© 2000 Jean Davier
© 200 French-speaking Association of Readers of the Urantia Book
Many human beings feel indifference or skepticism towards the problems of the existence of the spirit and eternal survival. Are we tossing around in a hopelessly closed abyss, with no other way out than death, from which no one returns according to the old adage?
After the single thought of past centuries made of ecclesiastical domination, a new totalitarianism has taken hold, the driving force behind unprecedented scientific development, an uncontrolled social metamorphosis incapable of forging an ideal society, where religion, science and philosophy would work together for the fulfillment of man.
Who are we?
Is there something in man that is overlooked and hinders his progress?
Some have understood this relative but constant progress over the centuries.
Charles Morgan expresses it thus: “the intuition of truths outside of knowledge is a form of genius.” (Sparkenbroke-ed. Stock. 1970). Paths seem to bring us closer to the realm of the spirit. Plato was already an initiating guide of this slow, barely perceptible ascent when he evokes “man as a god in exile whose greatness lies in the awareness he has of his fallen kingdom.”
The animal order is stagnant, incapable of progress, like the bee which exploits its fixed industry with disconcerting rigidity. Animal silence is total, its thought does not go beyond the material domain and does not animate any archive, past or project. The only tangible variations of this reign come from climatic changes, from the evolutionary mutations from which man ultimately emerged.
While animal lines seem abandoned and reduced to a vegetative state, man is capable of grasping, analyzing the material facts that surround him and dominating them. Faced with his purely material activity, he is gifted with a constantly evolving thought that has made our history, from cave fire to nuclear fire. Today, thanks to more efficient work and modern machinery, man is discovering a new world where he no longer perceives only his village, but a whole part of the cosmos, which has recently led him, to a certain extent, to tolerance and solidarity.
How can we acquire human clairvoyance that transcends material thought to pierce the mysteries or apparent contradictions of the universe? “There exists a great cosmic abyss between matter and thought.” (UB 112:2.10). This quote should serve as a basis for fundamental, liberating reflection. Thought elevates us above the fleshly straitjacket, it is free, it is our only wealth, it ensures our survival, it even dominates all material obstacles because it is superior to matter. It creates abstract, intellectual, emotional, even super-emotional works. Memory, condensed thought, provides man with writing, art, philosophical abstraction. “The mind is the cosmic instrument on which the human will can play the dissonances of destruction or on which this same human will can resonate the delicate melodies of identification with God and the eternal survival that results from it.” (UB 111:1.6)
Above the material realities of the universe exists a domain that can be described as super-emotional, a frontier with the spirit “the best way to discern the movements of the invisible is sometimes to observe the effects on the visible” (UB 111:1.1).
Jesus explains this problematic perception in a figurative way to Nicodemus: “When the wind blows, you hear the rustling of the leaves, but you do not see the wind, nor where it comes from, nor where it goes…and it is the same for everyone who is born of the spirit, with the eyes of the flesh one can perceive the manifestations of the spirit, but one cannot actually discern the spirit.” (UB 142:6.5)
Thought helps us escape from the purely material realm: look at the 26 letters of the alphabet scattered on a table or musical notes and signs thrown at random on a staff, or samples of different colors, nothing could be more banal. However, with the help of these purely material symbols, writers, composers, painters, can create moving works that transcend the material, provoke emotion and elevate thought. The limitless numbers of mathematics also provide the mind with a basic concept for contemplating the infinite. “When you contemplate with awe the immensity of the Master Universe, stop to think that even this inconceivable creation can be nothing more than a partial revelation of the infinite.” (UB 105:1.7)
Another example in the form of a parable: invited to a conference on higher mathematics, many human beings will prefer an evening of television, having neither the desire nor the training necessary to appreciate this service. Similarly, access to a higher kingdom requires desire and the will for transcendence animated by the acceptance of divine filiation and brotherly love.
