© 2009 Dominique Ronfet, Samantha Nior, Chris Ragetly, William S. Sadler Jr., Max Masotti, Christine Baussain, Alain Degoumois, André Chappuis, Jean Royer, Johanna Beukers
© 2009 Association Francophone des Lecteurs du Livre d'Urantia
¶ Edito: “The Key!”
Keys, it’s crazy how important they are!
Especially when we lose them!.. Drama guaranteed!
Cursing in front of a door, a car, a room or a trunk…
This can happen to us often!
But when you have it at hand and, with a small, innocuous gesture, everything opens or “rolls”, without you even noticing… it becomes fabulous!
So, with the UB, our universal book: everyone has their own personal key!
Or reading… Or discernment… Or sharing!
Let’s not lose this happy bunch!
But, without constraint, let us abuse this prodigious privilege!
Happy reading to all!
Yours faithfully.
Guy
¶ Summary
| Text | Author | |
|---|---|---|
| Editorial | “The key” | G. de Viron |
| The Ticket | from the President | D. Ronfet |
| The guest | Dutch Urantia Association | S. Nior |
| Notes IV | Levels of achievement | CMR |
| Study | Personal Growth | B. Sadler |
| Psy | The Ego and the Self | M. Masotti |
| News | Guten Tag | Chr. Baussain |
| Poetic Strand | Song of the Walk of Life | S. Paramananda |
| Thought | Make your life | A. Degoumois |
| Discovery | Blue Eyes | A. Chappuis |
| Research | Black Mass | Press |
| Prayer | May all my life be | Mother Theresa |
| Anecdote | To your calculators | J. Royer |
| Memory | A duty | J.-L. Amblet |
| Meditation | My Daily Resolution | B. Fr. Sherman |
| Share | Self Healing | J. Beukers |
| Reminder | The Study Group (2) | UAI |
| Little Corner of | Brother Dominique | D. Ronfet |
| Illustrations (4) | Viro |
¶ The President’s ticket
This April, some of you may have travelled to Malaga, or are preparing for the UAI International Conference which will take place there from the 17th to the 21st.
The UAI, our parent company as an association, must be seen as an organ of support and encouragement.
If each country must preserve its particularities, each reader must not forget that he is not alone in this world, reading this astonishing collection that is The Urantia Book.
So, don’t hesitate, ask us, ask Gaëtan, President of the AUI, about this structure. You will get answers.
The following month of May, everyone will also have noted in their diary the dates from May 7 to 10: the Aflu is organizing its first meeting of the year around the theme of love: What is love, what is loving?
Dominique Ronfet
¶ Guest: Netherlands
The Dutch Urantia Association was founded in the Netherlands in February 2007 by Karen Huigsloot, John van den Hout and Samantha Nior. Unlike other associations (we are in the form of a foundation) we have chosen the form of an organization without registered members. In the Netherlands, an organization with members is obliged with their participation to organize many activities. We prefer to use the time that this would take to devote ourselves to our goals. Consequently, we are dependent on donations and gifts.
The association aims to stimulate and support the study of the Urantia Book in Dutch-speaking territories, including Belgium and Suriname. To achieve this, we have developed various activities: a website, a newsletter and once a year a national meeting.
On the website, readers can get information about the book, study groups and other activities; they can ask questions and share their experiences. Of course, The Urantia Book can be read online and there are links to other websites related to The Urantia Book. The site is working well and people are becoming more and more concerned about what is happening in the Netherlands regarding The Urantia Book. We hope to bring more and more readers into contact with each other so that more study groups will be formed and people will share their experiences.
Samantha Nior
¶ Remarks IV
606 Urantia — Satania 24 Jerusem — Norlatiadek 70 Edentia — Nebadon 84 Salvington U Minor the Third 3 Ensa — U Major the Fifth 5 Splandon — Orvonton 7 Uversa
(Quotations from The Urantia Book in italics; some important passages are in bold.)
Levels of realization of things, meanings and values (fact — idea — relationship)
The authors of The Urantia Book and all superhuman personalities are accustomed to call the three elements in universal reality: fact, idea, and relationship, things, meanings, and values: See: UB 196:3.2. There are only three elements in universal reality: fact, idea, and relationship. Religious consciousness identifies these realities as science, philosophy, and truth. Philosophy would tend to regard these activities as reason, wisdom, and faith—physical reality, intellectual reality, and spiritual reality. We are accustomed to call these realities things, meanings, and values.
