© 2022 María José Sánchez Santamaría
© 2022 Urantia Association of Spain
| Luz y Vida — January 2022 — Newsletter | Luz y Vida — January 2022 — Index | Urantia Questionnaire: Gloria Andreu |
There is a beautiful legend of medieval origin that tells the story of a theologian, later identified with Saint Augustine, who narrates the following anecdote:
“One day, Saint Augustine was walking along the seashore turning over in his head many of the doctrines about the reality of God, one of them, the doctrine of the Trinity. Suddenly, he looked up and saw a beautiful boy who was playing in the sand, by the sea. He took a closer look and saw the boy run into the sea, fill the bucket with sea water, and return to where he was before, emptying the water into a hole in the sand. So the boy did it over and over again.”
«Until St. Augustine, immersed in great curiosity, approached the child and asked him “‘Hey, child, what are you doing?’ And the child replied: ‘I’m taking all the water out of the sea and I’m going to put it in this hole’. And Saint Augustine says: “But that is impossible.”
“And the child answers: ‘It is more impossible to try to do what you are doing: try to understand in your little mind the mystery of God.’”
This problem, trying to understand with our little mortal mind the mystery of God, was a real challenge for the revelators who had been working for years on the writing of The Urantia Book. At the very beginning of the book, the Prologue, already announces it to us:
“It is exceedingly difficult to present enlarged concepts and advanced truth, in our endeavor to expand cosmic consciousness and enhance spiritual perception, when we are restricted to the use of a circumscribed language of the realm.” (UB 0:0.2)
And when we readers of The Urantia Book are faced with the correct understanding of this extensive and complex text, we can ask ourselves these reasonable doubts: will I be able to read the Foreword or do I skip reading it? Would it be better to start reading with the beautiful fourth part of the life of Jesus? Is the reading order really important? Does it matter if I start my reading from that part that I like the most by reviewing the index? Does the Urantia Book itself offer us any guidance on how to read the text?
We may be surprised to find in the text of The Urantia Book a clarification on this aspect. Beings of such extraordinary intelligence and spiritual development do not hesitate to offer us an explanation of why The Urantia Book is written following a precise order, an adequate order to follow in its reading. They have sought that we achieve with this reading an authentic spiritual depth, expand our cosmic consciousness and elevate spiritual perception. They are not interested in promoting a fragmentary or partial vision of reality, Divinity or history:
“In such a far-flung universe of universes there is always great danger of succumbing to the error of the circumscribed viewpoint, to the evil inherent in a segmentalized conception of reality and divinity.” (UB 19:1.4)
The revelators use a cosmic or very high approach in the development of the ideas and concepts that they want to show us, from the Prologue and in the successive documents. They try to convey to us the wonders that we cannot glimpse on Earth, but that are part of the universe in which we have opened our eyes.
“. . .do we employ the technique of approaching man and his planetary problems by embarkation on the time-space journey from the infinite, eternal, and divine Paradise Source and Center of all personality reality and all cosmic existence.” (UB 19:1.12)
The Urantia Book is written following an order that goes from the most complex to the simplest, and the book itself explains the great advantages that this brings us:
“. . .The human mind would ordinarily crave to approach the cosmic philosophy portrayed in these revelations by proceeding from the simple and the finite to the complex and the infinite, from human origins to divine destinies. But that path does not lead to spiritual wisdom.”
Such a procedure is the easiest path to a certain form of genetic knowledge, but at best it can only reveal man’s origin; it reveals little or nothing about his divine destiny. (UB 19:1.5)
The Urantia Book warns us of some problems with using a different approach. For example:
“History alone fails adequately to reveal future development—destiny. Finite origins are helpful, but only divine causes reveal final effects. Eternal ends are not shown in time beginnings. The present can be truly interpreted only in the light of the correlated past and future.” (UB 19:1.11)
What conclusions can we draw from this very important clarification made by the revelators?
The most appropriate order to correctly understand all the concepts and teachings of The Urantia Book would be to read this text beginning with the Prologue and successively reading the different documents until ending with paper 196. It’s that simple.
This idea of progressing from the complex to the simpler is something that should not surprise people with spiritual concerns, since it is about living and developing from a cosmic perspective, making our decisions from a vantage point higher than the stimuli or needs sensory or material. Do you remember this simple quote from Paul in his Letter to the Corinthians, where he talks about how he changed his childish and material mind to an adult one after his conversion?
“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I thought as a child, I judged as a child; but when I was already a man, I left what I was as a child.” 1 Corinthians 13:11
In our daily lives, existing from a cosmic perspective or an adult mindset allows us to face daily problems with a powerful weapon: the constant awareness of the divine presence within us. The Urantia Book seeks precisely to expand ourselves from a sensory, childish, small mentality, to another mentality focused on the greatest, on the spiritual. Following the example of our very creator, Miguel de Nebadon:
“JESUS enjoyed a sublime and wholehearted faith in God. He experienced the ordinary ups and downs of mortal existence, but he never religiously doubted the certainty of God’s watchcare and guidance. His faith was the outgrowth of the insight born of the activity of the divine presence, his indwelling Adjuster.” (UB 196:0.1)
In the mind and its elevation is the key.
“. . .But into your hands, subject to your own decisions, has been given mind, and it is by mind that you live or die. It is within this mind and with this mind that you make those moral decisions which enable you to achieve Adjusterlikeness, and that is Godlikeness.” (UB 111:1.4)
Another clarification made by the revealers of The Urantia Book informs us about the reason for the current order of the different documents:
“The true perspective of any reality problem—human or divine, terrestrial or cosmic—can be had only by the full and unprejudiced study and correlation of three phases of universe reality: origin, history, and destiny. The proper understanding of these three experiential realities affords the basis for a wise estimate of the current status.” (UB 19:1.6)
We see, at a glance, how the first documents speak of our ORIGIN (Paradise, Trinity, Havona, etc.), continue with HISTORY (creation of the local universe, history of the Earth, etc.) and continue until they show us our DESTINY (Jesus, Son of God).
Therefore, the progression in the documents is very measured and reasoned, and it is good to consider and respect it when reading The Urantia Book.
This brief reflection on how to read the book makes a lot of sense to do it at this time since we can enjoy in Spanish the latest revision made by Urantia Foundation.
And if in this newly released 2022 we consider reading The Urantia Book from the beginning, as the book itself invites us to do, and in the careful prose of the Spanish revision? New meanings, discoveries and learning will come true in our minds and in our daily lives. Surely we will take some steps in our attempt to understand with our little mind the mystery of God.
On one occasion a disciple complained to his teacher: “You always tell us stories, but you never reveal their meaning.” The teacher replied: “Would you like someone to offer you fruit and chew it before giving it to you?”
Nobody can discover your own meaning in your place. Not even the Master.
Bite into the fruit yourself.
Read for yourself and find out for yourself.
HAPPY READING.
HAPPY 2022.
URANTIA ASSOCIATION OF SPAIN
¶ References
- Article of the Magazine Light and Life Online: https://aue.urantia-association.org/2021/12/31/editorial-luz-y-vida-enero-2022/
| Luz y Vida — January 2022 — Newsletter | Luz y Vida — January 2022 — Index | Urantia Questionnaire: Gloria Andreu |