© 2012 Eduardo Altuzarra
© 2012 Urantia Association of Spain
| The XI Meeting of readers | Luz y Vida — No. 29 — June 2012 — Index | Experience and conclusions of the Leadership Symposium |
¶ Leadership in the Urantia movement
By Eduardo Altuzarra
In principle, it is about exposing in a very brief way what may well be a good dissemination, from my point of view, of The Urantia Book and its in-depth study represented by people who, through experience, have the discernment and coherence, and master the arts of unification, organization and cooperation.
In just over fifty years, The Urantia Book has been translated into most of today’s languages. The more than 7,000 million people on this planet will have the opportunity to read, in the not too distant future, the revealed documents in their language of origin.
In my opinion, it must be kept in mind that, before taking a leadership initiative, we must first reflect on what has been learned from The Urantia Book and what motivates us to act as a result of that learning.
In acquiring the commitment to disclose the revealed documents, it is desirable to assume the responsibility of developing it with the same philosophy that Jesus possessed. Deploy his theory and do everything in our power, of what he practiced:
He was reasonable, accessible, practical and with good common sense. He was kind and firm of character. He had a well balanced personality. He was immune to disappointment and impervious to persecution. The apparent failures did not affect him.
He was overloaded with divine enthusiasm, but he never became a fan. He was emotionally active, but never capricious. He was imaginative but always practical. He faced the realities of life frankly, but he was never bland or mundane. He was brave but never reckless; prudent, but never cowardly. He was compassionate but not sentimental; exceptional but not eccentric. He was pious but not blessed. It was so well balanced because it was perfectly unified.
Jesus was not afraid. He was not flamboyant, erratic, or eccentric. He was not capricious, whimsical, or hysterical. In all his teaching and in all the things he did there was always an exquisite discrimination, associated with an extraordinary sense of correctness. UB 100:7.3-4
The dissemination of The Urantia Book must not be slow nor too fast, it would be a suicidal act. It has to develop at a rate of progressive and constant growth. Advertising should not be excessive or subversive. In time, The Urantia Book will be available to thousands of people.
It would be a good idea to establish an ambitious macro project coordinated by the knowledge, patience and insight of the people involved and the certainty of its projection. It is about presenting the documents in an intelligent, respectful, wise and loving way.
Its members must contribute cooperation, since that supposes a greater advantage than the sum of the individual actions. When a project is shared in a common direction and there is a sense of community, we can get where we want to go more easily and faster.
Project Schematic Summary
Revealed Papers: The Urantia Book
The organization has to introduce valuations to knowledge. The introduction of changes in the conventions is required and annulment of the anachronistic systems of persuasion. Almost all readers of The Urantia Book learn a little more about the reality of life every day. In this case it is about organizing.
Preparing the ground is neither more nor less than experts or educators combining criteria to develop a base project, which triggers a coherent dissemination, and that these members in turn participate in the formation of study groups made up of new and future candidates to be part of the movement.
Those responsible for the formation of neophytes will be people who promote brotherhood among human beings. Sincere, kind, humble, understanding and open-minded character. That they possess a mind with a vision of reality that develops intuition, insight, courage, discernment, advice, worship of God and wisdom.
Over time, the in-depth assimilation of the corresponding Documents leads the student to obtain a series of qualities to teach comments that are born from living texts, adapted to human consciousness that clarify thoughts through the light of Truth.
Creating School:
It is necessary to deal with innovative aspects, develop a pedagogical method to reach spiritual psychology, to put into practice all the physical, mental and spiritual elements that the human being possesses in dignified and correct proportion within.
Creating a school for apprentices is not an easy task, but it is not impossible either. Spreading the Truth and talking about Reality is a desirable task.
The procedure must be adopted based on the circumstances and realities, both cultural and historical, as well as social and religious, of the place and the environment. It is about transmitting a new thought.
The Method must consist of making REALITY see from the pillars that sustain it: science, philosophy and religion. From things, meanings and values. From reason, logic and faith. From knowledge, wisdom and truth.
In principle, it is necessary to establish a series of friendly relations from which dialogues are obtained that form the climate of social cordiality and sincere honesty, necessary for the exchange of topics about life, death, spirituality, etc., as well as of the vicissitudes of the person himself.
Short and simple questions to the person himself about the variety of issues that can develop, help in very good ways to scrutinize the soul of the fellow. You also have to carry an aptitude that helps to quench the thirst of the soul of those people who need spiritual well-being. Trying to discover the religious level allows us to know the spiritual needs of the human being.
These paths must be traveled with an understanding attitude, exercising good life examples and applying high doses of patience. With this, it is possible to place The Urantia Book on the threshold of the door of the person who is a candidate to read its text.
From those moments, the interested party is prepared by means of a manual that helps him to understand the new terms that he will have to face due to the complexity of the content of The Urantia Book.
The Manual should provide an experiential road map for life, a blueprint for progressive character development, and the essential cosmic perspective for living the Golden Rule at its highest level of interpretation.
The manual contains a series of explanations, definitions, images and graphs illustrated according to personal interpretations, which will help the candidate to understand and interpret the various documents in the book.
The previous explanations, as well as the vision of schemes, project onto the human mind new ideas, new thoughts and new perspectives that will establish in the candidate the “foundations” on which he will build his new destiny.
It must also provide participants with a universal framework for spiritual development that meets the intellectual, moral, and spiritual aspirations of all who adopt it, regardless of nationality, religion, culture, or race, because of the deep and heartfelt connection it inspires. with the divine, so that service becomes the instinctive response of a spiritually reverent outlook.
