© 2005 Jean-Pierre Heudier
© 2005 The Urantia Book Fellowship
| At Home In The Universe | Volume 6, Number 1, 2005 (Summer) — Index | Journey to India: Legacy of the Sethite Teachers |
(Editor’s Note: Words in bold type throughout indicate emphasis added by the author.)
As previously mentioned, whatever our experiences, they will not become truly meaningful until we learn to unify them according to our understanding of the Paradise Pattern. It is true that everyone will give, consciously or not, some meaning to his or her experiences. We all seek a certain degree of coherence, unity, in our lives. By seeking to understand our experiences in terms of the Paradise Pattern, we truly enlarge the frames of reference we already possess and which we use to give meaning and value to our experiences. By so doing, we gain a truer, higher, perspective on our contribution to the whole, certainly one of the first prerequisites for a would-be cosmic citizen.
Paradise Pattern starts with the unity of the I AM. Then three phases occur: a divinity-tension, followed by compensation for that tension, and finally a resolution of that tension. Even though presented as a sequence for the benefit of the human mortal mind which requires a beginning, unity in Paradise has always existed simultaneously with divinity-tension and its compensation, as well as its resolution.
This is the primal concept of original reality: The Father initiates and maintains Reality. The primal differentials of reality are the deified and the undeified—the Deity Absolute and the Unqualified Absolute. The primal relationship is the tension between them. This Father-initiated divinity-tension is perfectly resolved by, and eternalizes as, the Universal Absolute. [UB 0:4.5]
In the same way, the tension initiated between Paradise non-personal and non-spiritual existential reality on one hand and the Eternal Son personal and spiritual reality on the other is compensated and resolved by the Infinite Spirit, the Conjoint Actor, and the center of mind gravity. Mind has the same function in the creations of time and space that it has in Paradise. It compensates for the tension between the spiritual and the material. Its role is to co-ordinate with Spirit in the harmonious working with subordinate physical systems.
However, “On Paradise, and in the central universe, Deity unity is a fact of existence. Throughout the evolving universes of time and space, Deity unity is an achievement.” [UB 56:5.4] In other words, in the evolving universes some kind of compensation is provided for the tension, tension that must be resolved through courageous efforts, struggles, and faith, in order to achieve that unity. The resolution brings unity, but a different quality of unity for those experiencing it.
One way to get a feeling for the difference of quality is to keep in mind the comparison made between the perfect citizens of Havona and the perfected pilgrims of time and space. It’s a difference between what is inherent and what is attained, acquired, achieved.
The full appreciation of truth, beauty, and goodness is inherent in the perfection of the divine universe. The inhabitants of the Havona worlds do not require the potential of relative value levels as a choice stimulus; such perfect beings are able to identify and choose the good in the absence of all contrastive stimulus and thought compelling moral situations. …Everything divine which the human mind grasps and the human soul acquires is an experiential attainment; it is a reality of personal experience and is therefore a unique possession in contrast to the inherent goodness and righteousness of the inerrant personalities of Havona. [UB 3:5.16]
They have faith in the stability of the universe, but they are utter strangers to that saving faith whereby mortal man climbs from the status of an animal up to the portals of Paradise. They love the truth, but they know nothing of its soul-saving qualities. They are idealists, but they were born that way; they are wholly ignorant of the ecstasy of becoming such by exhilarating choice. They are loyal, but they have never experienced the thrill of wholehearted and intelligent devotion to duty in the face of temptation to default. They are unselfish, but they never gained such levels of experience by the magnificent conquest of a belligerent self. [UB 3:5.16-17]
It is very helpful for human beings on this path to unity with the divine to understand several things. First, it is important for the human personality to realize that this divinity-tension initiated by the Father and which appears in the domains of time and space as contrast between opposites, as imperfection, incompleteness, and limitations, was planned, willed. It was meant to be that way. Accepting this truth avoids wasting time blaming God for the present conditions in which we live. The dualistic world was meant to be that way. We achieve unity by exercising the gift of freewill. It was also meant for finite beings to experience the processes of differentiation, segmentation, individualization, and separation before we could feel the need for unification and unity, long for it, hunger for it, and be lured into consecrating our lives here and hereafter to attain it.
Mind can never hope to grasp the concept of an Absolute without attempting first to break the unity of such reality. Mind is unifying of all such divergencies, but in the very absence of such divergencies, mind finds no basis upon which to attempt to formulate understanding concepts.
The primordial stasis of Infinity requires segmentation prior to human attempts at comprehension. . . . [UB 115:3.2-3]
We should also realize that compensation for this divinity-tension has already been provided in many ways on all levels of reality. This pattern of compensation takes several forms. One of them is interdependence. Even though still imperfectly understood and imperfectly manifest, it is present everywhere such as between the perfected and the perfect, between the descending Sons of God and the ascending sons of God, between angels and men, between primary and secondary midwayers and men, and between all the Creators and creatures within the Supreme.
