© 2011 Claude Castel
© 2011 French-speaking Association of Readers of the Urantia Book
What is the First Source Center of all things and all beings, which we call the One God or the Universal Father, or any other name. This source is the Spirit which creates material Nature and which is at the origin of the living Universe. (UB 1:0.1). This Spirit is an infinite and creative personality. It is not limited to a single form. It is the infinitely subtle (or the Absolute), omnipresent, omniscient and all-powerful which commands its body: the Universe, material Nature (or the Relative). Each creature, whether mineral, vegetable, animal or human, is part of this divine whole.
“The myriads of planetary systems were all made to be eventually inhabited by many different types of intelligent creatures, beings who could know God, receive the divine affection, and love him in return. The universe of universes is the work of God and the dwelling place of his diverse creatures. “God created the heavens and formed the earth; he established the universe and created this world not in vain; he formed it to be inhabited.”” (UB 1:0.2)
“In the evaluation and recognition of mind it should be remembered that the universe is neither mechanical nor magical; it is a creation of mind and a mechanism of law. But while in practical application the laws of nature operate in what seems to be the dual realms of the physical and the spiritual, in reality they are one. The First Source and Center is the primal cause of all materialization and at the same time the first and final Father of all spirits. The Paradise Father appears personally in the extra-Havona universes only as pure energy and pure spirit—as the Thought Adjusters and other similar fragmentations.” (UB 42:11.1)
“The enlightened worlds all recognize and worship the Universal Father, the eternal maker and infinite upholder of all creation. The will creatures of universe upon universe have embarked upon the long, long Paradise journey, the fascinating struggle of the eternal adventure of attaining God the Father. The transcendent goal of the children of time is to find the eternal God, to comprehend the divine nature, to recognize the Universal Father. God-knowing creatures have only one supreme ambition, just one consuming desire, and that is to become, as they are in their spheres, like him as he is in his Paradise perfection of personality and in his universal sphere of righteous supremacy. From the Universal Father who inhabits eternity there has gone forth the supreme mandate, “Be you perfect, even as I am perfect.” In love and mercy the messengers of Paradise have carried this divine exhortation down through the ages and out through the universes, even to such lowly animal-origin creatures as the human races of Urantia.” (UB 1:0.3)
To better understand it, it is useful to examine the whole of creation of which our Earth is a part but of which a law must be known or better known. The Unique Principle or law of opposites The Unique, philosophical Principle is recognizable in the infinitely small as in the infinitely large.
This universal principle, widely known in the East since antiquity, is that of opposites: yin and yang or positive and negative, antagonistic but complementary. In theory, the two poles, positive and negative, do not exist without each other and are constantly magnetizing each other. With these two extremes always together, nothing is truly stable or finished because everything is movement, oscillation. If we start from one extreme, we always end up, passing through the point of equilibrium, by falling back on the other extreme; and these two extremes, although fundamentally different, resemble each other and attract each other irresistibly. Positive and negative are characterized only relatively to each other. The positive (yang) is always at the center (or inside), and the negative (yin) on the surface (or outside). Different poles attract each other, and those of the same name repel each other. The larger attracts the smaller. Example: the planet which always attracts satellites smaller than it.
The point of equilibrium is between the two extremes, but if a pole moves away from this point of equilibrium, it becomes its antagonist: positive in excess gradually becomes negative, and negative in excess gradually becomes positive. The balance is therefore found in an equal importance of the two poles. The larger or smaller the positive, the larger or smaller the negative. Example: the scale in stable equilibrium with its two pans of the same weight. But there is also dynamic equilibrium where the two poles change importance alternately. Example: the pendulum of a clock which goes as far to the right as to the left. Practically. The Universe is unique and includes everything. It has its lights and its shadows, its infinitely small and its infinitely large, etc.
It is also matter, the material world (yang), Nature, from the smallest element to the largest. In a way the world of bodies, in time and space. But it is also the spirit, the immaterial world (yin). In a way the world of spirits, outside of time and space.
In the Universe, the Spirit, through its contact with matter, gives birth to Life. This always manifests itself through the union of the two poles and death through their separation. “The universe of universes is a vast integrated mechanism which is absolutely controlled by a single infinite mind” UB 56:0.1
A single pole, whether positive or negative, does not produce any vital manifestation on Earth. The positive pole concentrates energy. It is represented by the centripetal force (yang): the active, gravity, smallness, what is below, the horizontal direction, round shapes, constriction, solid, heat, light, etc. While the negative pole which disperses energy is represented by the centrifugal force (yin): the passive, lightness, greatness, what is above, the vertical direction, long shapes, expansion, gas, cold, darkness, etc.
