© 2022 Olga López
© 2022 Urantia Association of Spain
Newsletter of the Urantia Association of Spain
Light and Life — November 2022
¶ In this number
- Editorial – November 2022
- Works – our recommendations of the month
- History and teachings – Chronicle of the life of Jesus
- Children’s Guide to The Urantia Book: Jesus at Eight Years
- Other spiritual growth books
- Audio – our recommendation of the month
- Navigating through life – Arab legend
- My favorite paragraph
- Urantia Questionnaire: Cecilia Barreto
- III European Conference of Readers of The Urantia Book
- About the Light and Life newsletter
¶ Editorial – November 2022
Maria Jose Sanchez Santamaria
Located in our center
Many of us at school have learned to handle the compass, that curious device that allows us to create perfect circles. If the compass needle is well positioned, the other pole of the compass allows us to make beautiful and perfect drawings. But if the needle is not correctly positioned, the other pole of the compass will make sketchy and imperfect patterns.
In life, the same thing happens to us too: if we are located in our center, whatever we do, the result will be beautiful and pleasant to see.
At the III International Conference of Readers of The Urantia Book, in October, we had the opportunity to fine-tune our compass and place the needle in the right place, in our center. The moments of meditation and group prayer, plus the personal and group reflections, have helped us to be more connected with our inner source, something that always accompanies us everywhere and in all circumstances of life, good or bad. A source of peace, goodness and beauty that can change us, can make us different, better. Or in the terminology Jesus once used: it allows us to be “born again.” We are talking about a process of growth and change on a physical, emotional, mental and spiritual level that is not easy.
In The Urantia Book we find different episodes that show us the proper and highest focus that the Master had before the vicissitudes of life. He knew how to handle life centered on the divine will. Do you remember the episode of Jesus in Jerusalem, with his exalted brother Judah, and the serious problem that both suffered during the Jewish Passover ceremony?
If we dissect the episode, we can see how the “emotional kidnapping” that Judah suffered, with his mind clouded by an overflowing torrent of emotions, can cause us serious problems and disconnects us from our best essence. But at the same time we see how, faced with this same problem, Jesus does not allow himself to be swamped and carried away by emotions. He acts calm and patient.
¶ Works – our recommendations of the month
The reality according to The Urantia Book (Juan Pomares)
With a book of complexity and abundance of information such as The Urantia Book, many times we need an overview to help us put into perspective all the knowledge offered by the revelators. Luckily, there are readers who make very useful diagrams because they help satisfy that need. In this case, the author focuses on reality, its levels, divinity, paradisiacal Deities and other divine beings.
History of Urantia (Alberto Torre)
Here is another scheme, this time in the form of a table, which also helps us to have a global vision of the extensive history of our planet in the form of a chronology grouped according to the geological eras and that goes from the arrival of the Life Carriers of Jerusem until the Holocene, the era in which we find ourselves. In each geological era, the most important milestones related to our planet and the history of humanity are specified.
Chronology of the life of Jesus according to The Urantia Book (Jan Herca)
Many chronologies of the life of Jesus have been made according to what is told in the book, but this is one of the most exhaustive and complete. In the author’s words, «every chronological data offered by the book has been recorded here. As for some dates or moments of certain events, they have been chosen according to their own criteria. They simply seek to place these events on the calendar, and do not claim to be rigorous. In any case, all the events mentioned are taken from the book. Its peculiarity is that a calendar for each year appears to the left of each milestone in the life of Jesus.
Presentation of The Urantia Book in “Pandora’s Box” (Carmelo Martínez)
This work contains the text of the presentation that its author made in 2014 for the YouTube channel “La Caja de Pandora” (a channel that no longer exists). It is aimed at those who do not know the book and focuses on the transformative power of its teachings. It is quite an invitation for the truth seekers out there to know about the book and look at its pages.
¶ History and teachings – Chronicle of the life of Jesus
JOURNALISTIC ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE AND TEACHINGS OF JESUS ACCORDING TO THE URANTIA BOOK
We present the following installment of the chronicles of the life of Jesus, which on this occasion contains what the revelators tell us in document 138 (The formation of the messengers of the kingdom). Inside the PDF you will see a button from where you can access the text of the document from the Urantia Foundation website.
