creation increases as we traverse the circles, gain wisdom, become more effective in our loving service ministry, gain power and purpose by eternal fusion, and gain universe experience through time and by disappointment, failure, achievement, success, etc., and become ever more educated and knowledgeable in universe reality and affairs, or more simply stated – as we grow in the Spirit. Isn’t this truth and fact what delivers the need for our loyalty? Isn’t this the core of our duty?

Reality is a function of and based upon love and endless service adventures. The each in loving service to the all so that none be isolated or abandoned or without or in need or suffering or lonely or destitute or without value or without purpose….or without love. Are not all problems for all beings eliminated by such a reality? Are not all needs met for all by such a truth? One must simply embrace reality to realize reality for ourselves…and for all others too.

We are taught there different levels of love from the self serving level of the Golden Rule to brotherly to fatherly to Divine levels. But the greater levels do not dismiss or trivialize the lesser levels, so that which is the greatest love still delivers that which is best for self does it not? What is best for me? The loyalty, love, and service of the each to all others. What delivers the fruit of the vine (Spirit) from which I am most blessed and nourished? What best eliminates fear, loneliness, suffering in the each? The loyalty, love, and service the each provides to others. Self is best served by its self forgetting service to others. To be most loved give love. Or so I see it?

The analogy of the fruit upon the branch attached to the vine does not quite illustrate the whole story I do not think….for the fruit of each branch also feeds the vine and all other branches too. It is a circulatory system. But it is an ever growing and enlarging and perfecting system. The fruit of the Spirit that each branch grows becomes a greater and greater harvest of fruit with an ever increasing effect on those individually near to hand and to all others collectively….all such fruit feeds ourselves and all others and certain others. As the branch grows in diameter and strength, the more fruit does it bear…and the better the fruit borne of that branch over time.

And we are taught that our steps and paths are influenced and guided by TA and angels to those intersections of decision and expression which helps us grow and helps us serve…both…if we pay attention and learn to discern opportunities – to discover meanings and value while we also seek moments and opportunities to serve others in love….and by this religious experience do we feast on the fruit of the vine, and we grow that fruit, and we deliver its nourishment to others, and do we also contribute to the strength of the vine itself!

116:0.3 (1268.3) Experiential growth implies creature-Creator partnership — God and man in association. Growth is the earmark of experiential Deity: Havona did not grow; Havona is and always has been; it is existential like the everlasting Gods who are its source. But growth characterizes the grand universe.

116:0.4 (1268.4) The Almighty Supreme is a living and evolving Deity of power and personality. His present domain, the grand universe, is also a growing realm of power and personality. His destiny is perfection, but his present experience encompasses the elements of growth and incomplete status.

116:1.1 (1268.6) The experience of every evolving creature personality is a phase of the experience of the Almighty Supreme. The intelligent subjugation of every physical segment of the superuniverses is a part of the growing control of the Almighty Supreme. The creative synthesis of power and personality is a part of the creative urge of the Supreme Mind and is the very essence of the evolutionary growth of unity in the Supreme Being.

116:3.4 (1271.2) 3. The indwelling presences of the First Source and Center. Mind unifies spirit causations with energy reactions; bestowal ministry unifies divinity descensions with creature ascensions; and the indwelling fragments of the Universal Father actually unify the evolving creatures with God on Paradise. There are many such presences of the Father which indwell numerous orders of personalities, and in mortal man these divine fragments of God are the Thought Adjusters. The Mystery Monitors are to human beings what the Paradise Trinity is to the Supreme Being. The Adjusters are absolute foundations, and upon absolute foundations freewill choice can cause to be evolved the divine reality of an eternaliter nature, finaliter nature in the case of man, Deity nature in God the Supreme.