Chris Ragetly
¶ Study: Personal Growth - Arrival Worlds Houses
Translation of a recording of Bill Sadler by Chris and Nicole Ragetly (2001)
There are many things we should be doing here that make us more human. And I suspect we are lazy enough not to do them. However, we can survive. We will survive with deficiencies. I think the laziest among us will experience the closest thing to the suffering of Purgatory and undergo the corrections up there that they should have done down here.
Now let’s think by analogy. When a child is born into our world, we assume that he has absolutely no control over his “natural functions.” We provide diapers and all that sort of thing. But we can assume that this child, at a reasonably young age, will be fitted with a valve, you know, so that he can control his evacuation system. As long as that lasts, no one objects to it. The period of incontinence is expected, normal, and perfectly natural—it’s childhood. A friend of mine’s son carried this habit into middle school. Can you imagine his mortification?
Bill Sadler
¶ Psy: The EGO and the ME
EGO is a noun derived from the Latin personal pronoun “ego” which means “me”. It generally refers to the representation and awareness that one has of oneself. It is sometimes considered the foundation of personality (in psychology), sometimes considered an obstacle to our personal development (in spirituality).
The human ego has three components: the physical or animal ego (ego of earthly desires, the need to possess), the mental ego or sense of separate self, opposed to others, and the spiritual ego of the one who is aware of his divine belonging. It is difficult to detect because we hide it from ourselves. The dominating ego is the dark side of the entity “SELF” and the misuse of one’s own intention. The ego is a state of the soul and it differs from one person to another. We speak of alter ego to refer to this entity which composes the other, but which is similar to the self.
Max Masotti
¶ News: Happy Urantia Day!
On November 8-9, 2008, the second meeting of German readers of The Urantia Book took place in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
A good twenty participants, including Werner Sutter and Irmeli Ivalo-Sjölie, founding pillars of the Urantia movement in Germany, Christian Ruch from Switzerland, enthusiast from the very beginning and organizer of the meeting, and of course Urs Ruchti, the translator, without whom none of this would have happened, happily gathered at the Hotel Monopol, just across the street from the central station. The meeting took place from Saturday morning to Sunday after lunch, but the first arrivals took advantage of an informal first dinner on Friday evening to start some lively conversations that foreshadowed the two days to come.
Christine Baussain
¶ Poetic Strand: Song of the March of Life
Forward, always forward,
Sing the march of Life!
My soul forward, always forward!
So go ahead!
Perhaps the much-tarnished flame of your life,
Is it barely burning?
Or is she wavering in the whirlwind of this world?
Do not fear that it will go out,
But stand firm in your faith!
No power :
Wind or storm,
No, nothing, not even in heaven or on earth
Cannot rob you of this immortal flame;
It is the hand of the Lord that has given it to you.
She is yours, forever,
In all eternity,
Without beginning or end.
She rests your tired limbs
And comfort your weary spirit.
Step aside for a few moments,
In the sweet peace of your inner Self,
Then come back to the world,
After re-tempering your mind,
Of Faith, Hope and Heart!
On the path of Life,
Forward, always forward!
My soul,
Always forward,
Still progressing,
So go ahead! So go ahead
Excerpt from Souls’s Secret Door
Swami Paramananda
¶ Thought: Do yourself
Make your life a work of art.
May every moment of this precious present,
Be dressed in your most beautiful thoughts,
Of your noblest deeds.
Make your life a hymn to joy,
Penetrate deep into the matter,
And fertilize the darkness with luminous thoughts,
Flowers of thoughts to sow the inner and outer world.
Sow the seeds of your destiny,
Alain Degoumois
¶ Discovery: Blue Eyes
The Appearance of Human Blue Eyes on Urantia
Eye color is encoded by a gene present in two copies in all individuals (from the father and the mother). This gene exists in different versions (alleles). To have the phenotype (the visible characteristic) “BLUE EYES”, a person must have both copies of the eye color gene of the same allele, in this case 2 “BLUE EYES” alleles:
Indeed, the “blue” allele is recessive while the “brown” allele is dominant; that is to say that if we only have one of each, we do not have the “blue” trait but “brown”. Thus, parents with “BLUE EYES” necessarily have two “blue” alleles as their genotype. Each of them can therefore only produce children with blue eyes.
André Chappuis
¶ Search: The Dark Mass of the Universe
The dark mass of the universe would have emitted murmurs
Matter in the Universe
¶ COSMOLOGY
Four experiments have detected disturbing elements above our heads, which have the physics community in turmoil
The study of cosmic rays
Equipped with a sensor, balloons have been sent into the stratosphere above Antarctica for the past eight years.