¶ Children’s Guide to The Urantia Book: Jesus at Eight Years
We continue to review the secondary work A Children’s Guide to The Urantia Book, by Mary Livingston. This is the next chapter, dedicated to the time when Jesus was eight years old, and it begins like this:
«In this year the third brother of Jesus was born. They called him Simon. Santiago completed four years of age and Jesus began to teach him the alphabet.
«Jesus liked music. He sold milk and cheese in exchange for harp lessons. He was happy playing the harp and singing. He made his friends love singing."
Download the entire chapter in PDF format
¶ Other spiritual growth books
The divine geometry (Juan Buhigas)
Jaime Buhigas introduces us to the divine geometry in a simple and entertaining way, and helps us to answer all those questions and historical enigmas of great interest. “Do not enter who does not know geometry”, was read on the door of Plato’s Academy. To enter this book you do not need to know anything. Just want to learn.
See full review on our website
More Plato and less Prozac (Lou Marinoff)
The Urantia Book tells us repeatedly that we must reconcile science, philosophy and religion if we want to develop harmoniously. However, we live in times of exaltation of science, so that philosophy and religion have been relegated for not being able to explain reality through tangible evidence according to the scientific method. In addition, given the prevailing utilitarianism in society, anything that is not useful is useless, and both philosophy and religion are considered “useless.” Lou Marinoff is in charge of refuting this precisely in this book.
See full review on our website
¶ Audio – our recommendation of the month
The Urantia Book, a transforming revelation (Pandora’s Box)
With regard to Carmelo’s presentation that we have included in the recommended works of the month, and since the video is no longer available on YouTube, we include here the link to the corresponding audio, which is still accessible on the Internet at ivoox. Its particularity is that, in addition to Carmelo’s initial presentation, it includes a final part of questions and answers, which are not in the PDF.
¶ Navigating through life – Arabian legend
An Arab legend says that two friends were traveling through the desert and had an argument. One ended up giving the other a slap. The offended man crouched down and wrote with his fingers in the sand: “Today my best friend slapped me hard across the face.”
They continued the journey and reached an oasis, where they decided to bathe. The one who had been slapped and injured began to choke. The other one jumped to save him. Recovering from possible drowning, he took a stiletto and began to carve some words on a huge stone. At the end, you could read: “Today my best friend saved my life.”
Intrigued by his friend, he asked him:
“Why, when I hurt you, did you write in the sand and now you write on a rock?”
Smiling, the other replied:
—When a great friend offends us, we must write the offense in the sand, where the wind of oblivion and forgiveness will take care of erasing and forgetting it. On the other hand, when a great friend helps us or something great happens to us, it is necessary to engrave it in the memory stone of the heart, where no wind from any part of the world will be able to erase it.
¶ My favorite paragraph
Carlos Rubinsky
Choosing a favorite quote to discuss with you is really very difficult, since there are many “favorites” that have emerged over the years as I read and reread this wonderful Revelation, but today I choose the following:
Do not try to satisfy the curiosity or gratify all the latent adventure surging within the soul in one short life in the flesh. Be patient! be not tempted to indulge in a lawless plunge into cheap and sordid adventure. Harness your energies and bridle your passions; be calm while you await the majestic unfolding of an endless career of progressive adventure and thrilling discovery. (UB 195:5.10)
This is one of the quotes I call “advice.” We have in the book a lot of information; a new cosmology, new paradigms, new ways of thinking about Deity and how to get closer and closer to the Universal Father and his extensive heavenly family; also information on science, history, philosophy, and other aspects of Revelation. And we have thoughts that give us advice to apply today in the here and now. Like the quote I just copied.
I’m going to analyze it in parts:
¶ Urantia Questionnaire: Cecilia Barreto
Blanca Cecilia Barreto de Anastasi is from Peru. She is a widow and has three daughters ages 40, 21 and 17.
- How did you get to The Urantia Book and why do you think you found it?
My therapist asked me to do it on a trip to the US.
- What was your first impression when reading it?
I was fascinated.
- At what point in the reading (document, sentence, etc.) did you accept that The Urantia Book is really what it claims to be?
When I started reading, I did it for the fourth part.
- How has The Urantia Book changed your life?
Since 1995 he activated the service in me to be an inspiration to others.
- Has the faith you had after reading it changed? If so, how?
My faith has increased, my religion is different. I am Catholic, before I rejected everything. It doesn’t bother me now, but my religion is personal and intimate.
- Is there a point (or points) of the revelation that you find difficult to accept?
None. Maybe at the beginning, but time has given me the answers.