We find this One Principle everywhere. Electricity cannot be produced without them. For example, the Earth has a geographic north and south pole, and the same is true magnetically. Light and temperature follow the same rule: violet and cold (yin) become red and hot (yang) when the waves or vibrations speed up, and vice versa when they slow down: red becomes violet through orange, yellow, green, blue and indigo; and hot becomes cold.
This is why we find a predominantly green nature in temperate places: it is a position of balance in a way, a midpoint between the green color and the average temperature. The seasons also respond to this unique principle: winter (cold) is yin; liquid water (yin) transforms into increasingly hard ice (yin becomes yang). Summer (hot) is yang, liquid water evaporates, forms clouds which become increasingly yin, and the exuberance of nature manifests itself during the hot season or in hot and humid regions. The manifestation of life is always expressed by the positive pole. While the Spirit is like the wind; we do not see it but we notice its effects.
“The wind blows where it wishes, you hear its voice but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes” (Bible: Jn 3.8) Genetically, the male is yang, but its reproductive system is yin through its long-shaped spermatozoa. The female is yin, but its reproductive system is yang through its round-shaped eggs. The manifestation of a new life is born from the yang pole through its union with the yin pole. Isolated, the two poles cannot transmit life. The human person functions in the same way: a living human is himself formed from a yin pole, his spirit with his mind and, from a yang pole, his body with his brain.
“On a material world you think of a body as having a spirit, but we regard the spirit as having a body. The material eyes are truly the windows of the spirit-born soul. The spirit is the architect, the mind is the builder, the body is the material building.” (UB 42:12.12)
Everything that lives is formed of this unity: mind, body and life. Humans, animals and plants all have a mind that commands them and a more or less evolved body that makes them manifest when there is a union of the two poles. Several factors differentiate human beings from animals. The first primitive animals function with: “the spirit of intuition, rapid perception, primitive physical reflex instincts”. Then, with evolution, appear: “the spirit of understanding, the gift of coordinating acquired knowledge”. Then: “the spirit of courage, the gift of loyalty”. Then: “the spirit of knowledge, curiosity, mother of adventure and discovery”. Finally: “the spirit of advice, the social impulse, the gift of cooperation with the species”. Animals only become human when they develop “the spirit of worship, the religious impulse which forever distinguishes the animal from the human,” and finally: “the spirit of wisdom, the natural tendency in all moral creatures to progress in an orderly evolution.” UB 36:5.12
A nation, an industry or a trade also forms the unit in which the yin pole is represented by those who give the directives: government, directors; and the yang pole by those who produce the goods: population, employees, workers, machines, etc.
In a way, God is present in two expressions: one yin, transcendent and eternal, invisible to our human eyes; and the other yang, immanent and changing, visible to our eyes. When a creature manifests itself, it is God in his immanent form who manifests himself. Life is a divine dream, because if the Spirit and Nature are both potentially perfect, the manifestation of life is likewise perfectly organized for evolution, with ups and downs, advances and setbacks. What we call chance, fate, luck or bad luck, gives us in a way a glimpse of this immense organization. And even if man is endowed with freedom of thought, free will, he cannot escape this organization since he is part of it. He can choose his way of living according to his environment but he can do so either within the framework of the universal laws established by the Spirit (and in this case he is in harmony with the latter); or he does it against Him and he is then obliged to assume the negative consequences. Certain facts, totally independent of human will, demonstrate this to us easily: for example, to send probes or cosmonauts into space, technicians are obliged to take into account the laws of gravitation, dynamics, etc. to bring their projects to fruition and succeed. And if they do not take them into account, disaster is assured. Life is organized for evolution, as Nature is beautiful to please, and as the Spirit is perfectly intelligent to create and compose all things. “The mechanisms do not absolutely dominate all of creation. The universe of universes, considered as a whole, is conceived by the mind, constructed by the mind and administered by the mind” UB 42:11.2
Life is a great stage on which an infinity of different plays are depicted. What we see with our physical eyes is only Illusion; Reality is found in the invisible, that is to say in the Spirit which commands Nature. And Life leads evolution from almost nothing to greater and greater progress (“The Supercontrol of Evolution” UB fasc 65). This is mainly done in a circle in this eternal Universe (the universe of universes). Examples: the stars are mainly spherical and revolve around other stars; galaxies rotate on themselves and in space; suns are born from a concentration of energy in nebulae and these eject them into the sidereal cold. They end up dying after having exhausted their energy; water, evaporated from the ocean, is returned to it by rivers and streams to complete its cycle; electricity, to be exploited, must make a circuit; the blood, sent into the arteries by the heart, returns to it through the veins; our body, created from earthly matter, returns to the earth, etc. It always occurs in a well-defined direction. “There is a great and glorious design in the march of the universes through space” UB 32:5.1. If this law of evolution in a circle is found everywhere in the material world, it also exists in the spiritual world: it is the perfection of mentalities by means of bodies through life in such a way as to finally find the Spirit (God himself) who created individual personalities.