116:7.6 (1276.7) Man’s urge for Paradise perfection, his striving for God-attainment, creates a genuine divinity tension in the living cosmos which can only be resolved by the evolution of an immortal soul; this is what happens in the experience of a single mortal creature. But when all creatures and all Creators in the grand universe likewise strive for God-attainment and divine perfection, there is built up a profound cosmic tension which can only find resolution in the sublime synthesis of almighty power with the spirit person of the evolving God of all creatures, the Supreme Being.

117:0.1 (1278.1) TO THE extent that we do the will of God in whatever universe station we may have our existence, in that measure the almighty potential of the Supreme becomes one step more actual. The will of God is the purpose of the First Source and Center as it is potentialized in the three Absolutes, personalized in the Eternal Son, conjoined for universe action in the Infinite Spirit, and eternalized in the everlasting patterns of Paradise. And God the Supreme is becoming the highest finite manifestation of the total will of God.

Me here: All creatures, high and low, contribute to reality and all actualize potential and all add more potential by our contributions and actualization. There is no beach without grains of sand and there is no ocean without drops of water….the Supreme is the beach and also the ocean and encompasses all beings in its totality…but also directs the currents and waves and wind….the Supreme grows in size and power….one grain of sand and one drop of water at a time….by all free will choices in all of time. Or so I understand….

8)

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Indeed the value of what we do is first, and primarily I think, determined by our sincerity of motive and righteous intent but also by the experiential wisdom, derived from both revelation and reasoned experience response – this reasoned and revealed wisdom applied to our sincerity is progressively ever more effect-ive and increasingly becomes an expression of our own unique experience in personal religion. As we traverse the Circles and gain experience upon and after fusion, our sincerity grows in effect and in range of effect I think by gains in wisdom. Thus the quest for meaning and value never ceases or subsides and neither does its expressions by each ascendant being or by the Supreme.

I was attempting earlier to describe the great circuit of love…which is still not yet completed by the Supreme’s reception either since that love flow and circuit continues onward to and through the vine as well…to the each and the all….in Paradise and in time and for eternity….love never stops its perpetual motion. Neither is its power diminished by those who refuse it by refusing to freely give it – those who have chosen separation and disconnection from the circuit and flow; rather is the flow increased and energized and amplified by every open circuit connection that gives love to others. Always actualizing prior potentials and thusly creating new potentials for future eventuations and realizations and actualization in reality.

Interesting how effect and value only requires righteous sincerity but wisdom adds an important quality to both over time that increasingly stabilizes the one and the all …..but however less wise or more wise righteous sincerity might be in its act, its effect and outcomes are positive universally within the one and throughout the all….and endless feedback loop finding amplification, harmonization, directionalization, and application by the Supreme.

117:0.4 (1278.4) The parts and individuals of the grand universe evolve as a reflection of the total evolution of the Supreme, while in turn the Supreme is the synthetic cumulative total of all grand universe evolution. From the mortal viewpoint both are evolutionary and experiential reciprocals.

Paper 100 ends with a study and recital of those attributes the Master demonstrated for us to behold, examine, and consider as inspiration for our own ideals and personal embrace and expression. It’s always been important to me how very sincere Jesus was in every intersection of relationship, situation, and circumstance. How balanced was/is this person always….poised indeed. While he felt the full spectrum of emotions, only compassion ever overcame him I think….all others were fully mastered at a young age. Always it seemed, he lived in the very presence of God and felt always unafraid of any and all repercussions to personal decisions and the free will choices made in sincerity…no matter the lack of experience or wisdom which may have attended such choices. A study of Jesus most certainly leads the tadpole to the humble acknowledgement of personal progress still to come.

“Behold the man!”

100:7.2 (1101.6) The unfailing kindness of Jesus touched the hearts of men, but his stalwart strength of character amazed his followers. He was truly sincere; there was nothing of the hypocrite in him. He was free from affectation; he was always so refreshingly genuine. He never stooped to pretense, and he never resorted to shamming. He lived the truth, even as he taught it. He was the truth. He was constrained to proclaim saving truth to his generation, even though such sincerity sometimes caused pain. He was unquestioningly loyal to all truth.

