© 2008 Linda Buselli
© 2008 The Urantia Book Fellowship
| The Urantia Book Is Not What It Used To Be | Volume 9, Number 1, 2008 (Summer) — Index | Moral Cosmic Citizenship |
(The following presentation was delivered at the Fellowship Summer Study Session, at Dominican University in River Forest, IL in July, 2007)
“Law is life itself and not the rules of its conduct.” [UB 48:6.33] This statement is from page 555 of The Urantia Book, in the paper on “The Morontia Life.” This is one of my favorite papers because it introduces us to many suggestions for improving this life, things we can begin now and carry forward into our cosmic careers.
The law referred to here is divine law as differentiated from material law, which can be put into words. Divine law is life itself; it’s alive and dynamic in contrast to static, or dead, material law. And it can only be known by living it. Some years ago I heard a folk tale, one of those that circulate in the Urantia community. Supposedly, the revelators remarked that while the teachings of the book were “true,” over 95% of the “truth” was lost simply by putting it into words. That shocks some readers, but we have to remember that the book says “… you cannot imprison truth in formulas, codes, creeds, or intellectual patterns of human conduct.” [UB 180:5.2]
The book continually defines truth as a living experience. It cannot be encoded in words. We obey material law, but we fulfill divine law by experiencing it.
As an example, billions of words have been written on what it is like to be a parent. For someone who has never parented a child, the words are inadequate, and for someone who has parented a child, the words are unnecessary. The parent/child relationship is a primal truth of the universe; and it is so important to experience it, that if we don’t parent a child here, then we must do so soon after reaching the mansion worlds, right at the very beginning of our universe careers. Truth must be experienced.
As children of the Supreme, we have to “… do something as well as be something.” [UB 115:0.1] Yet in the doing, we are limited by “local conditions in time and space.” [UB 92:4.9] The Urantia Book does not give us any lists of divine laws, but throughout the book the authors repeat certain themes or ways of doing things that seem pretty consistent in meaning and function. We will be using these techniques for fulfilling divine law throughout our universe careers.
Divine law is the will of the Father in the universe, and the better we know the Father, the more likely we are to begin to ascertain divine will. Of course, if you want to know someone better, you do have to spend some time with that person. The most common method is meditation, withdrawing from the world and listening for the voice of the Adjuster. There are many variations which I won’t go into here, but they involve a one on-one relationship with the Father and in listening quietly for guidance. However, I think of this method as a passive way of experiencing the Father’s presence in contrast to another more aggressive approach which involves literally reaching out into the world, and involving another person. As the book says, “The Father’s love can become real to mortal man only by passing through that man’s personality as he in turn bestows this love upon his fellows.” [UB 117:6.10]
I heard about this exercise a number of years ago, and I’ve seen it change lives, not only for the recipient of this love, but for the person practicing it. It’s very simple and very powerful. For one entire day, when you encounter another person, visualize the Father’s love flowing through you to them, and watch what happens. It can be a total stranger, even someone who doesn’t know you’re looking at them. I love this exercise because I don’t have to define what’s happening, such as “my Adjuster is contacting her adjuster,” or asking myself “Do I really love this person?” etc. I don’t have to worry about what words to use; they just come. I don’t have to do anything except let the Father’s presence fill my mind and work through me. I have to take out the “I” in the equation, along with any prejudices, preconceived ideas, etc. that I may have.
Sometimes it seems that there is no response from the other person. But once in a while, something special happens, something that changes not only your life but the life of the other individual as well. You know the guard we put up that separates us from others? It shows in our eyes unless we’re looking at someone we love very deeply. It’s also our protection from being known. Well, once in a while we can look into the eyes of a complete stranger during this exercise and watch that guard come down. We find ourselves looking at a naked soul, and they see the Father through us. It’s like a foretaste of how we will see and be seen on the mansion worlds.
Shortly after I heard about this exercise, a magazine sales man came to my door. As I listened to him I just let the Father’s love flow through me. Suddenly his whole face changed and the guard came down. I don’t remember how it happened, but we spent the next 45 minutes sitting on my front steps talking about the Father. It was an incredible experience. Try it, you’ll like it.
