© 2004 Georges Michelson-Dupont
© 2004 French-speaking Association of Readers of the Urantia Book
| Le Lien Urantien — Issue 32 — Winter 2004 — Contents | Le Lien Urantien — Issue 32 — Winter 2004 | Reason and Faith |
The organizers of the I.U.A. international conference, which was held in Chicago from July 28 to August 1, 2004, asked me last March to lead a workshop and I chose the subject “becoming what I AM”.
When I arrived on site, I discovered that the theme had become: “worship as a technique of communion”. Perplexed, I went to one of the organizers to express my embarrassment when suddenly the idea came to me: “communion” means entering into “communion” which is directly related to the theme I had chosen “becoming what I AM”, becoming one with my Thought Adjuster.
By slightly changing my introduction, the subject became perfectly consistent with what I had prepared. English not being my native language, I nevertheless had to rethink a little the articulation of my presentation which I made without notes and in the form of a dialogue with the people present.
Here are the main ideas presented in writing.
When I observe myself, I see that I am a being in perpetual becoming. Yesterday I was, today I am different from yesterday and tomorrow I will be different from today. I am the seat of continual conscious and unconscious changes. This state of constant changes is maintained, constantly renewed by the essential needs of my being. They create in me a tension between a current state and a better future state which must imperatively be resolved. These needs which manifest themselves are of three natures: physical needs of my body such as food, shelter, reproduction, intellectual needs of my mind such as knowledge, education and know-how, and needs which relate to my personality and the values of my life, truth, beauty, goodness, true love, justice, security.
I thus recognize that my being is based on three realities that express needs: my body, my consciousness and my personality and these three function in unity to form my I AM. However, these three realities are very different; the first, of a material nature, is energetic and entirely controlled by mathematical and physical laws, it is said to be subordinate. The second, of a mental nature, is reflective and educable, it is said to be coordinated because the mind has the faculty of coordinating ideas with a view to a goal or an action. The third is in the domain of values and meanings, it possesses an exceptional prerogative: free will. It is indeed my personality which sets the goals of my life, decides on the actions to achieve them and uses the other two realities to satisfy them. It is said to be super-ordered.
These three fundamental realities which constitute my being, namely, my body, my consciousness and my personality, functioning in unity thanks to my personality, are constantly evolving: my body changes day after day from the state of fetus until my death, my field of consciousness widens and educates itself as I live new experiences and my personality becomes more and more “superordinating” as my free will is exercised, chooses among values and controls my behaviors. My personality does not change but its field of action grows in direction, deepens in efficiency of reaction, and widens in capacity for coordination.
There are therefore energies and forces which are at work and which actualize the needs of my entire being. They constantly draw on potentials to manifest these three components of my being. For example, in the ovum-sperm association that I was some 58 years ago, there existed in potential what I have become today but also what I will be tomorrow. Simply at the time of fertilization the potential of my being was maximum and its actualization zero. However, yesterday, like today and like tomorrow my being exists, I AM what I was yesterday, I AM what I am today and I AM what I will be tomorrow. My being, my I AM is at the origin of this constant manifestation. I therefore note that this notion of original, potential and actual is not a simple theory but a reality that my being lives at every moment.
The three unified realities of my being, which are my body, my consciousness and my personality, correspond to three potentials or “reservoirs of possibilities”, one of a physical nature from which physical energies draw to permanently actualize the needs of my body, one of a mental nature from which mental energies draw to permanently actualize the needs of my consciousness (or mind) and one of a spiritual nature from which spiritual energies draw to actualize the needs of values and meanings that my personality seeks to actualize in the life of my being. These potentials of different nature but which constantly work together form what I will call my “triodity of potentiality”. Conversely, what I will be when all my potentials have been actualized (or manifested) I will call my “triodity of actualization”. What I am at this moment is located somewhere in between the two and represents an intermediate state between that of a fetus and that of a completed being. This movement of growth, of which my being is the seat from the fetal (potential) state to the completed (manifested) state, is a process that I will call Supremacy. It synthesizes in my original self the energies of the potential self and the manifested self.
Looking around me I see the same process working in my wife. He also actualizes his 3 natures of potentials which are clearly different from mine, my children whom I have seen grow up, my friends, and all the human beings around me. By observing my cats, my dog I see that they too are actualizing their potentials. By leaning out the window I see the trees that I planted, a few decades before, become giants. By raising my eyes to the sky on a deep night I see that the entire observable universe is in a movement of transformation.
All these observations lead me to conclude that these three natures of reality which constitute the triodity of potential must be universal, that they have been functioning since the dawn of time and that they will continue to function without me being able to attribute a limit to them. This character of infinity makes me grant them the notion of absoluteness in the sense that I cannot set limits to them. I therefore note that this movement of constant progression that I call Supremacy, in its nature as in its functioning, is based on foundations of an absolute nature.
Man is of animal nature but, thanks to the prerogatives of the free will of his personality, he is no longer slavishly linked to antecedent causes and can have an influence on his future, he is capable of choosing what will come out of the triodity of potential. Indeed, the personality possesses the capacity to control the behavior of the being and to change his animality into humanity then into divinity if he has the desire.
