© 2000 François Le Rohellec, Jean-Claude Romeuf, Linda Buselli, Séverin Desbuisson, Jeanmarie Chaise, Jean Royer
© 2000 French-speaking Association of Readers of the Urantia Book
Journal of the association L'A.F.L.L.U. French-speaking Association of Readers of the URANTIA Book
Member of the I.U.A.
Head office:
48, rue Douy Delcupe
93110 MONTREUIL UNDER WOOD
FRANCE
¶ A Word from the President
Since its creation a little less than two years ago, the Council of National Presidents of all Urantia national associations has had the vocation to deal with international questions, to develop cooperation and to initiate inter-association projects.
Our latest decision concerns the systematic distribution of the IUA Journal to all members of each of the national associations and this if possible in the language of the country in question when the translation exists. At present, only the English, Finnish, Spanish and French versions are available.
The application of this decision is already effective; it is for this reason that you will automatically find with this Urantian Link, if you are a member of the AFLUB, the French version of the latest issue of the IUA Journal.
Francois Le Rohellec
President of the A.F.L.L.U.
¶ Summary
- The President’s Word by François Le Rohellec
- Variations around a Center of Gravity by Jean-Claude Romeuf
- The Dual Nature of Supremacy by Linda Buselli
- The parable of the reading groups transformed into DNA by Séverin Desbuisson
- Reflections on the prayer of Jesus by Jeanmarie Chaise
- The mystery of the Maries by Jean Royer
- Questions and answers
- Relaxation area
- Gazette section:
- There are not only flowers and cheese in Holland by Séverin Desbuisson
- Publications edited by the A.F.L.L.U by François Le Rohellec
❧ 1955 URANTIA Foundation. All rights reserved. These materials from The URANTIA Book are used with permission. Any artistic depiction(s), interpretation(s), opinion(s) or conclusion(s) implied or stated are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of URANTIA Foundation or its affiliates.
Legal deposit: December 1997 — ISSN 1285-1116
Subscription in 1998: 100 FF per year (approximately 4 issues)
¶ Variations around a center of gravity
Part 1: Cosmological Variations
According to The Urantia Book, the universe of universes is made up of different parts:
- the Paradise Havona system
- the Grand Universe formed by the seven Superuniverses
- the four levels of Exterior Space.
Movement and especially rotation characterize the whole of Cosmic Reality. The whole of this reality revolves around a stationary Central Island, the only immobile center of the master universe.
Jean-Claude Romeuf
¶ The dual nature of Supremacy
“For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.”
This axiom of physics has profoundly influenced our view of the physical world. But if, in fact, this is a “truth” of the universe, then it must be a truth on all levels of reality. In my attempt to understand the nature of the Supreme, I have discovered that this idea is crucial to understanding how the work of supremacy is carried out, not only in the physical manifestations of the Almighty Supreme, but in spirit, in the mind, and even in the personality.
The fact that supremacy must include all finite possibilities indicates that it must be an experience of all levels for a given possibility, from one extreme to another, from almost absolute subinfinity to its opposite. We find this example in The Urantia Book in connection with ascending and descending sons, the passive-aggressive encircuitment of the angelic orders, and even in our nativity sex, the traces of which remain on Paradise and beyond.
Linda Buselli [^1], Dallas, Texas. (Translation)
¶ The parable of reading groups transformed into DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid)
Reading groups are like DNA samples placed in test tubes spread across the world. Each one, however tiny, holds within it all the information necessary for the development and growth of a much more complex structure. The message it contains can be preserved unaltered for several generations and patiently await the day when the glasses will shatter under the force of the breath of truth and the weight of evolutionary growth.