We know that the Thought Adjuster, the presence of God within us, a fragment of the Infinite, “a part of Universal Unity” [UB 196:3.13] is a compensation for being the farthest away from the presence of God on Paradise. The pattern of interdependence is very clear: The Thought Adjuster seeks expression through personality; the human partner seeks identity and divinity through fusion with the Adjuster. By being aware of this gift of compensation for the divinity-tension, by becoming God-conscious, we can choose to do God’s will. Divinity is characterized by unity. Whenever we choose co-operation with the divine indweller, we take a step toward divinity and unity. Co-operation means choosing to do God’s will, choosing unity rather than division, inclusion of the wide diversity of our brothers and sisters rather than exclusion, harmony rather than disharmony. Resolution of the divinity-tension comes when the human and divine wills become one.
The Adjuster is to the soul what the Trinity is to the Supreme Being. Another pattern in the Supreme also applies to us, a pattern of simultaneous dual movement: From the periphery to the center; from the center to the periphery:
“The Supreme Being (as a finite reflection of Paradise Deity) is engaged in an eternal progression into outer space”; simultaneously it is “forever seeking for Paradise coherence.” [UB 115:6.8] We seek coherence with the Adjuster and it is this very coherence which helps us make progress in the material and morontia worlds. This progression and coherence depend on the proper relationship between the material, mindal, and spiritual levels of reality within us. One aspect of the personality’s contribution toward unification is to learn how to subject the body to the mind and to coordinate the mind with the directing spirit.
Because what is sought is a Trinitarian unity, the way to attain true unity will always be through a pattern of symmetry of the three expressions of the Trinity. (The three spirit expressions of the Paradise Trinity become perfectly unified in the finaliter.) It is therefore no surprise that we are given the means to attain this Trinitarian unity by the very symmetry of a three-fold endowment:
Faith-insight, or spiritual intuition, is the endowment of the cosmic mind in association with the Thought Adjuster, which is the Father’s gift to man. Spiritual reason, soul intelligence, is the endowment of the Holy Spirit, the Creative Spirit’s gift to man. Spiritual philosophy, the wisdom of spirit realities, is the endowment of the Spirit of Truth, the combined gift of the bestowal Sons to the children of men. And the co-ordination and inter-association of these spirit endowments constitute man a spirit personality in potential destiny. [UB 101:3.2]
The endowments are there to compensate for our limitations. Nevertheless, for the resolution to take place, we must learn to discern and acknowledge the promptings, insights, and urges, and then respond, offering our sincere and intelligent co-operation to the Adjuster, the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit of Truth.
As we study patterns of resolution to the contrasts created by divinity-tension, we will sooner or later discover that transcendence is such a pattern. Many times, we realize that the answer is not in the either/or attitude, but in transcending what seems to bring division, opposition, exclusion.
Let’s take loyalty as an example. Our sense of loyalty may start with the association with another human being, but as we evolve it will encompass a human family, then extend to a clan or tribe, to a race, a nation, a culture, a religion, a planet, and beyond, up to the real brotherhood of mankind, and enlarging to the family of God. Each time we may go through periods during which we experience a tension between one level of loyalty and the next higher one. This may bring violent contrasts, conflicts, wars. We cannot resolve the tension by trying to eradicate the one which appears as the lesser one. Transcendence is the only way to be loyal to these transient subdivisions created in time, while simultaneously remaining loyal to the eternal and greater family of God, as we align our will with God’s will.
The fact that man is “a spirit personality in potential destiny” [UB 101:3.2] is analogous to the two sides of a coin. Unity and diversity are the two aspects of the destiny. Unity, because the personality is an integral part of a whole, not separated from it, and diversity, or uniqueness of personality destiny, because each one has its perfect pattern on one of the billion worlds of Havona, a pattern chosen by the Creator Son to be a complementary piece of the mosaic of the whole.
Our potential destiny as a cosmic citizen is intimately connected with the destiny of the whole, the family of God. Someone having reached the seventh psychic/cosmic circle may be God-conscious, and be an extremely devoted person, having found his/her connection with the Father within. However, to become truly universe-conscious citizens, we must become aware of our relationship to the Supreme Being. This is what distinguishes a third circler from the seventh. This is one of the reasons the revelators wanted to present advanced and larger concepts that would expand our cosmic consciousness.