It has this gift of invisibility that makes it attractive and unbearable. Undetectable, it emits neither light nor heat. We know almost nothing about it, except that it must exist because it exerts a gravitational influence on stars and galaxies. Dark matter, or dark matter, which is said to account for a quarter of the energy in the universe, is one of the deepest enigmas for us earthlings. However, in recent weeks, four experiments — not dedicated to tracking it — have detected surprising murmurs. They could come from this invisible mass. As a result, the physics community is in turmoil.
“These are several clues that point in the same direction and are difficult to explain,” says Ruth Durrer, professor of theoretical physics at the University of Geneva (UNIGE). The latest was published in late November in the journal Nature. A team of astrophysicists reports that NASA’s cosmic ray detector ceim, aboard a balloon above the South Pole, recorded an excess of high-energy electrons and their antimatter opposite, positrons.
Like Lamborghinis coming!
“Positrons are very rare and very difficult to see because they are quickly annihilated by electrons,” explains the Geneva physicist. “However, it is assumed that the annihilation of dark matter must produce positrons.” (Read opposite)
One of the authors, John Wefel of the University of Louisiana, compares this excess of particles to driving along a highway and suddenly seeing Lamborghinis come zooming by. “You don’t expect to see so many race cars. Just like you don’t expect to see so many high-energy electrons in cosmic rays.” In total, the researchers spotted 70 in five weeks. Peanuts? How many Lamborghinis have you seen in a month?
The track is attractive. And, above all, much more exciting than linking these observations to a star in agony, for example, or to a magnetic field resulting from the explosion of a supernova. Which is not excluded.
Other clues, detected by satellites
Then there are the clues from Pamela. The European-built satellite is the most expensive ever to study cosmic rays and antimatter. It too is said to have recorded an excess of high-energy positrons that, according to the experiment’s scientists, “may be the first direct evidence of the annihilation of dark matter particles.”
And there’s more. NASA’s WMAP satellite, which studies microwave radiation, has noticed a certain fog, which could come from charged particles, flying in the Milky Way’s magnetic field.
Finally, there is Integral, the European Space Agency satellite that observes gamma rays at the center, this time, of our galaxy. Once again, the data received at the collection center betray an excess of positrons, but this time at much lower energies than those detected by Pamela.
Hypotheses to be tested
Dark matter has been a concern for physicists since the 1930s, when the Swiss Fritz Zwicky first suggested the existence of an invisible mass between galaxies. It was not until around 1970 that this idea was taken seriously, thanks in particular to the work of the American Vera Rubin. “Technological progress over the last decade has made it possible to make the current observations,” emphasizes Ruth Durrer. “The challenge now is to develop an experiment that will test these hypotheses.” Because as exciting as these clues are, they still prove nothing. As for the remaining 75% of dark energy, the mystery is even thicker.
¶ From theory to observation
THE HYPOTHESIS The rotation dynamics of galaxies and their clusters, as well as the formation of the most immense structures, seem to require the existence of massive non-standard matter that does not betray its presence by light radiation. This is what is called the dark matter of the universe. It must weigh about eight times more than ordinary matter. One of the best defined and most natural candidates to fulfill this crucial role is the lightest supersymmetric particle, the neutralino.
VALIDATION To validate this hypothesis of dark matter - observed only by its gravitational effects - it would be necessary to directly detect collisions of dark matter particles on ordinary matter. Indirectly, we seek to detect the products of the annihilation of dark matter in regions where it is sufficiently concentrated, such as the center of the sun or the galactic center.
THE OBSERVATION When a neutralino and its antiparticle annihilate, an electron-positron pair can be produced. And observed…
A-M. Brouet (24 Hours)
¶ Prayer: May my whole life be
THAT ALL MY LIFE
BE A RADIATION OF YOURS
Help me to spread your fragrance everywhere,
O Jesus wherever I may go.
Flood my soul with Your Spirit and Your Life.
Become the owner of my being so completely
may my whole life be a radiance of Yours.
So that every soul I approach
may feel Your Presence within me.
So that when she looks at me, she does not see me, but You in me.
Abide in me.
So I will shine with Your Splendor itself
and could be Light for others.
¶ Anecdote: On your calculators
The Urantia Book is full of numerical indications that can lead the researcher to believe that he will be able to calculate all sorts of things, but in fact these indications are frequently followed by others so imprecise that they only allow access to an order of magnitude and not to precise calculations. Let us take a few examples:
A Divine Counselor of Uversa tells us (UB 19:7.4): “It took me 109 days of your time to come from Uversa to Urantia.” We would like to know the speed of this Divine Counselor. We must therefore know the distance separating Uversa from Urantia. Now we know that: from Jerusem, the capital of Satania, it takes more than two hundred thousand light-years to reach the physical center of the superuniverse of Orvonton, far, far away in the dense diameter of the Milky Way.