“The enlightened worlds all recognize and worship the Universal Father, the eternal maker and infinite upholder of all creation. The will creatures of universe upon universe have embarked upon the long, long Paradise journey, the fascinating struggle of the eternal adventure of attaining God the Father. The transcendent goal of the children of time is to find the eternal God, to comprehend the divine nature, to recognize the Universal Father. God-knowing creatures have only one supreme ambition, just one consuming desire, and that is to become, as they are in their spheres, like him as he is in his Paradise perfection of personality and in his universal sphere of righteous supremacy. From the Universal Father who inhabits eternity there has gone forth the supreme mandate, “Be you perfect, even as I am perfect.” In love and mercy the messengers of Paradise have carried this divine exhortation down through the ages and out through the universes, even to such lowly animal-origin creatures as the human races of Urantia.” (UB 1:0.3)
“Evolutionary mortals are born on the planets of space, pass through the morontia worlds, ascend the spirit universes, traverse the Havona spheres, find God, attain Paradise, and are mustered into the primary Corps of the Finality, therein to await the next assignment of universe service. There are six other assembling finality corps, but Grandfanda, the first mortal ascender, presides as Paradise chief of all orders of finaliters. And as we view this sublime spectacle, we all exclaim: What a glorious destiny for the animal-origin children of time, the material sons of space!” (UB 31:10.20)
The enlightened worlds all recognize and worship the Universal Father, the eternal maker and infinite upholder of all creation. The will creatures of universe upon universe have embarked upon the long, long Paradise journey, the fascinating struggle of the eternal adventure of attaining God the Father. The transcendent goal of the children of time is to find the eternal God, to comprehend the divine nature, to recognize the Universal Father. God-knowing creatures have only one supreme ambition, just one consuming desire, and that is to become, as they are in their spheres, like him as he is in his Paradise perfection of personality and in his universal sphere of righteous supremacy. From the Universal Father who inhabits eternity there has gone forth the supreme mandate, “Be you perfect, even as I am perfect.” In love and mercy the messengers of Paradise have carried this divine exhortation down through the ages and out through the universes, even to such lowly animal-origin creatures as the human races of Urantia. (UB 1:0.3)
But for this, the length of an earthly life is very insufficient; after death, resurrection (and not reincarnation on Earth) allows progression to continue. Here is what the UB says at 94:2.3 about reincarnation:
“The undue concentration on self led certainly to a fear of the nonevolutionary perpetuation of self in an endless round of successive incarnations as man, beast, or weeds. And of all the contaminating beliefs which could have become fastened upon what may have been an emerging monotheism, none was so stultifying as this belief in transmigration—the doctrine of the reincarnation of souls—which came from the Dravidian Deccan. This belief in the weary and monotonous round of repeated transmigrations robbed struggling mortals of their long-cherished hope of finding that deliverance and spiritual advancement in death which had been a part of the earlier Vedic faith.” (UB 94:2.3)
And humans, created through a long evolutionary process, can be resurrected thanks to the existence of their individual soul “which has the potential for eternal duration” UB 1218: 1. This march towards the Spirit (towards the knowledge of the Universal Father) is eternal and one-way, just like the water which makes the circuit: ocean, clouds, rains, rivers, streams, ocean; like the blood which returns to the heart through the veins, etc.
As we have seen above, yang and yin are always united because they are complementary. Thus, if the front is yang, the back is yin; what grows above the earth is yang (in the light), and what grows below is yin (in the dark), etc. Balance is perfection when there is equivalence of the two extremes, it is never in the only positive pole or the only negative pole. Imbalance is therefore its opposite: imperfection. Example: health. This is constantly in dynamic balance with functions that regularly compensate each other. If there is an imbalance of these in relation to the whole, illness occurs. Good medicine is therefore that which seeks to re-establish the balance of functioning by means of natural laws and the Unique yin-yang Principle which is part of it. It is preventive and educational medicine, the science of health where everyone seeks to maintain their own physical, mental and spiritual balance by using products that are natural if possible, and people specialized in the field.
This text should allow everyone to understand that, even if life is sometimes discouraging and full of pitfalls, it always tends ultimately towards improvement, even if there are momentary failures and declines; and that human suffering can be reduced if the human being respects natural and divine laws, as well as all other creatures. This attitude harmonizes his life with the First Central Source of all creatures: the Universal Father. Through this respect, the evils from which humanity suffers can be greatly diminished and civilization clearly improved to lead to a better world. “All your mortal struggles are not in vain” UB 32:5.1
Claude Castel