Learning does not have to be traumatic or conflictive. It has to be something like a universal balm for the spirit that instills in the participants a passion for balanced and intentional self-development, with the purpose of becoming the best they can be for the benefit of this generation and the ones that follow.
In short, it is about educating in a new “grammar”, in a new pronunciation, and in a new writing. Sort of like learning a new language. Basically, they try to develop new intellectual, moral and religious capacities in order to cultivate universal intelligence and obtain a better cosmic perspective.
Pedagogy
The process can be divided into three stages:
- Education
- Study group
- Teaching
Education: consists of promoting new thoughts. It is a stage in which a work of spiritual investigation is put into practice in which, through short expositions, questions are raised and answers related to the concerns of the attendees are issued. Friendly relations are maintained and a climate of fraternal trust is established. This preparation gives clarity to new thoughts and new ideas. From the whole process, over time new commitments are born, which will lead the attendees to form part of the study groups.
Daily practice involves work and effort. Want to develop the plan, power with that responsibility and commit to raising spiritual capacity. Nothing is free.
We must instruct by showing that our experiences begin on earth and continue through a multidimensional universe to conclude in eternity. That throughout this journey our only commitment should be to find and know the creator of all things, the Universal Father, with the purpose of believing in our similarity with Him.
Project Outline
Those responsible for recruiting and training future readers of The Urantia Book will be people who promote brotherhood among human beings.
Study group: it transports us to be aware of the Father and requires developing in fair proportion the capacity of three innate reactions in the cosmic mind:
- Scientific discernment
- Moral conscience
- Spiritual intuition
Carrying out this mission, that is, the success of the plan, implies that we must never forget our daily dedication and effort. And here comes to my memory what they taught me years ago:
If you stop practicing one day, you will notice the difference.
If you stop practicing for two days, those who criticize you will notice
If you stop practicing for three days, everyone who knows you will notice.
To increase intellectual development - scientific discernment - is to raise the quality of our way of thinking, while we explore our beliefs and those of others based on what The Urantia Book reveals to us.
Increasing altruism and ethics - moral conscience - is to ennoble the disposition, intentions and objectives, developing emotional maturity. These aspects make us recognize and pay attention to those models of behavior that do not help the growth of a balanced personality.
Increasing the religious concept - spiritual intuition - is expanding concepts of communion, such as meditation, prayer and worship. This helps to synchronize with the divinity of the indwelling Adjuster, increasing the joy of life and honest fun.
Teaching: is established to deepen the reading and study of The Urantia Book in all its content, since it is about expanding the true spiritual values that will illuminate the evolution and progress of the human being: psychology spiritual.
To increase true spiritual values, we have to take into account a number of factors of human behavior. For example, faith. Faith is one of the pillars of our nature. Possessing a living faith helps us to obtain a proportionate and conscious personality of the Father.
Another may be fitness. To intend to express the qualities of divinity and to live as a member of the spiritual brotherhood of God’s children on earth is to do the will of the Father.
Constancy is another factor. The increasing perseverance in the development of personality. It is individual progress reflected in society through unity and religious cooperation. This helps peaceful coexistence and social advancement among all nations.
Assessment: Show an invariable criteria to value thoughts, words and actions. This makes our human soul prosper and helps bring us closer to the Father.
Rules: These tasks should be aimed at treating all human beings with the compassionate and understanding attitude of a wise and caring parent, as well as knowing how to always maintain the quality of a student, even knowing that we teach others.
Action: It is the responsible commitment to achieve the desired objectives. The purpose of developing divine consciousness is to be fully prepared and thus to further the advancement of civilization with our best efforts. This is the challenge, responsibility and privilege of each generation.
Experiences are the most important thing in the progress and evolution of our lives. If we are not aware of them we lose a lot along the way. They help character development, universal intelligence and cosmic perspective.
You have to pay close attention to actions and consequences.
In UB 2:7.11 it says that:
Health, sanity, and happiness are integrations of truth, beauty, and goodness as they are blended in human experience. Such levels of efficient living come about through the unification of energy systems, idea systems, and spirit systems.
In the daily use of our acts we are accompanied by the physical senses, the moral and the religious experience. The results provide us with lessons for our science, our philosophy, and our religion.
Those who do not know reality get lost in fiction, fantasies and delusions.
Those who know it and do not place it on the pillars that support it, are deceived and deviate from the path and those who live it based on science, philosophy and religion that The Urantia Book shows, find the most real way to be related.
Illuminating evolution and human progress is neither more nor less than acquiring divine consciousness, that is, science, philosophy and religion in a proportional sense. The result of acquiring these abilities is a renewed character within the personality of the being.
The human beings who manage to develop, in time, all the pedagogical purposes established in the project, will have all the possibilities of reaching a spiritual psychology and an example of life, necessary to be able to continue the work of disseminating the teachings in a correct and accurate, with the faith, strength and will of a true child of the Universal Father.
That with our dedication, patience and perseverance, we make it possible for the fatherhood of God and brotherhood among all human beings to arrive without much delay!
Thanks: to Moussa Ndiaye (Senegal) and Sheila Keene (USA) for some of their ideas taken to compose this presentation.
¶ References
- Light and Life Magazine (all old issues): https://aue.urantia-association.org/numeros-antiguos-del-lyv/
| The XI Meeting of readers | Luz y Vida — No. 29 — June 2012 — Index | Experience and conclusions of the Leadership Symposium |