Jean Royer
¶ My Daily Resolution
I do not see, hear, or repeat any kind of imperfection.
Yes, I see, I hear, I repeat that the Good, only the Good, at all times, in all circumstances, in spite of everything that seems contrary.
I make this resolution every morning when I open my eyes, and I return to it every hour of the day.
I see Perfection, perfect Cause, perfect Effect, perfect God, perfect man.
I make no exceptions and do not admit the slightest imperfection in myself, in my friends, in my so-called enemies, in my affairs, in the affairs of the world.
I take a radical stand for the Perfection of God, of everyone and everything HE does.
I look at the world with God’s eyes and see it as HE sees it, that is, perfect. I refuse to see it any other way.
Many times during the day I renew my resolution, and to ensure that I do not fall into error, yielding to fear, or to criticism, I watch my thoughts towards those around me and my environment.
I happily take this radical stand for perfection in all things, and I am absolutely not leaving this dimension.
External conditions are the images of our deep thinking. To change these images, we must change the thoughts that created them.
Extract from Florence’s Letter
Benjamin Franklin Sherman
¶ Duty of Remembrance
If it were a duty of remembrance
worthy of praise,
it would be the one rendered towards the effusion of our Creator Son,
more than two thousand years ago!
It would be a solemn tribute paid by humanity
to the One who came to reveal the Father’s Love towards each of his creatures,
who revealed divine filiation, human brotherhood, compassion, mercy, living faith;
and all this was accomplished in daily acts of a short but masterful life entirely dedicated to fulfilling the will of the Father.
Yes, he saved humanity, not because he died in excruciating pain on a cross, but because he lived this exemplary, liberating and inspiring life.
Certainly, such a duty of remembrance would be a source of creative inspiration for all humanity.
¶ Share: Self-Healing
Self-healing through spiritual means
Without wishing to be unfaithful to the magnificent teachings of the 5th Revelation conceived in The Urantia Book, I feel called to present to you on these pages a worldwide spiritual movement that attracts the inhabitants of our planet to such an extent that its magnitude challenges me. And I would like to share with you some interesting elements that move so much towards spirituality all these people, whether they are Jews, Muslims or Christians.
Conferences are held in countries all over the world. They attract not only people like you and me, but increasingly doctors, therapists and dentists.
Johanna Beukers
¶ Reminder: The study group (2)
WHAT MAKES A STUDY GROUP SUCCESS? …
A variety of activities can enhance these study methods and maintain interest. Meeting week after week to sit down and read booklet after booklet will not hold most people’s interest for very long. Rotate the position of facilitator among all members of the group. This gives everyone a chance to get directly involved. It will also give them the confidence to start their own group when the time comes…
After one person has read, you could ask each reader to explain to the group what they understood from what they just read and how it can apply to our daily lives. When this person is speaking, no one should interrupt, talk over, comment, argue or criticize. After the person has finished speaking, other participants should then be invited to share what they understood by completing and enhancing what the previous person said. There should never be any arguing or criticism. Encourage participants to complete what others have shared and to increase the value of truth, beauty and goodness.
The principle behind this is to use the same technique as Jesus: listen and always bring out the truth in the minds of others. This helps people gain confidence and feel more comfortable in the group. They learn to share what they understand and feel. By sharing in this way, the group will find ways to apply their new understanding of the teachings in their daily lives and no one person will monopolize the session. Encourage participants to share their life experiences that relate to what they are reading to focus their minds on the importance of integrating the teachings into our lives. We also find that when participants are encouraged to share their ideas after reading, they gain communication skills and confidence that help them share the teachings with others outside the group.
In a more spiritual way, when participants make earnest and sincere efforts to read and understand intellectually and spiritually, and explain to others, their understanding of the teachings and the truth contained therein, this aids the Thought Adjuster and the Spirit of Truth to work more effectively in the mind of the individual and in the minds of other members of the group.
It is sometimes difficult to maintain the balance between studying and ‘socializing’ in group meetings. Groups should spend the majority of their time studying because that is the purpose of the group. However, social interaction is also important for building friendships and camaraderie in the group. Groups are successful because their members enjoy each other’s company…
Keep an eye on each other’s body language and actions during the meeting. As the host or facilitator, keep the group within the confines of the Urantia Book-centered study, but keep the meeting moving. If the discussion begins to get bogged down or goes off on a tangent, the facilitator should step in to refocus and get the group moving again.
