© 1996 Michael Hanian
© 1996 Association Francophone des Lecteurs du Livre d'Urantia
| Meeting of the translators of the URANTIA Book organized by the URANTIA Foundation in PARIS in April 1996 | Le Lien Urantien — Issue 2 — Autumn 1996 |
Speech given by Michael Hanian at the 1996 Nashville Conference
Dear friends, I have the honor to present one of the themes of this conference, but first of all, I would like to apologize: speaking is not really my strong point. I hope that this frank confession will be received with sympathy and pity. After all, a sincere confession softens the punishment.
In talking about dedication, we’re going to touch on several topics that are related. We’ll start with the comparison between dedication and intellectual curiosity; then we’ll discuss the mysteries of dedication; then we’ll talk about another topic—the relationship between dedication and the will; then we’ll touch on, very briefly, an interaction between dedication and integration; we’ll go on to try to define dedication as the focusing of the will, after which we’ll try to see if there’s a connection between dedication and trust and see if we can get some help in establishing that trust.
1. Humans are curious beings. At one time or another, we are curious about everything and anything—from what makes a watch tick, to what makes us tick. Curiosity is both satisfying and dangerous: while it is perfectly acceptable for a child to take apart something that ticks (as long as it is not your Swiss chronograph), it is less desirable to allow the same child to take apart his little sister.
With all its compensations and dangers, it is through curiosity—our congenital searchlight—that we find things and discover them.
Discovering things is a primitive method of referring to knowledge. First, we are curious to learn, and to be able to extract knowledge, we learn to read. We start with fairy tales and progress to philosophy; we begin with comic books and end with 700-page volumes. Or, if we are lucky, with the 2196-page book.
- It can make a gift to God—dedication of the free will to the doing of the will of God. (UB 112:0.10)
We count ourselves among those lucky ones who discovered this 2196-page book, the URANTIA Book. We found it through our curiosity. But curiosity in itself is not enough: it brought us to the book, but it could not have kept us there. In fact, curiosity is that restless little devil who always tells us: Okay, you’ve had enough, now it’s time to move on. And we listen - as we do in most cases. But not this time.
Why? What made us ignore this impatient little devil, which is our curiosity? In this particular case, what made us respond to his promptings in a perplexed way: wait a second… there’s something there! I think we need to spend some time with him.
impatient little devil, who is our curiosity? In this particular case, what made us respond to his promptings in a perplexed way: wait a second… there’s something there! I think we need to spend some time with him.
So far, all we know is that we feel a particular attraction to a particular book. I’m sure there are many answers to explain what we feel and why this attraction grows every day. One possible explanation is related to the qualitative change in the process of acquiring information while reading the book. For a while, a multitude of facts is all we see, but little by little we begin to establish a connection between these various facts, and we begin to observe them by their links; in other words these facts take on their full meaning. (Of course, this “tabula rasa” or clean slate approach is a very schematic way of looking at things.
We never really start from scratch - we can always relate new facts to something. I used this exaggeration only to present this idea in a more emphatic way.) I am sure many of you can come up with other logical explanations and we can examine them in more detail during our study groups. In the meantime, let’s compare this new attraction to curiosity.
2. But first, let’s forget the image of the little devil - we will instead compare the curiosity of an investigative child, who is interested in everything around him. And like any child, he is joyful, playful and above all he is free from any obligation. He never wants to slow down, to concentrate. Under normal conditions, every time we try to concentrate on a subject, curiosity goes to sleep.
But this new attraction is different. The more we focus on it, the more it grows; the more we immerse ourselves in it, the more pleasant the feeling becomes. Eventually, we don’t want to surface anymore! (Well, we have to.)
It is at this moment that the new star is born. Provoked by our curiosity, nourished by our thirst for truth, His Majesty the Consecration settles in with us, and becomes the engine towards the eternal path. It is only through consecration that the action of transformation can take place to be able to understand a particular point: what you have “vaguely looked at in the mirror, you now see face to face”.
This is how little by little we become aware that there is something in this book that attracts us - and that this attraction is not purely intellectual. Most of us have become acquainted with it and I envy those who have not yet gone through it. But how? What made it possible? Through whom do we acquire a special relationship with this book? And all of a sudden, we realize that we are face to face with one of the greatest mysteries of life: the revelation of the truth. However, we know well that it is a reciprocal process and, as such, it requires us to possess some essential attitudes, the first of which is consecration.
The development of dedication is a gradual process. Its gradual aspect depends on many, many things. Sometimes it takes years to become really ‘caught up’ in the book and dedicated to being an expert in it. And yet, we all know of instances where the flow of time seemed to be accelerated to the maximum, so that recognition of The URANTIA Book was seemingly instantaneous. However, let me point out to you what I see as the subtle but essential difference between insight and dedication: instant insight tends to throw us off balance — dedication restores balance; insight is a deeper exploration — dedication allows for the continuation of that exploration. Insight is more revolutionary than evolutionary — dedication is more evolutionary than revolutionary. Here is another extreme example: insight without gradual dedication can lead to fanaticism.