Thus we observe that the 3 potentials that we have just seen are of a reactive nature. They react to the impulses of the 3 currents which are by nature active.
Without the exercise of mathematical laws or forces, nothing can “come out” (actualize itself) from the energy potential. For example, my body which represents the material self manifested at a given moment has needs and for these to be satisfied they are drawn from the material potential.
Without the exercise of thought nothing can manifest from the mental potential. For example, scientific discoveries would not have been made real and usable if scientists had not exercised their mental activity.
Without the exercise of the free will of the personality nothing can come out of the spiritual potential. If my free will decides that my self will adopt the values of truth, beauty and goodness as a rule of life and behavior then I would make manifest realities of truth, beauty and goodness previously potential.
I thus discover that all the possibilities which make up material, intellectual and spiritual realities have always existed, either still in a potential state or manifested. Man has been given the extraordinary power to actualize potentials through his free will.
Thus, we have just made the effort to start from the human observation of our being and its environment to go back to the discovery of a fundamental law that we have called “Supremacy” governed or operated by absolutes but in which our free will remains decisive. Indeed, the actualization of my potentials depends absolutely on my choices. My free will is sovereign in the sense that I have the possibility of acting or not in accordance with the will of God. But without the help of revelation our observation stops there for lack of additional data.
So let’s see what the authors of the URANTIA Book have to say on the subject.
The I AM, absolutely had to break the tautological circle of infinity-infinity. There we use the human language of reasoning in space-time and therefore we must fragment infinity.
In what is still only the undifferentiated infinityinfinite God decides to exercise his inherent free will and thereby differentiates the two phases or realities of himself, the personal which acts and the non-personal which reacts while retaining his original state before this differentiation within which now these two phases coexist. From monist the I AM therefore becomes triune then by association of the three phases between them the I AM culminates in seven phases which “eternalize” themselves as seven Absolutes:
The First Central Source (The Universal Father), the Second Central Source (the Eternal Son), the Central Source of Paradise (Paradise), the Third Central Source (the Infinite Spirit), the Deity Absolute (the possibility of existence of all personalities), the Unqualified Absolute (the possibility of existence of everything that is not personal and that is undeified), the Universal Absolute (the possibility of links between the undeified and the deified: the mind)
Let us pause in this description which, once again, is purely theoretical. The I AM and all its absolute phases and manifestations have always been, are and always will be and this “sequential” presentation is only an attempt to present to our temporal and finite consciousness timeless and infinite realities. It is necessary for our mental conceptualization of infinity that we segment it to reframe it in a comprehensible space and time. This is what we do in geometry when we draw a straight line. We segment it to fit on the limited page but in fact this straight line is unlimited. It will never be possible for us to fully conceptualize the Infinity of the I AM but we can experience one of its phases by becoming a partner with God the Father. Loving Him, seeking to do His will and becoming like Him is the only way we have to attain the I AM.
Let us return to our reasoning. The I AM, among other things, is a creator. He is the sole source of all creation. From his pedestal of infinity-eternity he could only “go around in circles”. He had to find a mechanism that would allow him to break the circle of eternity infinity. He therefore laid the foundations that allowed him to act and become a creator. Thus, by differentiating himself, the Original I AM gave “birth” to the potentials (all past, present and future possibilities) and to the actuals (all past, present and future finalities) which are the potential and actual limits of infinity between which all creations and creatures can take place and manifest. At the same time He separated the realities of energies from those of spirit, thus establishing a “tension” and the possibility of reunifying them by a new reality: the mind.
Finally, these 7 differentiations are eternalized in the 7 Absolutes that we know under the names of the 3 absolutes of Potentiality (the Unqualified Absolute, the Universal Absolute and the Absolute of Deity), the three Absolutes of Actualization (the Eternal Son, the Infinite Spirit and Paradise) and the absolute First Source Center.
The difference between the infinite I AM and an Absolute lies in the fact that an Absolute is an “eternalized for a given function” part of the Infinite I AM. It therefore possesses the same nature of infinity as it but only in its “domain” of functioning. For example, it was necessary for the non-deified reality to emerge from somewhere in the I AM and this “somewhere” was eternalized (or eternalized) under the aspect of the Unqualified Absolute from which all possibilities of a “non-deified” nature are drawn. It is in a way a “reservoir” of possibilities, of all past, present and future possibilities.
For “something” (creations or creatures) in the universe to be able to “actualize itself” its possibility of existence must already be present. For example, before I was born my parents had to meet. Their meeting represents the possibility of my existence which has become a reality in the process of manifestation.
The three potential phases that have been eternalized in the form of the three Absolutes of potentiality represent precisely these reservoirs of energy possibilities by the Unqualified Absolute, of unifying mental possibilities by the Universal Absolute and the possibilities of various personalities by the Personality Absolute. At the other end of infinity we find the three absolutes of actuality representing manifested Absolutes such as the Eternal Son for personalities, Paradise as the absolute of energies (the non-personal) and the Infinite Spirit for the mind. At the center remains the First Source Center which connects the 6 Absolutes.