100:7.3 (1101.7) But the Master was so reasonable, so approachable. He was so practical in all his ministry, while all his plans were characterized by such sanctified common sense. He was so free from all freakish, erratic, and eccentric tendencies. He was never capricious, whimsical, or hysterical. In all his teaching and in everything he did there was always an exquisite discrimination associated with an extraordinary sense of propriety.

100:7.4 (1102.1) The Son of Man was always a well-poised personality. Even his enemies maintained a wholesome respect for him; they even feared his presence. Jesus was unafraid. He was surcharged with divine enthusiasm, but he never became fanatical. He was emotionally active but never flighty. He was imaginative but always practical. He frankly faced the realities of life, but he was never dull or prosaic. He was courageous but never reckless; prudent but never cowardly. He was sympathetic but not sentimental; unique but not eccentric. He was pious but not sanctimonious. And he was so well-poised because he was so perfectly unified.

8)

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2:0.2 (33.2) The nature of God can be studied in a revelation of supreme ideas, the divine character can be envisaged as a portrayal of supernal ideals, but the most enlightening and spiritually edifying of all revelations of the divine nature is to be found in the comprehension of the religious life of Jesus of Nazareth, both before and after his attainment of full consciousness of divinity.

2:6.4 (41.2) The concept of God as a king-judge, although it fostered a high moral standard and created a law-respecting people as a group, left the individual believer in a sad position of insecurity respecting his status in time and in eternity. The later Hebrew prophets proclaimed God to be a Father to Israel; Jesus revealed God as the Father of each human being. The entire mortal concept of God is transcendently illuminated by the life of Jesus. Selflessness is inherent in parental love. God loves not like a father, but as a father. He is the Paradise Father of every universe personality.

102:8.7 (1128.3) But religion is never enhanced by an appeal to the so-called miraculous. The quest for miracles is a harking back to the primitive religions of magic. True religion has nothing to do with alleged miracles, and never does revealed religion point to miracles as proof of authority. Religion is ever and always rooted and grounded in personal experience. And your highest religion, the life of Jesus, was just such a personal experience: man, mortal man, seeking God and finding him to the fullness during one short life in the flesh, while in the same human experience there appeared God seeking man and finding him to the full satisfaction of the perfect soul of infinite supremacy. And that is religion, even the highest yet revealed in the universe of Nebadon — the earth life of Jesus of Nazareth.

Me here: We are taught that the story of Jesus’ life in Part IV is a story of Religion In Human Experience. Jesus was first the Son of Man and was a natural born mortal of the realm before his eventual transfiguration and glorious attainment of his Master Son status while still among us mortals. His life exemplifies that profound trust, assurance, and confidence in God’s love and care and the fruits of the Spirit which comes to every faith child and branch of the vine. His life truly can be our inspiration and guide in our own religious experience. So when reading about Jesus, consider his truths for our own and his example as a very human illustration of the inner life we may each and all embrace for ourselves.

And while it is true some mortals are disappointed in one another and fearful for human destiny, Jesus had a great, even unshakeable confidence in humankind….he believed in us and our nature and had absolute confidence in God’s paternal and Divine love for each and every child in creation. Jesus saw the inner light whether bright or but a flicker and truly enjoyed other people and was kind and generous, not from duty, but from genuine affection of the human spirit and light within us each in our own personal and unique ways.

Paper 100 Continues:

100:7.5 (1102.2) Jesus’ originality was unstifled. He was not bound by tradition or handicapped by enslavement to narrow conventionality. He spoke with undoubted confidence and taught with absolute authority. But his superb originality did not cause him to overlook the gems of truth in the teachings of his predecessors and contemporaries. And the most original of his teachings was the emphasis of love and mercy in the place of fear and sacrifice.

