© 1981 Henry Begemann
© 1981 The Urantia Book Fellowship (formerly Urantia Brotherhood)
Personality has its origin in the First Source and Center, and is the direct, not evolutionary, gift of the Universal Father. This majestic origin enables it to function, while unchanged, even on the absolute level. This fact can hardly be known by natural religion, it is characteristically a revealed truth. Only the last epochal revelation states this truth clearly and explicitly.
Personality here and now may have a vague notion of its high origin, and consequently of its high destiny; nevertheless we may say that it virtually does not know itself. Even accepting in faith the revealed truth about itself does not imply that personality knows itself. This revealed truth functions as a signpost pointing to a far destiny, enshrouded in mystery,
But it is more than just a signpost, it also is an urge to follow this path of self-discovery that leads to its origin, the Universal Father. We know the Universal Father, our Father, who stands at the end of this road, if ever there is an end; and it is his love for us, and our love for him, that urges us to discover our true selves, sons of this Father.
Though the last destiny indicated on the signpost is the absolute level, there are more intermediate destinies indicated. We now live in the age of the Supreme with its gradations of completion, and more will follow. Our self-discovery career is now characterized by Supremacy. This includes not only self-knowledge, but also self-realization.
Self knowledge is an attractive theme for most individuals on this planet. On the physical level it is our material body that fascinates us. And millions of people are likewise fascinated by the mind, its conscious functioning and its sub-conscious functioning. But relatively few are fascinated by the super-consciousness, the soul-dominated mind, the realm of discerned meanings and experienced values, the contact-level with the Thought Adjuster.
Therefore is revelation such a great help, in fact it is essential, It helps us to discern what is the true self in contradistinction to the false self, the ego. Our book stresses that this long road of self-discovery is the way of experience, which implies learning and practicing. Most often our book uses the term “self-realization” instead of “self-knowledge.” Knowing that we are sons of the heavenly Father is of little value as long as we don’t practice this truth. Though all men are potential sons of God, actual sons are those who experience and practice sonship with God.
We start out by accepting and believing that we are sons of God. The next phase is becoming a faith-son of the Father. Gradually this evolves inwardly into the consciousness of being related to the Thought Adjuster, and may sometimes grow into the beginning of a conscious relationship with the Father-within. Outwardly this process of realizing sonship with God begins with understanding to a certain extent what Supremacy is; and the next phase is that we become increasingly conscious of being related to the Supreme, with its practical consequences. Finally, when the long, long road of self-realization is traversed, the finaliter receives the honourable title of “child of the Supreme.” “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.” (UB 115:0.1)
Well, we are something, we are sons of the Father. But we must also do something, achieve something. We can only achieve in sonship with God, and this places us in direct relationship with the Supreme Being. The function of the Supreme is to lead the seven superuniverses to settlement in light and life (light is the opposite of darkness and life the opposite of death). This evolutionary process takes place in the three domains of matter, mind, and spirit. As these three are originally one, this oneness should reappear. In the age of the Supreme this purpose is qualified as: dominion of spirit over matter through the medium of mind, supremacy. It follows that when we partake in the evolutionary process, we should not separate the three domains, Though in last analysis this would be impossible, as mind is involved in all human activity, even in what seems to be a purely material activity, it is nevertheless possible that the choosing “I,” centered in the mind, places its values wholly or predominantly in the material realm. Then, through the medium of mind, matter tries to get dominion over spirit, the opposite of Supremacy.
So, in considering the evolutionary process, in which we are involved individually, we should evaluate this process of continual change according to the standard of Supremacy, spirit over matter. What spirit really is, is difficult to say. Spirit is above mind, and, therefore, mind cannot define spirit, But we are taught that experienced, felt values are the motivating power of spirit energy.
There are specific values in each of these domains of matter, mind, and spirit. The oneness of values in origin and destiny is perhaps easier to recognize than oneness of the domains themselves. If we take beauty as an example, we can recognize that beauty in the material realm is closely related to the faculty of the mind to recognize beauty, which further leads the spirit-mind on to rejoice in the faith-fact that the real universe is bathed in the beauty of its Creator-Father. Art should not work contrary to Supremacy by making it difficult to connect the three value-domains.
Jesus taught the fishermen Alpheus twins that it was always possible to strive for connecting the three domains in the right order: “Never forget that, when you are a faith son of God, all upright work of the realm is sacred. Nothing which a son of God does [realizing his sonship with God] can be common. Do your work, therefore, from this time on, as for God.” (UB 192:2.13)
Self-realization is more than self-knowledge, Real self-knowledge cannot be attained without acting. Therefore, self realization works along the path of decisions, more decisions, and still more decisions; effort, more effort, and still more effort. But we are helped along this path of Supremacy, of sonship with God, through communion with the Father-within, the Thought Adjuster, who identifies himself with a subject that struggles in the age of the Supreme, and that’s why there is an unseen co-operation of the Mystery Monitors, the Spirit of the Supreme Creator Son, and the Supreme. Our part is to dedicate our wills to doing the Father’s supreme will, and so doing we surely shall make good progress in self-realization, spiritualization.
— Henry Begemann
Wassenaar. Netherlands