As with all events in time, the development of dedication is best appreciated in retrospect. When we study what led us to the recognition that this book reflects a living truth—and that its presentation and unique spirit imply revelation—we better recognize the difference between this book and many other things that previously excited our interest, those belonging to the beginners of simple intellectual curiosity. But no matter how diligent we are in our analysis of the things that led us to The URANTIA Book, no matter how deeply we understand the nature and essence of our dedication, we seem unable to reach the in-between—that something, which bridges the edges of the chasm between curiosity and dedication. (Here is one of the topics I would like to suggest for further discussion in study groups: the nature of that “something” that lies between curiosity and dedication.)
Thus we must admit that the great mystery of the revelation of living truth has other, lesser mysteries, and that perhaps we are solving the unsolvable. Perhaps, in some lost part of Havona, there exists a sacred sphere of ‘Consecration-city’ where all pertinent mysteries will be solved upon our arrival far in the future. Until then, all we can—and should—do in this regard is pause and reflect, so that we may search our own experience for possible clues to the mystery of spiritual rapprochement in The URANTIA Book. Sharing our discoveries with our fellow readers enriches our individual and collective understanding of the book. Moreover, sharing our past experiences within a group enables us, shall we say, to reenact it, to live it anew. (Here is another indication of what we may discuss presently in our groups.)
Consecration has a number of consequences, and one of them is a different orientation of our will. Through consecration, the will becomes a powerful tool for achieving new goals and objectives. As we begin the new path, we find that these two things—consecration and will—come together well in The URANTIA Book: the Master was supremely devoted to the accomplishment of the Father’s will. What is relevant here is that he used his own will as a tool for achieving the supreme goal. I think it would be a healthy approach for any reader of The URANTIA Book—right from the beginning—to try to incorporate one of the most important ideas of the gospel: “Not my will, but thy will be done.” The greatest dedication to the book is to be devoted to its message.
Where there is a will, there is a way (divine revelation). Will is a powerful tool, but too often intellectual curiosity pulls our will in different and sometimes opposing directions simultaneously. If we were to try to define dedication, then, in this context, we might say that dedication is the focusing of the will. In this connection, to think of curiosity as something negative would, as the politicians say, have the opposite effect. Curiosity is very effective and powerful — it only requires discipline. And dedication provides exactly the kind of discipline that our curiosity needs. Once we are truly dedicated to the book, there is no danger in loosening the reins, because from that moment on, curiosity operates within the limits established by dedication. This does not mean that we no longer need our will: it continues to activate, but at a higher level and for other purposes, providing those things which are essential to the continuation of our dedicated effort.
5. As soon as we become aware of our consecration to The URANTIA Book, an interesting thing happens: an unconscious interaction between consecration and integration begins. Integration will be explored by another speaker; from this link I will only note the fact that these two things are inseparable: consecration is one of the conditions for achieving integration, so this differentiation between the two is quite relative. In reality, we can hardly extract one or the other from our consciousness and analyze one in a pure way, without the other claiming legitimate rights.
6. Another interesting implication is trust. To become devoted to a message one must believe it, and to believe it one must trust its source. To gain our trust, a book of this kind must be logically consistent, philosophically sound, and aesthetically appealing. The URANTIA Book meets all these criteria, and many more.
However, even these powerful aspects do not necessarily explain our confidence in the book. There is something else that tells us: This thing is different. Indeed, to a very large extent this book is not of this world. So there must be something that allows us to establish confidence, and which apparently is not of this world either. And what could it be? Spirit is the only thing we think about. Later we will learn that this spirit indwells us and that it is constantly striving to attune our spirit to its leading. Dedication to the message of The URANTIA Book is a clear sign that this internal spirit has made an unquestionable success. (Here we are encroaching on a very personal domain, so I will not impose my own interpretation of this phenomenon; I think we can include it in our group discussions.)
7. Each of us has had a similar experience, though negative in character: the experience of anticipating something of spiritual importance and day after day failing to find the right source. So it is when we discover The URANTIA Book, this experience becomes positive, the anticipation of the past and the spiritual progress of the future are met in the present.
Let me repeat: Once we delve into the book, we understand that it differs from the rest of the authentic written records. In fact, being dedicated ourselves to The URANTIA Book we understand that we too have become different, for the entire transformation of our personality begins with dedication.
We have been interested, for the last 20 minutes or so, in dedication. Dedication is the first step toward our inner transformation. We have tried to solve some of its mysteries, with little or no success in this regard; we have pointed out several links: between dedication and curiosity, between devotion and will, between dedication and trust. All I have to add is that dedication to The URANTIA Book is desirable—and inevitable in the long run—for all who are sincerely interested in the message of the Fifth Epochal Revelation.
“Primitive religion was largely a material-value consciousness, but civilization elevates religious values, for true religion is the devotion of the self to the service of meaningful and supreme values. As religion evolves, ethics becomes the philosophy of morals, and morality becomes the discipline of self by the standards of highest meanings and supreme values—divine and spiritual ideals. And thus religion becomes a spontaneous and exquisite devotion, the living experience of the loyalty of love.” (UB 92:7.5)
| Meeting of the translators of the URANTIA Book organized by the URANTIA Foundation in PARIS in April 1996 | Le Lien Urantien — Issue 2 — Autumn 1996 |