Jesus offers us a choice with definitive consequences that should concern us more than “Dante’s Inferno.” He presents this alternative: “Human wills that are concerned only with making temporal decisions relating only to the material problems of animal existence are condemned to perish in their time…, but no adventure is more exciting than the exhilarating joy of becoming, in material life, the partner of spiritual energy and divine truth in one of their triumphant struggles against error and evil. It is a wonderful and transforming experience to become a living channel of light for mortals lost in spiritual darkness.” (UB 130:2.9). Then, “intelligent and progressive life becomes irrefutable proof of an intentional universe expressing the will of a divine creator” (UB 130:4.1)
However, on our planet cut off from the rest of the universe, isolated by Luciferian transgressions, we are often anxious, looking for clues, like Robinson Crusoe on his island, desperate by his solitude, who observes and who discovers, little by little, the tenuous signs proving that he is not alone. Any research followed by discovery is only obtained with patience and perseverance. Jesus confirms this to us in his parable on the kingdom which he compares to a seed which develops in good soil but which does not quickly reach maturity.
We must accept this arid path leading to the dizzying heights of another life: that of the spirit. We must accept this destiny that is prepared for us, transcendence towards a higher world. We cannot regress or stagnate, but only progress, despite our mediocrity, towards this ideal of perfection. If the Jesus of the fifth revelation tries to make us sensitive to supra-material realities, many of our contemporaries feel this insufficiency of man in the face of the reality that they should live. Elie Wiesel writes: “we live outside, beside ourselves” (the 5th son). Françoise Chandernagor describes human torpor “The assembly of diners secreted endorphins, these hormones of agony which make the passage from life to death insensible by accompanying it with an intense and false sensation of heat and light” (the child with the wolf). Maurice Magre also notes this human fatality “my experience teaches me that any work accomplished by man is immediately distorted” (the treasure of the Albigensians). Current man, inclined to fear, armed with a collective and stagnant ready-to-think, cosmically solitary, is often the prey of dogmatic sectarians who turn out to be blinder than himself.
It is an unusual and new teaching, unknown or misunderstood, it is that of Jesus, revelation of God to man, but also that of this new man revealed to God. Jesus is this first man revealed to God, he is the true interpretation of the parables with hidden meanings, he is the “he who wants and can understand will understand”, his wish is that everyone tomorrow will have the joy of the healed blind man who transgresses the recommendations of the master and claims the healing of his blindness. Rodan, Greek philosopher disciple of Jesus, offers us the way “God lives in man, how to free the divine and infinite powers chained in the soul” (UB 160:3.1).
“While you have an eye single to the attainment of eternal realities, you must also make provision for the necessities of temporal living. While the spirit is our goal, the flesh is a fact. Occasionally the necessities of living may fall into our hands by accident, but in general, we must intelligently work for them. The two major problems of life are: making a temporal living and the achievement of eternal survival. And even the problem of making a living requires religion for its ideal solution. These are both highly personal problems. True religion, in fact, does not function apart from the individual.” (UB 160:4.1)
Faith opens a path to eternal and infinite perspectives. The divine spirit that inhabits us, the fifth revelation, serves as a bridge to help us overcome the handicaps of this first life on our isolated planet. Voices in the distant past remind us of man’s struggles. Meister Eckart, in the 13th century, seems to have discovered the Supreme Being when he wrote: “At the bottom of being, what is uncreated in man is one with what is uncreated in God”. The 40-voice motet “Spen in allium” composed by Tallis around 1570, invites us to share the joy of faith raised to an angelic pitch.
In logion 2 of the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus expresses himself thus: “Let him who seeks not cease to seek until he finds and when he has found, he will be troubled and having been troubled, he will marvel, he will reign over all”. Let us be ready to live prophetically. According to the apostle Peter, “the darkness is already dispersing”.
Our thought, even purely material, is one of the most fantastic mysteries of the cosmos. It is proof that the universe is not mechanical, mechanical, mute, blind, frozen. Thanks to the progression of man, it will become more and more harmonious, animated, transcendent, paternal.
Let us clothe our thoughts in the clothing of a cosmonaut in search of a supermental universe. Let us associate with an intelligent, free, voluntarily perfectible truth, a keen sense of beauty, harmony, and goodness. May the unification of these concepts be the expression of an attempt at progress with a true intellect, a transcendental emotionality.
To express ourselves on continually progressive levels, we must acquire the craftsmanship of a craftsman, the experience of a philosopher, the concern for beauty of an artist, the erudition of a researcher and the innocence of a child, with the added certainty of our almost total helplessness in this first world.
In 100,000 years, the familiar constellation of the Big Dipper will offer us a different configuration from that of today because each of the stars belonging to this group has a different course. We can dream of our few seconds of life in the face of the movement of the cosmos, itself negligible compared to Eternity.
To all, Jesus says: “COME AND SEE”.
Jean Davier