© 2023 Olga López
© 2023 Urantia Association of Spain
Urantia Association of Spain Newsletter
Light and Life — September 2023
¶ In this issue
- Editorial – September 2023 — M. José Sánchez Santamaría
- Works – our recommendations of the month
- History and teachings: Chronicle of the life of Jesus
- Guide to The Urantia Book for children: Joseph and Mary find Jesus and return home
- Other books for spiritual growth
- Recommended audio
- Navigating through life: Three wishes
- My paragraph favorite — Mayra Moreno
- Urantian Questionnaire – Julieta Quintero
- New courses from the Urantia Book International School (UBIS)
¶ Editorial – September 2023
The perfect time to sow
Once again, after the vacation break, we resume our newsletter Luz y Vida this month of September. In addition, we come with the hope of being able to attend the first national in-person meeting after the pandemic, in Ciudad Real.
In this September issue you will once again find reflections, discoveries, study materials, video or audio recommendations, etc., which we hope you will enjoy. We invite you, dear reader, to join us for another month on this journey through The Urantia Book and its fascinating details.
Let’s begin, then.
We’ve all had the opportunity to see a baby who is learning to walk, right? Despite falling over and over again in his attempts to walk, he persists in this effort to walk and gets up again tirelessly. The littlest ones are pure energy and pure learning. They are discovering their own body, learning about material life, with its possibilities and challenges. We’ve all gone through that stage, which inevitably allows us to know and delve into what life is like on Earth, in matter, in this universe of space and time.
However, we adults have continued to learn; we have not remained in that purely sensorial and motor phase of our development. Have we not continued to progress? Does life drag us along based on experiencing sensations such as “I want to eat this hamburger”, “I want to lie on the sofa” or “I am interested in seeing all the possible shorts on my mobile phone”? Do we act according to primary parameters, limited to the most instinctive, like little animals?
In a striking phrase, the master of Kabbalah Mario Sabán gives us the key: either people enter the spiritual world or commit suicide. At this stage of civilization, one cannot live only by matter. Will the latest model of mobile phone give me satisfaction in my life? Will it perhaps be the brand new car I just bought at the dealership, or the trip to that heavenly place? How many cars, houses or iPhones will we need to feel fulfilled and happy?
¶ Papers – our recommendations of the month
The Adjuster and the Experience (various authors)
Before there were in-person study groups, there were readers who asked other reader friends questions via email, which led to interesting multi-party conversations. This group even had a name, GEI (Internet Study Group), and this is the compilation of one of those conversations, which began with the questions of one of the participants: “How is it possible that if God is all-powerful and has deposited a fragment of himself in each one of us, this adjuster that lives in us does not have experiences? Then what can he give us? Or why does he want them? And if so, why does he need them, if he is a fragment of God? I do not understand why he accumulates experiences from beings who are just beginning to have them.”
In this revealing writing, the author tells us that it is not only important to want to change, but to take steps in the right direction. As he rightly says: “There are many human beings who say they want to mature and find inner freedom and do something about it, but they have become accustomed to their inner cage and do not want to leave it.” And how do we manage to leave that inner cage? Through experience. José Alberto tells us: “Doing something to achieve something requires effort and an endless struggle, but that goal is already within us. The Father is within us.” How can we not achieve it?
The Inner Life: Towards God (Olga López)
In this presentation, the author begins by saying the following: “A rich inner life involves spiritualizing ourselves, moving away from the material and animal tendencies of the mind. And what better way to do this than by getting closer to the source of everything that is spirit?” And then she asks: “How do we, mortals of flesh and blood, elevate ourselves spiritually? How do we go from being rational animals to being as perfect as we can be on the finite level of reality? Unlike the natives of Havona, we are not born perfect, so we have to learn to be perfect. And how do we learn?” Follow the author on the path that goes from the material to the spiritual, to the source of Everything and everyone: God the Father.
Even though they are aware that personality is, in the words of the revelators, “one of the unsolved mysteries of the universes,” and taking into account that they also tell us that a complete revelation would not be very desirable because it would stifle our imagination, the author launches into the attempt to define personality and present its basic characteristics. This is a very interesting work to get a more or less approximate idea of what it means to have the gift of personality and the free will associated with it.
¶ 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 to you the next installment of the chronicles of the life of Jesus, which on this occasion contains what the revelators tell us in document 147 (The parenthesis of the visit to Jerusalem). Inside the PDF you will see a button from where you can access the text of the document from the Urantia Foundation website.
¶ A Children’s Guide to The Urantia Book: Joseph and Mary Find Jesus and Return Home
We continue our review of the secondary work A Children’s Guide to The Urantia Book by Mary Livingston. This is the next chapter, which is about the time when Joseph and Mary find Jesus and return home, and it begins like this:
“It seemed that Jesus had forgotten about Mom and Dad. When Lazarus’s father was near them, Jesus did not seem to sense that they were worried.
“The teachers and temple leaders were amazed at Jesus’ knowledge. He knew the scriptures in Hebrew and Greek, but what struck them most was his youth. When the people began to talk about prayers, the teachers told Jesus to sit with them. They asked him to speak and teach like them.”