- What is the part that has most deeply impressed you?
To know that God the Supreme experiences through me. Just thinking about it forces me to seek to be a better human being.
- How do you understand “doing the will of the Father”?
I make my life plans, but I learned to adapt because in the end the result is clearer. That is why day by day I ask for attention to know that I am doing the will of my Father and not that of my ego.
- Have you become aware of your Adjuster’s presence?
Every day, every moment.
- Have you tried to put the Master’s teachings into practice? What was the result?
Fine. But when I have not mentioned Urantia.
- Do you think that The Urantia Book has something “mysterious” that makes not everyone decide to read it?
No.
- Is there anything else you would like to say regarding The Urantia Book?
It is not necessary to take it as a bible, but as a living book and make it alive in one.
¶ III European Conference of Urantia Book Readers
¶ Overcome materialism, illuminate Europe
From October 20 to 23, the III European Conference of The Urantia Book readers was held, bringing together almost 70 readers from different parts of Europe and the rest of the world (from Georgia in Eastern Europe to the United States and Argentina in the American continent) at the Sol Don Pablo hotel in Torremolinos (Málaga). With a practically summer temperature, we were able to enjoy not only the weather, but also the good company of other readers and some activities related to the theme of the conference and the theme of self-control, to which several workshops were dedicated.
In this third edition, the conference was intended to have a practical focus, so that the attendees would return home with new ideas and tools to improve the art of self-control. Hence, the workshops of the so-called “self-control route” had a theoretical part and a practical part, in which the participation of the attendees was essential. To facilitate the organization, two language routes were made: English and Spanish, which functioned independently but always centered on the same theme: self-control under the light of the teachings of The Urantia Book.
In addition to the workshops focused on self-control, there were other presentations on other equally interesting topics, such as:
- The presentation of Urantiapedia, a project by Jan Herca (Valladolid) that aims to be a world reference tool for studying The Urantia Book, which aspires to compile all the secondary works and other books that revelators took as a reference to convey concepts so that we could understand them.
- The presentation of the Center for Unity and the Metaverse of Jesus, two projects led by Gabriel Rymberg (Israel) whose objective is to publicize the life and teachings of Jesus to the general public.
- A very fun playful workshop, facilitated by Ina Terra (Netherlands), Luis García Bory (Switzerland) and Pablo Andrés Segovia (Portugal) in which we “cooked” spiritual cupcakes, with some basic ingredients to which one was added as an extra of the fruits of the spirit.
- A presentation by Rogério Reis da Silva (Portugal) on Saint John of the Cross and the relationship of his religious experience to the teachings of The Urantia Book.
- Different meditation sessions, to help us tune in to our divine spark.
As it was the first international face-to-face conference held since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, everyone was looking forward to meeting face to face again and catching up. For this reason, the organizers wanted to encourage social interactions by including two excursions in the program: the first on Friday the 21st, in which the Antequera Dolmens were visited, megalithic monuments older than Stonehenge and the Egyptian pyramids; and the second on Saturday the 22nd, in which we took a walk through the city of Malaga accompanied by a guide who reviewed the millennial history of the city (founded by the Phoenicians) and told funny anecdotes about certain corners and the character of the malagueños That night, all of us who attended enjoyed a typical dinner at the El Tintero restaurant, located next to one of Malaga’s beaches.
As a novelty compared to other events, a WhatsApp group was created in which conference attendees were invited to share photos, the text of the presentations and other conference materials. This group has also served to receive comments from attendees about what they thought of the conference and what could be improved for future events. In general, the sensations were very good, thanks to the tireless work of the organizing team. Our thanks to everyone who has made the success of this event possible!
¶ About the Light and Life newsletter
Light and Life is the newsletter of the Urantia Association of Spain. From 2005 to 2016 it was published in PDF format and distributed by mail and email to the association’s reader list, but it is currently distributed in newsletter format from content in HTML format.
If you want to receive the newsletter in your email, contact the association to subscribe to the mailing list.
All papers and news from readers and study groups are welcome, so if you want to share any side work, writing, outline, image, etc., you can send it to the association and we will publish it previous evaluation of its suitability. Likewise, the Communication commission of the board of directors of the Urantia Association of Spain reserves the right to edit it so that it meets minimum spelling quality.
¶ References
- Article of the Magazine Light and Life Online: https://aue.urantia-association.org/newsletter/luz-y-vida-noviembre-2022/