Celebrating together for holidays, having potlucks, and other social functions that fit with your group’s culture are very important for developing group interaction and for people to trust each other. The more people become familiar with each other, the more comfortable they will feel with each other and the more they will enjoy participating in a study group.
While it is good and wise for individuals to participate in different groupings, we as a group should choose not to participate in discussions on these topics or get involved in them. Let us save our group energies for our spiritual mission.
A study group can have many purposes. A group can be committed to encouraging the growth of all individuals in it, it can be engaged in the propagation of the community, or it can be a purely intellectual study of the teachings. Groups can discuss how this divine revelation and its teachings can be shared in life with all men and women. Groups can be a place where people reveal their deepest inner selves and find emotional support, however, the group should not become a therapy session for members. The “therapy” aspects of a group can be discouraging to an individual who truly wants to simply study the book and who finds the revelation of the inner thoughts and emotions of others unpleasant.
Most groups found two hours to be a good length for a meeting…
Keep The Urantia Book as your primary source of information. Too much use of other materials can seriously distract from the primary purpose of studying The Urantia Book. Encourage all members to participate in group discussions and activities. The best way to do this is to create a nonconfrontational atmosphere in which people are not afraid to express themselves. Do not allow discussions to become debates. Debates produce winners and losers, and no one likes to be a loser. Never allow anyone to disagree with anyone else. Encourage others to express their feelings or understandings, but never allow another group member to be criticized or said to be wrong.
The study group should be an enjoyable experience for all. As a host, finding a balance between “socializing” and studying, offering a diversity of learning styles, providing a variety of experiences and activities, providing a comfortable venue at reasonable meeting times, and at the same time remaining engaged in the Urantia teachings will all aid in the success of your group. Always involve your Thought Adjuster in prayer and request his assistance in your efforts.
BEING AN EFFECTIVE GROUP FACILITATOR
The group facilitator is responsible for leading the group on the path of self-discovery. It is not your job to teach but to guide and challenge the group to find the truth and understand the teachings. The best facilitator is often the one who speaks the least. Encourage discussion rather than holding question and answer sessions. Never let the discussion turn into a debate. If you want to emphasize a particular point, do so at the beginning of the meeting. This can give the group a specific point to explore further in the study, will pique interest and focus attention. Encourage the discovery of truth and how that truth can be activated in a person’s daily life.
“These are the angels who foster and promote the teamwork of all Orvonton. One of the most important lessons to be learned during your mortal career is teamwork. The spheres of perfection are manned by those who have mastered this art of working with other beings. Few are the duties in the universe for the lone servant. The higher you ascend, the more lonely you become when temporarily without the association of your fellows.” (UB 28:5.14)
“The Master sought to impress upon all teachers of the gospel of the kingdom that their only business was to reveal God to the individual man as his Father—to lead this individual man to become son-conscious; then to present this same man to God as his faith son. Both of these essential revelations are accomplished in Jesus. He became, indeed, “the way, the truth, and the life.” The religion of Jesus was wholly based on the living of his bestowal life on earth. When Jesus departed from this world, he left behind no books, laws, or other forms of human organization affecting the religious life of the individual.” (UB 141:7.4)
(to be continued)
AUI Publication
¶ Brother Dominique’s Little Corner
Should we contrast the “man of desire” with the “man of will”?
Should we contrast the modern, extroverted and conquering man with a meditative man in search of his desire, of ‘his meaning of life’?
(In what sense to live?)
- The personality craving to be like God—the wholehearted desire to do the Father’s will. (UB 1:2.6)
Dominique Ronfet
¶ Imprint
Le Lien Urantien is the journal of the French-speaking Association of Readers of the Urantia Book, a member of the UAI, the International Urantia Association.
| Head office | rue du Temple 1, F-13012 Marseille, +33 (0)4 91 27 13 20 |
| afflu@urantia.fr | |
| Site | www.urantia.fr/afflu.htm |
| Publication Director | Dominique Ronfet, d.ronfet@noos.fr |
| Editor in Chief | Guy de Viron, guydeviron@bluewin.ch |
| Reading Committee | Jean Royer, Chris Ragetly |
| Subscription | €20 per year (quarterly publication 4 issues) |
| Legal deposit | December 1997 — ISSN 1285-1116 |
| Print run | 125 copies © 1955 URANTIA Foundation |
All rights reserved. Materials from The Urantia Book are used with permission. Any artistic depictions, interpretations, opinions or conclusions implied or stated are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of URANTIA Foundation or its affiliates.