© 2019 Dominique Ronfet
© 2019 French-speaking Association of Readers of the Urantia Book
| When Are We Granted Personality? | Le Lien Urantien — Issue 88 — December 2019 | Some information about Urantia Foundation |
What is this falsely elliptical title?
Why not have written “values” instead of this adverb which leaves us in misleading suspense?
Still acting interesting.
Yes, well, my idea (because it is indeed an idea) is to question the readers.
Not to let him believe that these “values” are easily identifiable evidence.
How so? The Booklets are quite clear, aren’t they? Values, eternal values, permeate reality.
Having said that, we are no further forward.
These three elements constituting universal reality* make us perplexed actors. How to act in this theater?
— It is nevertheless simple: you illuminate through your faith, your interior life which then makes you perceive the true values whose heart is love.
— Well demonstrated. It’s a bit like learning to dance. There’s theory and practice.
— But how else to do it?
— What interests me is the living process which revolves around these three factors.
— But still?
— Our life seems to be played out in the art we have of integrating ourselves into this reality.
— …? (Skeptical silence)
— Let’s take a fact, whatever it may be, it has no meaning other than that which our intellect wishes to give it. There is no absolute meaning to an event.
— Yes, obviously.
— So the eventual ethical or moral conclusion that we draw from it will depend entirely on our interpretation of this fact.
— If you are guided by the Spirit the question does not arise.
— This is indeed where the notion of value comes in. And if we speak of “spiritual” values, these can only come from a… spiritual source.
— What do you mean?
— I think that there must be an inspiration in the mind of the individual who seeks the values of the world. I would oppose inspiration to a simple rational conclusion.
— How do you object?
— If we want to go beyond simple traditional values, educational models which vary according to peoples and cultures, we must accustom our minds to being surprised and expecting values which do not necessarily correspond to what our intellect expects.
— You complicate everything.
— I don’t think so. I would compare this phenomenon to the birth of our soul.
— What connection?
— You read correctly that our soul was the result of three factors and not two. The third, after the mind and the divine spirit which inhabits us, being the relationship between these first two factors.**
The relationship is then like the dance I was talking about earlier.
A reality in itself. However, this relationship is not permanent in us, sometimes it happens, sometimes not.
— You mean that values are the result of the relationship between our mind and a given situation?
— Rather, it is in the quality of this relationship that we will be, or not, aware of high values that are beyond us.
We are not always brilliant dancers.
— I don’t see what you mean. But I suspect you of wanting to reject our magnificent traditions and their recognized values.
— I think that The Fascicles invite us to share a revolutionary life. Through the Spirit, in which we believe but do not really know if we experience it.
— So what?
— And yes, so what!? The ascending life seems to play out as an attempt at permanent adequacy between opposing forces that we must harmonize. It is not a question of combat between Good and Evil but rather of games of seduction, first in ourselves, then in the world. Let us be informed and alert dancers!
— May the Supreme be with you.
— Well said. Well, I’m thirsty now, aren’t you?
— And how? Are we going to Leonington’s?
— Ok, let’s go for Leonington.
** UB 111:2.4
Dominique
| When Are We Granted Personality? | Le Lien Urantien — Issue 88 — December 2019 | Some information about Urantia Foundation |