Thus having established the boundaries of all potential and actual realities, God, the First Source Center, now associates himself with his absolutes in 15 triunities of which only seven are revealed to us.
A Triunity is a functional association of the First Source Center with 2 of the 6 Absolutes constituting total reality. These 3 absolutes put into functional relation their own domain of absoluteness which is then activated (animated) by the presence of the First Source Center.
For example, the Father is absolute love, the bestower of personality and life. The Son is absolute mercy, absolute personality, and the bestower of spirit realities. Spirit is absolute mind, the manipulator of energies, and the minister. The triunity of the Universal Father, the eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit combines and activates the characteristics of each in dynamic function. Thus the love of the Father, the mercy of the Son, and the ministry of the Spirit function in triune association, and the divine ascension plan for creature evolution is thus set in motion. It also provides the mechanisms of creature existence by the conferring of personality through the Father, the bestowal of Spirit through the Son, and the bestowal of mind through the Spirit. Finally, vital animation through the Father, the functioning of volition through the person of the Son, and the control of the energies necessary for creature life through the Spirit. We had seen previously that the Personality possesses a unique prerogative of volition and this Triunity is the maximum of volition, an absolute volition. It is also the triunity allowing the creative function of the First Source Center to function.
This is also the case with the other triunities which, together and according to their specificities, set up the scene in which, on which and with which the First Source Center will deploy its creative activity on the subabsolute levels.
Now that the stage of possibilities is ready at the absolute level, all that remains is to inaugurate time, give life and activate the energies in space by the will of the Creator.
Then a second series of triune associations which we call Triodity takes place between the absolutes but the First Source Center, having delegated the maximum of its prerogatives, has withdrawn from it.
Thus, by the eternalization of the absolutes and their triune functional associations in the form of Triunities then Triodities, God the First Source Center +, organizes the gift of himself to his creatures and to his creation thus escaping his tautology. He establishes and provides the functioning of growth and Supremacy which will allow his creatures to progress to him and to become perfect in their respective spheres as he himself is perfect in his.
Two of these triodities are of particular interest to us, the triodity of potential and the triodity of actualization, triodities that we had already encountered in the first part of our study. There is a “tension” (a desire) of actualization between these potentials and their manifestations. And we also call this tension Supremacy. Indeed we had seen that man is directly the actor who animates them. By his free will he actualizes the needs of his being, the material, intellectual and spiritual potentials become manifested.
We see, then, that the process of actualization of potentials that we observed operating in human nature is only the continuation of the same process that God originally established and which has been operating from all eternity, past, present and future. We function completely according to divine laws and organization. This is not surprising since we are descended from him, in him we live, we move and we have our existence.
But that is not all as far as we are concerned, for he has also given us a fragment of himself, a fragment of the original, potential and actual I AM. We possess within us the I AM with all its characteristics of infinity and absoluteness. In doing so he gives us the possibility of becoming “divine like him.” The seven Absolutes contained in the I AM are also contained within us by the presence of the Adjuster. He is our true nature, and therefore becoming what I AM means becoming One with my Thought Adjuster.
In the first page of the first paper of The URANTIA Book a Divine Counselor reminds us that God lovingly gives us the injunction to become perfect in our sphere as he himself is perfect in his. In all logic and fairness this supposes that he has given us all the means and tools to become so. In absolute reality we are so since we are inhabited by a fragment of God but in spatio-temporal reality we become so as we choose to unite our will with that of our Adjuster and to actualize the divine potentials which are in him. Let us not be mistaken, it is not a question of human potentials, of material accomplishment but of revealing the love, mercy and selfless service buried in the divine potentials of our Adjusters.
This law of evolution, based on universal progress and the actualization of absolute potentials, is inevitable because it is willed by God, but for each of us, it is up to us to determine and act according to our awareness of what we are, what God represents for us and what we want to become in collaboration with him. The question that God asks us is: I have given you a body, a consciousness, a personality endowed with free will, I have provided you with a framework for life so that you can exercise your will and I have given you a fragment of myself to guide you with love and wisdom on the path of progress and growth that leads to me, do you want to actively become my partners and thus allow the actualization of the divine potentials that I have placed in you and of which the Adjuster is the source? Jesus, your Creator Son and my son revealed to you your filiation with me, a Father, a God of love, now I propose to you to become more than sons, partners, full associates of my projects and to this collaboration I will place no limits if only you want it.
What a proposition! God needs us! When we decide to do His will, a part of the potential of His divine nature is revealed in time and actualized in space. This growing part of Himself that manifests through our will is what The Urantia Book calls “God the Supreme.” Thus we discover and become aware of our great responsibility to Him and to the rest of the cosmos: we, humble creatures that we are, have the incredible power to actualize our God of space-time as we seek to do His will, namely, to love, show mercy to, and serve our fellowmen as God the Father does for each of us. We are truly the children of God the Supreme.
When God and man associate, no limits can be placed on this association.
Georges Michelson-Dupont
| Le Lien Urantien — Issue 32 — Winter 2004 — Contents | Le Lien Urantien — Issue 32 — Winter 2004 | Reason and Faith |