What I call “applied methods of fulfillment” of divine will consist of a few categories that overlap somewhat, and they have one quality in common—they require contact with other personalities. Our universe is intensely personal. Remember this quote: “Everything non-spiritual in human experience, excepting personality, is a means to an end. Every true relationship of mortal man with other persons—human or divine—is an end in itself.” [UB 112:2.4]
The first of these techniques is sharing. In fact the The Urantia Book defines doing the will of God as “…nothing more or less than an exhibition of creature willingness to share the inner life with God.” [UB 111:5.1] The book also tells us that sharing is Godlike. In this case I believe the authors mean sharing ourselves with others, not just material goods, or wealth. As children of the Father and the Supreme we are part of a vast family. And what makes a family a family? Have you ever wondered whether or not you would even like a member of your family if they were your neighbor, or perhaps a co-worker? Most of us have a relative or two that make us a little crazy at times. But we love them, because we have shared life experiences with them, not just DNA. We have become part of each other’s lives. And friends become part of our extended family as we share experiences with them. This concept of the family will someday be widened into one that includes our cosmic family.
Many years ago I watched Johnny Carson take a microphone into the audience and place it in front of a couple celebrating their fiftieth wedding anniversary. He asked the woman to give him a definition of love. Almost without hesitation, she said “sharing.” It was an epiphany for me. I realized love isn’t just a warm, fuzzy feeling, or a sentiment—it’s a sharing of the good and bad of life itself with others. We can share something of ourselves even with strangers, and let them share themselves with us. What is service but the sharing of ourselves with others?
What does being willing and able to share something we have just learned with someone else really mean? One of the Morontia mota statements is “Knowledge is possessed only by sharing” [UB 48:7.28] Excuse me? After all, if I read a book I have that knowledge whether I tell anyone about it or not. Why should sharing be required to possess knowledge? One explanation might be that being able to teach it would be proof that a person possessed it. And of course, it’s a nice, brotherly thing to do. Neither explanation quite satisfied me.
But some years ago, I began to understand it in another dimension. In 1993 I became a Reiki Master. For those of you who may not know, Reiki is the Japanese term for universe energy, and the practice of Reiki is a form of hands on healing using this energy. Practitioners of Reiki may be attuned at three different levels, but only the third, the Master level, can teach and attune others. Following my attunement to Master, I did not do as many Reiki Masters do and begin my own private healing practice, although I used it for individual healing sessions occasionally.
And then in 1995, within a single week, four different people asked me to attune them to the beginning level. We were able to do it in one very long day, since there were only four people. There were four distinct levels with this introductory level; I taught, attuned, and we practiced on each other four times throughout the day. And that evening as I looked at four new Reiki practitioners, I realized that for two years I had had the title, the knowledge, and the ability of a Reiki Master, but that day I finally fulfilled the truth of the essence of a Reiki Master, which is that of a teacher. I had not only given them new knowledge, but we had shared the experience of using this energy. Now I felt I was truly a Reiki Master.
The Urantia Book confirms that we must pass on not only knowledge but experience in this quotation from page 339: “The entire ascendant plan of mortal progression is characterized by the practice of giving out to other beings new truth and experience just as soon as acquired.” [UB 30:3.9] I had been missing the significance of the word “experience” in that statement. How do you give out experience? Just by describing it, or by helping that person to experience the same truth also, and in his own way? We need to share truth so that both persons can get a fuller understanding of the essence of that truth; and when we do, both individuals simultaneously become both teacher and student. This enrichment of each other’s experience with truth will continue throughout our universe careers.