Severin Desbuisson
¶ Thoughts on the Jesus Prayer
In issue 130 of “Reflectivity” several answers were given to the question posed in issue 129. I personally thank their authors with all my heart. The question asked referred to Jesus’ prayer to save Judas, exhorting him not to tire of doing good, and telling him:
“This morning he greeted each of the twelve with a personal salutation. To Andrew he said: “Be not dismayed by the events just ahead. Keep a firm hold on your brethren and see that they do not find you downcast.” To Peter he said: “Put not your trust in the arm of flesh nor in weapons of steel. Establish yourself on the spiritual foundations of the eternal rocks.” To James he said: “Falter not because of outward appearances. Remain firm in your faith, and you shall soon know of the reality of that which you believe.” To John he said: “Be gentle; love even your enemies; be tolerant. And remember that I have trusted you with many things.” To Nathaniel he said: “Judge not by appearances; remain firm in your faith when all appears to vanish; be true to your commission as an ambassador of the kingdom.” To Philip he said: “Be unmoved by the events now impending. Remain unshaken, even when you cannot see the way. Be loyal to your oath of consecration.” To Matthew he said: “Forget not the mercy that received you into the kingdom. Let no man cheat you of your eternal reward. As you have withstood the inclinations of the mortal nature, be willing to be steadfast.” To Thomas he said: “No matter how difficult it may be, just now you must walk by faith and not by sight. Doubt not that I am able to finish the work I have begun, and that I shall eventually see all of my faithful ambassadors in the kingdom beyond.” To the Alpheus twins he said: “Do not allow the things which you cannot understand to crush you. Be true to the affections of your hearts and put not your trust in either great men or the changing attitude of the people. Stand by your brethren.” And to Simon Zelotes he said: “Simon, you may be crushed by disappointment, but your spirit shall rise above all that may come upon you. What you have failed to learn from me, my spirit will teach you. Seek the true realities of the spirit and cease to be attracted by unreal and material shadows.” And to Judas Iscariot he said: “Judas, I have loved you and have prayed that you would love your brethren. Be not weary in well doing; and I would warn you to beware the slippery paths of flattery and the poison darts of ridicule.”” (UB 174:0.2)
My opinion was not that this prayer is in contradiction with the proven and known facts that followed, I was only asking the question of the “apparent contradiction” between the Word and the facts, because it is one of those that are asked by those who want to understand the message by going to the bottom of things, and are not yet satisfied with simple faith. If it had been up to me, I would doubtless have been able to answer this question, But the problem seemed more complex to me from the start and I wanted to open up to others. It is done.
Jeanmarie Chair
¶ The mystery of the Maries
Mary: this is the English “Mary” but it is also the Hebrew Miriam, or Miryam or Myriam. This first name is widespread and can pose identification problems. The Urantia Book clearly distinguishes Miriam, the sister of Jesus, from Mary his mother, (which would not have been the case in Hebrew or Aramaic, unless we assume a hypocoristic always possible).
The Gospel sources about the Marys attending the crucifixion are unclear, and it seems that this ambiguity continues in The Urantia Book. Indeed, we read in John 19:25: “Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.” (Darby translation).
Jean Royer
¶ Questions — answers
Reflection on Jean Davier’s article “Does God exist?” from “Lien” n°3
Well argued, I salute the work of our brother Jean. There is however one point on which I will not follow him, it is in his reference to the animal world, when he says: “The animal order is stagnant, incapable of progress…”. Certainly, some animals have not succeeded in progressing and it is said about them, for example: These non-progressive specimens, as well as the family of fish which appeared later, represent today stationary types of primitive and inferior animals, branches of the tree of life which did not succeed in progressing. (UB 65:2.5)
But many animals evolve: Mice reproduce much faster than elephants, and yet elephants evolve faster than mice. (UB 49:1.4).
The reason is simple, animals are under the influence of the adjutant mind-spirits, and these mind-spirits are of the family of the Mother Spirit, they participate in the evolution of the Supreme, they evolve in the Supreme and with it. Two quotes only:
Census Directors register the existence of a new will creature when the first act of will is performed; they indicate the death of a will creature when the last act of will takes place. The partial emergence of will observed in the reactions of certain of the higher animals does not belong to the domain of the Census Directors. They keep count of nothing but bona fide will creatures, and they are responsive to nothing but will function. Exactly how they register the function of will, we do not know. (UB 24:2.8)
The adjutant mind-spirits experientially grow, but they never become personal. They evolve in function, and the function of the first five in the animal orders is to a certain extent essential to the function of all seven as human intellect. This animal relationship makes the adjutants more practically effective as human mind; hence animals are to a certain extent indispensable to man’s intellectual as well as to his physical evolution. (UB 36:5.13)
Jean Royer
¶ Relaxation Corner
Here is a small problem for the next Link.