An advanced truth, also found in several spiritual revelations, is the famous declaration that “All is, but not all is manifest.” Understanding this truth helps to grasp the pattern of this potential destiny of the whole and the part. As already mentioned, it is stated as a truth that “The ultimaton, the first measurable form of energy, has Paradise as its nucleus.” [UB 42:1.2] Paradise not only permeates all material reality, but it permeates also all the mindal and spiritual levels of reality of time and space. “All is, but not all is manifest.” True, the essence of the cosmic mind is unity, but this unity has not yet become fully manifest on the evolutionary worlds. True, the essence of the Thought Adjuster, our real and divine self, is the essence of the Paradise Father, and truly is the nucleus of our being. Its essence is pure spirit and pure energy, and when we become one with it, truly identified with it, when this indwelling Presence is directing our thoughts, our emotions, our decision-actions, actually living through us, then our divine Self is manifest. The unity between energy and spirit which exists in Paradise unfolds in time and space.
Understood from this viewpoint, evolution follows a pattern of unfolding what is infolded in the realms of time and space. If we know what the infolded characteristics of the seeds are, the pattern of their potential destiny, then we can learn what the best conditions are, the best nutrients, for the seeds to unfold to their full maturity.
Even though time may be abrogated in the experience of the Paradise Father, so that a personality which has made the ultimate decision is already a finaliter in his mind, growth and unfoldment follows certain definite stages on the evolutionary worlds. The seed coming from God will follow its pattern to become Godlike, but stages such as faith, comprehension, and integration cannot be bypassed.
We are cocreators in the unfolding of the Supreme Being (destiny of the whole), as well as cocreators of the unfolding of our potential divine personality (destiny of the part).
What unfolds towards perfection must unfold also in unity, symmetry, and balance. Perfection may not be possible yet, but unification, symmetry, and balance are. And this is true for the whole and the part.
Although the average mortal of Urantia cannot hope to attain the high perfection of character which Jesus of Nazareth acquired while sojourning in the flesh, it is altogether possible for every mortal believer to develop a strong and unified personality along the perfected lines of the Jesus personality. The unique feature of the Master’s personality was not so much its perfection as its symmetry, its exquisite and balanced unification. [UB 100:7.1]
A balanced, symmetrical, coordinated unification is not found in an either/or attitude. What is real is not discovered by looking at the grand universe (or the personal universe of our own individual being) only from the outside in (the materialist for whom everything is matter) or only from the inside out (the spiritist for whom everything is spirit). This is where we need personal revelation, seeing reality through the eye of our morontia soul, or guided by epochal revelation (which is not a revelation to us unless the Adjuster and the Spirit of Truth confirm it to be so.) From revelation we gain a perspective which helps us transcend these opposite views of reality.
While it is important, as a first stage, to have enough faith to believe we can become Godlike because the seed of God lives at the very center of our being, and, at second stage, to gain some understanding of the Paradise Pattern of perfect unity, through personal and epochal revelation, it will take time and countless experiences to integrate this concept and to make it a reality at the personal and collective level of reality. All the values that are perfectly manifest on Havona have to become manifest within the parts and the whole.
Over the next fifty years, I believe that our work will consist in two simultaneous and interdependent stages of personal and collective growth and unfoldment: increasing understanding of the Paradise Pattern and the integration/ manifestation of that Pattern. Both understanding and integration/manifestation are necessary. We may have had a personal experience of unity with all things and all beings, which may give us a confirmation of a concept we had understood through study and spiritual insights, but this does not mean that we have reached a balanced, symmetrical unification that allows us to manifest perfectly this potential unity of destiny at the personal and collective levels. What we seek is to make unity so much an integral part of us that we can enter that unified state of consciousness at will, not just as a onetime experience of Grace. Achieving a more stable degree of unification within ourselves and unity with our extended family allows us to function as universe-minded citizens with greater and greater objectivity.
We must also remember that the two purposes stated by the divine counselor, increased spiritual perception and cosmic consciousness, are truly interdependent, that we cannot increase cosmic consciousness unless we simultaneously seek personal spiritual growth which comes from acquiring qualities inherent in the perfected citizens of Havona, such as courage, altruism, idealism, loyalty, and unselfishness, as well as unfolding the unity of pure spirit and pure energy contained in the seed in our divine self, the Thought Adjuster, through the intelligent use of our precious tool, the mediating cosmic mind. To become altruistic, loyal, and unselfish are certainly desirable qualities for the universe-minded citizen who will be naturally led to ask “What’s in it for all of us?” rather than “What’s in it for me?”
We invite anyone interested in the formation of workshops which would address both the understanding and the practical application of this tremendous goal to join us. It’s a gigantic enterprise. Our success strongly depends on unifying our efforts along the patterns of cooperation, coordination, interdependence, and harmony.
Jean-Pierre Heudier, Ph.D., is a retired university professor now living in San Marcos, Texas. He has been studying The Urantia Book since 1970, and was instrumental in forming the first study groups in Austin and San Marcos. He has been active as a presenter at Texas conferences and at international conferences, especially those taking place in France, as a presenter/interpreter.
| At Home In The Universe | Volume 6, Number 1, 2005 (Summer) — Index | Journey to India: Legacy of the Sethite Teachers |