© 2023 M. José Sánchez
© 2023 Urantia Association of Spain
| Luz y Vida — October 2023 — Newsletter | Luz y Vida — October 2023 | Presentations from the 19th Urantia Book Readers' Meeting in Spain |
¶ Wash ourselves in silence
A very overwhelmed young nun went to consult her spiritual director:
—Look, Father, I’m very worried. It’s just that, when I feel better in the chapel is when I don’t do anything, I don’t think about anything; I just am.
The priest smiled.
—Don’t worry, sister, you just discovered silence.
The nun did not leave very convinced. How could she achieve that inner peace without thinking, without reflecting, without reading something? And yet, simply being like that, she savored a stillness and a joy that she had never enjoyed until then.
We live more than ever deafened by noise. There is an external noise that does not stop: in the bar, in the car, at home, in the street. The radio, the TV, the mobile phone, the computer do not stop transmitting and receiving messages or advertising, and this dulls our senses. But there is another more dangerous internal noise: that of the mind, which purrs inside us, with worries about what is to come, a future full of fears because we still do not really know what it will be like. A mind that seeks and finds defects and problems everywhere: in the coworker, in the husband or in whoever thinks differently from my way of seeing things. The mind always contaminates us with its noises and distances us from what IS.
Only silence frees us, but we are terrified of it, because we identify it with loneliness and emptiness and we do not appreciate that it is a loneliness “accompanied” by our divine spark and a void that is truly “full.” Benedetti writes:
What a splendid lagoon is silence
there on the shore a bell awaits
but nobody dares to sink an oar
in the mirror of still waters.
If the TV is turned on at home as soon as we get up and turned off when we go to bed; if the news, mostly negative, bombards us day and night; if mobile phones, advertising and social networks have become our umbilical cord with life, we live within a cloud of noise.
It remains paradoxical in a hyper-communicated world like ours that man’s greatest sadness comes from feeling separated, ultimately, “alone” in the middle of a crowd, solicited by millions of signs and sounds.
Silence heals because it connects us with what we are, it returns us to unity with everything, it unites us to that great Heart that drives everything.
The blue book reminds us to stop and be silent:
The mechanistic naturalism of some supposedly educated men and the thoughtless secularism of the man in the street are both exclusively concerned with things; they are barren of all real values, sanctions, and satisfactions of a spiritual nature, as well as being devoid of faith, hope, and eternal assurances. One of the great troubles with modern life is that man thinks he is too busy to find time for spiritual meditation and religious devotion. (UB 195:6.7)
This beautiful phrase by Tagore also reminds us of the importance of stopping and being silent:
“Since the dust of dead words ignites in you, wash your soul in silence.”
And the readers of The Urantia Book? How are we doing in terms of “noise”?
A few days ago we had a readers’ meeting in Spain, in Ciudad Real. There were moments of dialogue, debate, hugs… and also the opportunity to be silent and meditate. The organizers do not want to neglect this aspect and we will always encourage more intimate moments in groups.
It is also worth remembering that the blue book was released to the public and distributed on October 12, 1955, 68 years ago, more than half a century. The revealers knew how important the reading of these documents was for our progress, and since then the fifth revelation has not ceased to be published, translated into dozens of languages, read alone and analyzed in groups, conferences and meetings all over the planet.
It is a good idea to remember the opening words of the book. In the Prologue, the intention to expand our worldview and spiritual development is formulated, crucial aspects in this era of “noise”:
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. But our mandate admonishes us to make every effort to convey our meanings by using the word symbols of the English tongue. We have been instructed to introduce new terms only when the concept to be portrayed finds no terminology in English which can be employed to convey such a new concept partially or even with more or less distortion of meaning. (UB 0:0.2)
This fundamental work formulated by the blue book in its beginnings would not be possible if thousands of new, groundbreaking, expansive ideas were not fixed in the text. A text that can be reread hundreds of times, underlined, highlighted on paper. A text that, each time it is read in silent dialogue, is better understood, it is captured in greater nuances that cannot be glimpsed in a first reading.
The revealers know that this very unusual communication that is established in reading, an intimate and silent act, is going to be possible not only because of the book itself, but also because of the internal presence of a divine spark. Therein lies the key to understanding the text:
Although you may have to wait to reach the highest finite levels of spiritual progression to approach the Father’s Paradise presence, you should rejoice in recognizing the ever-present possibility of immediate communion with the Father’s bestowed spirit that so intimately associates with your inner soul and spiritualizing self. UB 5:1.3, bold added
Faced with differences of opinion about what a word or a turn of phrase in The Urantia Book says or doesn’t say, in this October when we once again celebrate the publication of the book, let’s return to our interior, to our impregnable island and listen to the silence. Let’s put the noisy mind aside and enjoy listening to the silence.
The text published 68 years ago is a door that, once opened, once we pass to the other side, we realize that it is an instrument that leads us to discover that the most important thing of all is LOVE. Although everything is really a door, everything is open to reach our fundamental essence, which is loving. A loving essence that is reflected in our daily actions, in our encounters with readers, in life in general.
The consciousness of the dominion of the spirit in a human life is soon accompanied by an ever-increasing manifestation of the characteristics of the Spirit in the behavior of the Spirit-led mortal, “for the fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self-control.” Such mortals led by the divine illumination of the spirit, while still treading the humble paths of hard work and performing with human loyalty the obligations of their earthly trusts, have already begun to perceive the lights of eternal life glimmering on the remote shores of another world… UB 34:6.13, bold added
It is not enough that this spirit has been poured out upon you; the divine Spirit must dominate and control every aspect of human experience. UB 34:6.7, bold added
Let us go through the door that is The Urantia Book, let us discover through its reading what has always been there, within our reach, at hand: the river that we all have inside. Let us wash ourselves in silence, let us cleanse the small differences by listening to our interior, just as our beloved Master did:
One of the reasons why Peter, James, and John, who so often accompanied Jesus on his long night vigils, never heard Jesus pray, was because their Master so rarely uttered his prayers as spoken words. Practically all of Jesus’ praying was done in the spirit and in the heart—silently. (UB 144:4.10)
Nobody said that life was easy, but here we are, and we are accompanied by the best traveling companion. And it’s true that we are never alone.
¶ References
- Index of the magazine “Luz y Vida” of the Association of Spain
- This article from the magazine “Luz y Vida Online”
| Luz y Vida — October 2023 — Newsletter | Luz y Vida — October 2023 | Presentations from the 19th Urantia Book Readers' Meeting in Spain |