LITTLE PUZZLE — (the heptagon) We see clearly from reading the Urantia Book that everything in the universe is governed by a septenary order; Thus: UB 32:2.12 we are told: The universe of Nebadon is at this moment rotating far away in the southeast of the superuniverse circuit of Orvonton. The universes closest to it are Avalon, Henselon, Sanselon, Portalon, Wolvering, Fanoving and Alvoring. We can deduce from this that a local universe is inscribed in a heptahedral volume. Now, such a volume is not part of the five regular Platonic polyhedra. It is doubtless because these volumes are irregular heptahedrons. This is why we can only represent the thing in two dimensions. So, to remain in a domain of regular representation, I submit here to the readers of LIEN, this small problem to be solved from a regular heptagon:
Each universe must receive a number that distinguishes it from the other six, so from 1 to 7, so that the sum of 3 universes in a line, or even, for two groups in a triangle at the top and bottom, is always the same. In other words, what is this sum? And what number must each of the universes respectively receive:
Avalon: ____
Henselon: ____ Sanselon: ____
Portal: ____
Wolvering: ____ Fanoving: ____
Alvoring: ____
So :
- He. + Sa. = Wo. + Fa. + Al. = Av. + Po. + Al. = He. + Po. + Fa. = Sa. + Po. + Wo. =
The amount sought: ____
So much for the facts. But the meanings are much more important; so I allow myself to ask the subsidiary question: What does the relationship between the septenarity of creation and this sum make you think of? Answer in the next Urantian Link.
Jeanmarie Chair
¶ Urantian Tale
When Mary woke up on Mansion No. 1 the first thing she saw was her guardian angel and then right next to him Gabriel. She said: “I would like to see my son Joshua.”
“Because,” Gabriel said to her, “he is very busy, but as soon as he has a moment he will certainly come to see you.” Then Mary decided to go to Joseph who, she was told, was in the company of Amos. It was a great joy for her to see again both her husband and this son who had died so young. Then she saw again the members of her family, her mother and father, as well as friends from Nazareth and Cana, and one day, without being announced, Joshua came to see her.
Ouch, ouch, ouch, he may have been kind and considerate, but she could tell that he was different, even more so than after his resurrection. On the one hand, it was him, her son, her little Joshua, but on the other, it was Michael, the Creator Son, in a glory she had never dared to imagine. And then, there was his guardian angel and all the others who seemed to consider him as their Father, a father whom one admires, respects and venerates infinitely. It was very impressive. He did not stay very long, as the universe requires. Then Mary understood that being the mother of a Creator Son in the afterlife would not be easy.
It was while searching through the large library of Maisonnia No. 1 that she came across, was it really by chance?, the following small ad:
The Superuniverse Association of Mothers of Creator Sons helps you to enter the ascension career.
Please feel free to contact us at ASMFC@Uversa.com.
To decipher. Rebus by André Chappuis
¶ Gazette section
¶ There’s more to Holland than flowers and cheese
After a month spent in the Netherlands between the cyclists and Amsterdam, I know our Dutch reading friends a little better. At first discreet, sometimes invisible, they are nonetheless accessible and particularly passionate. There is no trace of any organization or association here, only regular meetings of study groups here and there. In fact, especially there, near the Hague in the small town of Wassenaar, where a charming reader (Mrs. Bauk Begemaan, widow, whose husband, Henry, was the official representative of the Foundation in Europe until a few years ago), keeps the flame alive with her daughter Neinke, by running five reading groups for several years. The credo of this valiant Urantian is to develop reading groups throughout the world while waiting wisely for these communities of readers to be large enough for the revelation to come naturally through the power of the teachings she offers. The readers I met, however, were very interested in the discussion groups that exist on the Internet and in the prospect of coming to France for the International Conference in 2002. Holland, after all, considering the long journey that awaits us to Uversa and beyond, is not so far away.
Severin Desbuisson
¶ Publications published by the A.F.L.L.U.
I — Vocabulary for readers of Jean Royer’s Urantia Book.
3rd edition: March 2000. ? pocket-sized pages (A5) stapled.
This small glossary is the result of several years of reflection on the semantics and vocabulary of the Urantia Book. It will be especially useful for readers with some knowledge of English who wish to know the origin of certain words used in the corrected French version (translation from English, etymology, neologisms, hapax, etc.).
This 3rd edition is augmented by an impressive number of new definitions.
Price in 2000: 25 FF (3.81 €) excluding shipping costs, free for A.F.L.L.U. members. Expect to pay for shipping from 20 FF (3.05 €) for Western Europe to 40 FF (6.1 €) for Canada approximately.