Download the full chapter in PDF format
¶ Other books on spiritual growth
The treasure of authentic success and happiness. A message from your inner god (José Joaquín Llinares Nadal)
This is a short essay written by a reader of the book, a psychologist and painter, who defines this work as follows: “This is not a religious book. It is a book about self-esteem, whose aim is the recognition of the authentic intrinsic potential that slumbers in the heart of the individual, because the only owner of the power capable of recovering authentic self-esteem, authentic success and happiness, the true treasure that enriches life, is oneself. In the human being, despite his present state, despite the circumstances he lives, there is the baggage that he needs to harmonize his life, smile and dance with it.”
¶ Recommended audio
El dato, by José A. Rodríguez Jorge («Luz y Vida» space on Radio Urantia)
In this installment of «Luz y Vida» space on Radio Urantia, its author, José Antonio, begins by saying that the first time he read The Urantia Book he had the impression that he was not understanding anything, and that he could fall into the error of focusing only on the data. The important thing is that we are clear that God exists and is the Architect of the universe, and that the human being transcends material nature. It is not about being scholars of the knowledge of the book, but rather knowing the simple truths of faith.
¶ Navigating through life: Three wishes
A humble and thoughtful fisherman one day met a genie.
—You are my savior! “I have been bored here at the bottom of the sea for a long time. Thank you very much! I will grant you three wishes for setting me free. What is your first wish?”
Surprised, the fisherman replied after a moment:
“I wish you would make me intelligent, enlightened and wise enough to make good use of the two wishes I have left.
” “Granted!” exclaimed the genie with a snap of his fingers. “Now tell me, what are your other two wishes?”
The fisherman thought for a moment and replied calmly:
“Thank you very much, I have no more wishes.”
¶ My favorite paragraph — Mayra Moreno
Like most readers of The Urantia Book, Part 4 is one of my favorites. Jesus, our Creator Father, Teacher, and brother, freed us from the chains of evolutionary religions and came to teach us the love of our Heavenly Father. Jesus should be an inspiration to us to follow. In our imperfection, we can be perfect like Him. I can imagine this from the description given in the following paragraph:
The Master displayed great wisdom and perfect fairness in all his dealings with the apostles and all his disciples. Jesus was truly a teacher of men. He exerted a great influence over his fellow men by the combination of strength and charm of his personality. From his hard, nomadic, homeless life there emanated a subtle attitude of command. There was intellectual appeal and spiritual power in the authority of his teaching, in his lucid logic, in the force of his reasoning, in his keen insight, in his alert mind, in his incomparable poise, and in his sublime tolerance. He was simple, manly, honest, and fearless. To all this physical and intellectual influence evident in the Master’s presence were added all the spiritual charms that have been associated with his personality: patience, tenderness, meekness, gentleness, and humility. UB 141:3.4
¶ Urantia Questionnaire – Julieta Quintero
My name is Julieta Quintero, I am Venezuelan and I have a 26-year-old son.
1. How did you come across The Urantia Book and why do you think you found it?
I saw an interview with JJ Benitez where he was asked if he thought The Urantia Book was a true revelation, and he said yes it was. So I downloaded the PDF and started reading it.
Why did I find it? I want to believe that it is part of my Adjuster’s plan.
2. What was your first impression when you read it?
It was like putting on reality glasses, it impressed me and made me happy at the same time. The impression of knowing that you have before you a titanic and eternal task of growing towards reality and meeting our Father, and the joy of knowing that you have a great universal family that guides you and encourages you from the other side to help you on the eternal path.
¶ New courses at the Urantia Book International School (UBIS)
A new quarter of courses begins in September at the Urantia Book International School (UBIS). The registration period begins on Monday the 11th and ends on Sunday the 24th. Courses begin on Monday the 18th with orientation week.
These are the courses that will be offered this quarter:
- The joy of doing the Father’s will. Facilitated by: Luis Alfonso Rojas Rosillo. Level: intermediate. Duration: 10 weeks.
- The Seraphim: Knowing and Loving Our Angels. Facilitated by: Ana Eguren. Level: Basic. Duration: 10 weeks.
- Religion as a Personal Experience with God. Facilitated by: Fanny Yuliana Chuquilin. Level: Basic. Duration: 10 weeks.
- Rodan of Alexandria: Philosophy in the Time of Jesus. Facilitated by: Diego Betancourt. Level: Basic. Duration: 10 weeks.
- The Inner Experience of Jesus, the Man. Facilitated by: Jimmer Prieto. Level: Intermediate-Advanced. Duration: 10 weeks. Study group format.
If you are interested in requesting a course, you must first create an account on the school’s website, http://ubis.urantia.org. This can be done before registration begins.
Space is limited, so sign up as soon as possible!
For more information about the courses, you can visit this page
¶ 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 postal mail and email to the association’s reader list, but it is currently distributed in newsletter format from HTML content.
If you wish to receive the newsletter in your email, contact the association to be subscribed to the list of recipients.
All work and news from readers and study groups are welcome, so if you wish to share any secondary work, writing, outline, image, etc., you can send it to the association and we will publish it after evaluating its suitability. Likewise, the Communications Committee of the board of directors of the Urantia Association of Spain reserves the right to edit it to ensure it meets minimum spelling quality standards.
¶ References
- Index of the magazine “Luz y Vida” of the Association of Spain
- This article from the magazine “Luz y Vida Online”
- Index of the magazine “Luz y Vida Online”