© 1998 Richard S. Omura
© 1998 The Urantia Book Fellowship
| On the Brink of the Most Amazing and Enthralling Epoch | Volume 1, Number 1, 1998 (Fall) — Index | The Urantia Papers From a Jewish Perspective |
Wouldn’t it be grand if we could depart every study group and Urantia Book presentation with a feeling of new found hope, empowerment, spiritual invigoration and a heightening of our sense of well-being? There is a certain sense of that sometimes, but in my opinion, not enough of it. What is sad is when a newcomer attends a highly specific presentation on The Urantia Book only to find that he or she cannot relate to it whatsoever because it is overly intellectual and doesn’t appeal to the soul.
There is a Science of Mind church called Agape in Los Angeles. This church is always packed. The minister (who has read The Urantia Book) has achieved soul to soul communication with his congregation. I know of some Urantia Book readers who prefer Agape to Urantia movement gatherings because they want a spiritual experience, not intellectual discussions. I attend both, but I love my fellow believers of The Urantia Book, and feel that with a little effort, we too, can become a community offering spiritual food to most everyone who hungers.
To accomplish this, I believe we must achieve a soul-centered way of doing things in our study groups, our society meetings and other gatherings of Urantia Book believers in order to create an environment where having a spiritual experience is commonplace. What if people were so overwhelmed by the beauty, truth and goodness of our gatherings that we would have to hand out tissue so they can wipe away their tears of joy?
Please don’t try to pick this apart with your intellect. Rather, try to understand the spirit of my words.
A movement needs speakers who can appeal, not just to the souls of those in the movement, but to the souls of every truth seeker. Marianne Williamson does it well for the Course In Miracles, Dr. Michael Beckwith for Science of Mind, M. Scott Peck for his books, but who speaks into the souls of men and women for the Urantia movement?
I have found that most people want spiritual experiences that relate to their daily life. Not just an intellectual concept or cosmology, but a philosophy of living based on spirituality that deals with the prob lems of everyday life such as adverse financial situations, illnesses and death, dependence problems, self-improvement, psychological issues; basically, how to deal with the vicissitudes of living.
Can the teachings from The Urantia Book provide this? Yes, I believe there is a new philosophy of living in the book that builds upon the old and was given to us for just this purpose.
When I asked some readers what the philosophy of The Urantia Book is for them, they replied with answers such as: to live the golden rule, to love one another as Jesus would love us, to serve our fellow men and worship God. to return good for evil, etc.
Those are all worthwhile, true and applicable philosophies but they are not original with The Uremia Book; they’ve been around for a while. But those concepts make very good foundations for the new teachings in The Urantia Book.
A very pragmatic, new and original revelation of the book is the overall concept of the origin, growth and destiny of the soul. Many Urantia Book readers with whom I have talked had a misconception of what the soul is. I’ve talked to people who thought the soul was a blank slate with no volition, just an embryo waiting to be born in the mansion worlds. It is like an embryo, according to The Urantia Book but it does have volition and it can make decisions, albeit with the assent of the mind.
“…God the Supreme is himself a volitional, creative participant in his own deity actualization. The human morontial soul is likewise a volitional, co-creative partner in its own immortalization.” (UB 117:3.7)
The soul is your co-creative partner! Also,
“During *the life in the flesh the evolving soul is enabled to reinforce the supermaterial decisions of the mortal mind. The soul, being supermaterial, does not of itself function on the material level of human experience.” (UB 111:3.2)
In other words, on the material level of human experience the soul reinforces the mind when the mind makes supermaterial decisions. By “supermaterial” decisions, I think they mean those decisions that impact our ascension career; those decisions that create value in the Supreme. And soul cannot function all by itself on the material level. So what does it need in order to function here? The mind!
“Neither can this subspiritual soul, without the collaboration of some spirit of Deity, such as the Adjuster, function above the morontia level. Neither does the soul make final decisions until death or translation divorces it from material association with the mortal mind except when and as this material mind delegates such authority freely and willingly to such a moronda soul of associated function.” (UB 111:3.2)
Even before death or translation, the soul can make final decisions if and when the mind delegates such authority freely to it. I’ve pondered what they mean by “final” decisions. I believe they mean final moral decisions that we can’t “take back”, that is, the moral decisions that are committed to action.
Imagine that! Not only are we reinforced by our soul, we can allow our soul to make final decisions!
Some people associate this with being spiritual, but remember, we cannot really be spiritual in the material world, we barely reach the morontial state in the form of our soul. And what happens when we delegate authority to our soul? Based upon my personal experience, it is as if I become the soul. It is as if my voice, my expressions, my attitude are all under the control of my soul. During the rare moments when I know I am doing this, the results are fantastic. People respond to me with more openness, with candor; with smiles and love. I become the very best part of me.
So how often do opportunities arise when we can delegate authority to our soul? Every day. Every time we talk with another person or make a moral choice, we have a chance to allow our soul to make those decisions. And when we communicate as our soul there is a great chance that the other person will also be led to delegate their decision-making to their soul. And voila! We have reciprocal soul to soul communication!
Soul to soul talk is to communicate without hiding behind the shield of material wealth, physical beauty or strength, or in conventions of intellectualism, or on lofty peaks of spiritual self-righteousness. Soul to soul talk is to come from a place of understanding, love, compassion and honesty by being willing to bare the imperfect, vulnerable self that we are, to reveal to each other those values we have learned from a lifetime of missteps and errors. And we do it with faith, knowing that there exists within the other person a divine spirit that will understand and respond with love and appreciation.
To achieve soul to soul communication “as we go by” in our daily life is a good place to start, but it would be a shame if we don’t put it to practice throughout the Urantia movement; in study groups, organizational meetings, essays and especially presentations.
Do discussions in your study group often become overly intellectual? Does it seem that most Urantia presentations you’ve attended are intellectual rehashing of Urantia Book material with no new insights? It has often been so in my experience. Actually, I liked the intellectual discussions when I first began going to study groups, but it became tedious and not really satisfying to my soul.
The people are hungering for spiritual experience, and we have the seeds necessary to grow the spiritual food in our big blue book. After planting it with our minds, a time comes when we harvest it from our soul. When we do this, people will literally come in droves to find out what the good news is. And the good news is the findings of your heart. Not information in a book, but the experiential truths that you have discovered expressed in your own words straight out of your soul. If they ask for reading material, point them to The Urantia Book, or to any other books you recommend, but from what I’ve experienced, it is the personal, soul to soul communication that is of primary importance.
Make it a point to pray about this today. Let’s lead from our souls in every relationship with our fellow humans. Let’s curb our emotional reactions, our intellectual critiques, and our spiritual self-righteousness. When it comes to making those choices of human and creator relationships, let’s let our souls decide. And when we, as Urantia Book readers begin to do this, a new religious way of living is shown for the entire world to see. And definitely, most definitely, it will change the world.
| On the Brink of the Most Amazing and Enthralling Epoch | Volume 1, Number 1, 1998 (Fall) — Index | The Urantia Papers From a Jewish Perspective |