100:7.6 (1102.3) Jesus was very broad in his outlook. He exhorted his followers to preach the gospel to all peoples. He was free from all narrow-mindedness. His sympathetic heart embraced all mankind, even a universe. Always his invitation was, “Whosoever will, let him come.”

100:7.7 (1102.4) Of Jesus it was truly said, “He trusted God.” As a man among men he most sublimely trusted the Father in heaven. He trusted his Father as a little child trusts his earthly parent. His faith was perfect but never presumptuous. No matter how cruel nature might appear to be or how indifferent to man’s welfare on earth, Jesus never faltered in his faith. He was immune to disappointment and impervious to persecution. He was untouched by apparent failure.

100:7.8 (1102.5) He loved men as brothers, at the same time recognizing how they differed in innate endowments and acquired qualities. “He went about doing good.”

100:7.9 (1102.6) Jesus was an unusually cheerful person, but he was not a blind and unreasoning optimist. His constant word of exhortation was, “Be of good cheer.” He could maintain this confident attitude because of his unswerving trust in God and his unshakable confidence in man. He was always touchingly considerate of all men because he loved them and believed in them. Still he was always true to his convictions and magnificently firm in his devotion to the doing of his Father’s will.

Me here: Even in the Bible, in such an abbreviated rendition of Jesus and his character revealed to us there, Jesus was so admired, beloved, and respected by those who wrote of him and there was such trust, courage, and strength in those teachings attributed to and quoted of him. It’s always been remarkable to me how so many since then could fall so in love with this person. Now, with the Papers before us, it is revealed to us that Jesus’ nobility and grandeur of character was in so many ways his purely human being as the fruits of the Spirit led life and a quite normal experience with and of Religion In Human Experience. In many ways, to me at least, this is the greatest of all teachings in the UB…how grand and glorious is our normal spirit nature as mortals of the realm, even upon this world, the world of the cross….now, the Shrine of Nebadon.



100:7.10 (1102.7) The Master was always generous. He never grew weary of saying, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Said he, “Freely you have received, freely give.” And yet, with all of his unbounded generosity, he was never wasteful or extravagant. He taught that you must believe to receive salvation. “For every one who seeks shall receive.”

100:7.11 (1102.8) He was candid, but always kind. Said he, “If it were not so, I would have told you.” He was frank, but always friendly. He was outspoken in his love for the sinner and in his hatred for sin. But throughout all this amazing frankness he was unerringly fair.

100:7.12 (1102.9) Jesus was consistently cheerful, notwithstanding he sometimes drank deeply of the cup of human sorrow. He fearlessly faced the realities of existence, yet was he filled with enthusiasm for the gospel of the kingdom. But he controlled his enthusiasm; it never controlled him. He was unreservedly dedicated to “the Father’s business.” This divine enthusiasm led his unspiritual brethren to think he was beside himself, but the onlooking universe appraised him as the model of sanity and the pattern of supreme mortal devotion to the high standards of spiritual living. And his controlled enthusiasm was contagious; his associates were constrained to share his divine optimism.

100:7.13 (1103.1) This man of Galilee was not a man of sorrows; he was a soul of gladness. Always was he saying, “Rejoice and be exceedingly glad.” But when duty required, he was willing to walk courageously through the “valley of the shadow of death.” He was gladsome but at the same time humble.

8)

Are not these attributes quite human in those guided by love and the Spirit within? I think they are….yes.

100:7.15 (1103.3) His courage was magnificent, but he was never foolhardy. His watchword was, “Fear not.” His bravery was lofty and his courage often heroic. But his courage was linked with discretion and controlled by reason. It was courage born of faith, not the recklessness of blind presumption. He was truly brave but never audacious.

100:7.16 (1103.4) The Master was a pattern of reverence. The prayer of even his youth began, “Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name.” He was even respectful of the faulty worship of his fellows. But this did not deter him from making attacks on religious traditions or assaulting errors of human belief. He was reverential of true holiness, and yet he could justly appeal to his fellows, saying, “Who among you convicts me of sin?”