Another “applied divine law” is the absolute necessity to “act” upon our decisions. The Urantia Book makes it clear that a decision is not complete until it is acted upon, and not once, but over and over again. The Adjuster waits for the “habit-forming certainty” not just of our decisions, but of our actions. And, “… action, completion of decisions, is essential to the evolutionary attainment of consciousness of progressive kinship with the cosmic actuality of the Supreme Being.” [UB 110:6.17] In the paper on “God the Supreme” we find this: “When man decides, and when he consummates this decision in action, man experiences, and the meanings and the values of this experience are forever a part of his eternal character on all levels, from the finite to the final.” [UB 117:5.13]
The following quote brings up an interesting point. “What man himself takes with him as a personality possession are the character consequences of the experience of having used the mind and spirit circuits of the grand universe…” [UB 117:5.13] It is literally our actions that allow us to benefit from these mind and spirit circuits. From page 1638: “The Father in heaven has forgiven you before you have even thought to ask him, but such forgiveness is not available in your personal religious experience until such a time as you forgive your fellow men. God’s forgiveness in fact is not conditioned upon your forgiving your fellows, but in experience it is exactly so conditioned.” [UB 146:2.4] This principle was so important to Jesus, he included it in the prayer he taught the apostles. Here’s how he said it:
And forgive every one of us our debts
As we also have forgiven our debtors. [UB 144:3.9-10]
Notice the past tense? We have to act first. Unless we are willing and able to pass on love, forgiveness, even knowledge, to others, we cannot truly experience them. This is an example of a very basic divine law. When we give something material away, we don’t have it anymore. But we don’t have things of the spirit until we give them away.
I would also like to point out that action is required in order to obtain angelic assistance in our spiritual endeavors. Our angels can enhance what we initiate, but how can they enhance something that doesn’t exist? And our decisions don’t exist in the reality of Supremacy until we act on them. This principle is shown in one of the “Conditions of Effective Prayer.” [UB 91:9] In order to pray effectively for assistance we must first have taken some action on our own. And this is in keeping with the universe law of free will. It is our completed decisions—our actions—that demonstrate our true will.
A third applied method of fulfillment might be “Stay open to whatever the Adjuster may show us.” If we are going to pass a truth on to others, we must be able and willing to receive it in the first place. I know we all want to do the Father’s will, but how open to the Father are we, really? Have we ever allowed our opinions on something to prevent the Father from letting us see his? And if we have blocked the Father, are we honest enough with ourselves to admit it? Or do we believe this must be the Father’s will because our own opinion seems so clear and just to us?
I told the following story some years ago, but I think it illustrates my point about staying open. I was about 12 years old and my mother and I were on our way to a movie theater in Chicago’s Loop when I spotted a wino sprawled in a doorway. With all the judgmental certainty of an adolescent, I said “Look at that dirty old man.” My mother turned to look at him and said, “Somewhere a mother’s heart bleeds for him.” So I looked at him again and thought “I wonder how I would feel if that was my son.” And the universe turned inside out. I stood there in tears of compassion. After I told this story, someone came up to me and said “That was an unusual experience for a child to have.” But he was wrong. It didn’t happen in spite of my being a child, it happened because I was a child. When I said “I wonder…” I had absolutely no preconceptions to get in the way of my Adjuster, who had a clear field of action for contact. And I believe it was the Adjuster because that incident has had such a strong impact on my life.
Jesus asked us to have the faith of a child, and I think we also need to have the wonder of a child’s view of the world and of the universe. A child sees every day as a new adventure, another chance to enjoy new experiences. We are children of the Father and of the Supreme; we are children period, and we need to be as open and trusting as they are. Even with the knowledge gained from The Urantia Book, we know almost infinitely less about the universe than a new-born infant knows about this world he’s just come into.
Pope John XXIII was probably the most beloved Pope in history. In the four short years of his papacy, he made revolutionary changes in the practices of the Catholic Church. When an interviewer asked him what caused him to initiate these upheavals of tradition, how did these ideas come to him, he replied: “I always leave a window open.” We need to leave our own windows open so that the fresh air of the Father can touch our minds and our hearts.
Linda Buselli has been a Urantia Book reader and active participant in the Urantia community since 1971. She is currently a General Councilor of the Fellowship, and serves as Chair of the Publications Committee.
| The Urantia Book Is Not What It Used To Be | Volume 9, Number 1, 2008 (Summer) — Index | Moral Cosmic Citizenship |