II A Study of the Master Universe by William S. Sadler Junior
French translation of “A Story of the Master Universe”, copyright 1968. 1st French edition: December 1997. 150 pages in pocket format (A5). Professional edition, soft cover.
ISBN: 2-9512015-0-8
William S. Sadler, Jr., the author of this essay and son of Dr. William S. Sadler, took an active part in the preparatory phase and then in the dissemination of The Urantia Book. He died prematurely on November 22, 1963. It is likely that his participation in the “contact commission” and then his reflection and meditation allowed him to acquire an exceptional human understanding of the concepts of reality described in The Urantia Book.
The ideas presented in this book are only a human interpretation and cannot claim to replace The Urantia Book. Nevertheless, the interest in reading them is obvious and we recommend it. They are a scaffolding allowing, at a given moment, to progress in the understanding of reality but, as such, they are destined, sooner or later, to be abandoned to make way for more personal ideas and in accordance with the level of maturity reached.
IT IS not enough that the ascending mortal should know something of the relations of Deity to the genesis and manifestations of cosmic reality; he should also comprehend something of the relationships existing between himself and the numerous levels of existential and experiential realities, of potential and actual realities. Man’s terrestrial orientation, his cosmic insight, and his spiritual directionization are all enhanced by a better comprehension of universe realities and their techniques of interassociation, integration, and unification. (UB 106:0.1)
William S. Sadler Junior wrote a sequel entitled “Appendices to a Story of the Master Universe” which is also being translated and will be available later.
Price in 2000: 90 FF (13.72 €) excluding shipping costs. Expect to pay for shipping from 20 F.F. (3.05 €) for Western Europe to 40 F.F. (6.1 €) for Canada approximately.
III Journey into the Heart of a Child by Guy Bourhis.
1st edition: not yet published.
In “Journey into the Heart of a Child”, Guy Bourhis talks with his son Laurent, aged 7 and a half, about the existence of God, the mission of the Adjusters, and the purpose of existence in the likeness of mortal flesh on Urantia, survival, passport to the Mansion World and the Corps of Paradise Finaliters. They are thus led to consider the conduct to follow and the pitfalls to avoid in order to succeed in their ephemeral passage on the “606 of Satania”. The planetary rebellion is widely discussed, as are its catastrophic consequences for Urantia: the quarantine of the planet and the induction of delays largely explaining the situation of confusion that reigns on the world level. The work ends with a message of hope: the effusion of Michael of Nebadon, who came to show men how to go about succeeding in their ascension towards Paradise.
Guy Bourhis
This book will be available very soon at the association office. If you would like to receive it, please let us know now. As soon as it is published, we will let you know its price and shipping terms.
If you yourself wish to see published a substantial work likely to interest the community of French-speaking readers of The Urantia Book, submit it to the association’s reading committee.
¶ Reminder of periodicals published by the association office
I Le Lien Urantien
Publisher: A.F.L.L.U. Legal deposit: 1997. Pocket format (A5) stapled.
ISSN: 1285-1116
The association publishes a quarterly journal (4 issues/year) “Le Lien Urantien” composed of readers’ articles relating to the themes of the Urantia Book and news from the Urantia movement*.
Price in 2000: 100 F.F. (15.24 €).
II The Journal of the I.U.A. full French version
Publisher: I.U.A. (International Urantia Association) Stapled A4 format.
The “Journal of the I.U.A.” is a quarterly publication (4 issues/year) of the International Urantia Association (I.U.A.). This publication aims, in addition to encouraging the study of The Urantia Book, to promote an international cultural exchange and mix and to keep the readership informed about the developments of the International Urantia Association.
The I.U.A. journal is now available in French: version distributed in Europe by the A.F.L.L.U. association.
Price in 2000: 100 F.F. (15.24 €) or 25 FF (3.81 €) per issue.
Make your payment by bank check (francs or euros) payable to A.F.L.L.U. or by transfer to the account: BRED — 33, rue de Rivoli 75004 Paris — Bank: 10107- Counter: 00177- N 410771438.
Please note that the A.F.L.L.U. has changed its address:
48, rue Douy Delcupe — 93110 Montreuil sous Bois (Line n° 9 — Station: “Croix de Chavaux”)
Such. : 00.33(0)1.56.93.35.13-Fax: 00.33(0)1.56.93.35.11
Email: afllu@urantia.org
Web: www.urantia.org/france