100:7.17 (1103.5) Jesus was great because he was good, and yet he fraternized with the little children. He was gentle and unassuming in his personal life, and yet he was the perfected man of a universe. His associates called him Master unbidden.

100:7.18 (1103.6) Jesus was the perfectly unified human personality. And today, as in Galilee, he continues to unify mortal experience and to co-ordinate human endeavors. He unifies life, ennobles character, and simplifies experience. He enters the human mind to elevate, transform, and transfigure it. It is literally true: “If any man has Christ Jesus within him, he is a new creature; old things are passing away; behold, all things are becoming new.”

8)

Thanks to all who have followed along….now and in time to come. May we all be encouraged and inspired as we consider the transformative power and Divine assistance and guidance for Religion In Human Experience.

Embrace the reality. Trust in the WAY – the Tadpole Way!!

Bradly :biggrin: 8)

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For those who may be interested, here is a link to the topic related to Paper 101 - The Real Nature of Religion:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5921

Enjoy!! 8) Bradly

From Section 7 of Paper 100 we should now consider the last Paper in the UB - Paper 196 The Faith of Jesus! Remember that the religious experience of the Master as a child was not unusual or super-mortal in any way. The mind's connection to the Spirit within and the Deity Circuits of Personality, Spirit, and Mind deliver the faith experience and the Divine Assurance of Faith to almost every mind of every child on Urantia. The Faith of Jesus is an excellent study for considering our own faith experience as tadpoles and mortals.

Paper 196

The Faith of Jesus

196:0.1 (2087.1) JESUS enjoyed a sublime and wholehearted faith in God. He experienced the ordinary ups and downs of mortal existence, but he never religiously doubted the certainty of God’s watchcare and guidance. His faith was the outgrowth of the insight born of the activity of the divine presence, his indwelling Adjuster. His faith was neither traditional nor merely intellectual; it was wholly personal and purely spiritual.

196:0.2 (2087.2) The human Jesus saw God as being holy, just, and great, as well as being true, beautiful, and good. All these attributes of divinity he focused in his mind as the “will of the Father in heaven.” Jesus’ God was at one and the same time “The Holy One of Israel” and “The living and loving Father in heaven.” The concept of God as a Father was not original with Jesus, but he exalted and elevated the idea into a sublime experience by achieving a new revelation of God and by proclaiming that every mortal creature is a child of this Father of love, a son of God.

196:0.3 (2087.3) Jesus did not cling to faith in God as would a struggling soul at war with the universe and at death grips with a hostile and sinful world; he did not resort to faith merely as a consolation in the midst of difficulties or as a comfort in threatened despair; faith was not just an illusory compensation for the unpleasant realities and the sorrows of living. In the very face of all the natural difficulties and the temporal contradictions of mortal existence, he experienced the tranquillity of supreme and unquestioned trust in God and felt the tremendous thrill of living, by faith, in the very presence of the heavenly Father. And this triumphant faith was a living experience of actual spirit attainment. Jesus’ great contribution to the values of human experience was not that he revealed so many new ideas about the Father in heaven, but rather that he so magnificently and humanly demonstrated a new and higher type of living faith in God. Never on all the worlds of this universe, in the life of any one mortal, did God ever become such a living reality as in the human experience of Jesus of Nazareth.

196:0.4 (2087.4) In the Master’s life on Urantia, this and all other worlds of the local creation discover a new and higher type of religion, religion based on personal spiritual relations with the Universal Father and wholly validated by the supreme authority of genuine personal experience. This living faith of Jesus was more than an intellectual reflection, and it was not a mystic meditation.

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For those interested, here's a link to a continuation of this study:

Papers 101 and 102 and 103:


https://forum.truthbook.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5921

https://forum.truthbook.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5932

https://forum.truthbook.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=5936

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Link to "Deity Connections":

https://forum.truthbook.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6137

8)

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