© 2012 Santiago Flores
© 2012 Urantia Association of Spain
| Luz y Vida — No. 28 — Presentation | Luz y Vida — No. 28 — March 2012 — Index | The spiritual evolution of man for the achievement of mortal survival (first part) |
There are three levels of universal reality: fact, idea and relationship. They manifest in the life of intelligent creatures as thing, meaning and value. They are part of the human being as body, mind and spirit; thus encompassing the concrete, the abstract and the transcendent.
¶ Facts, Ideas and Relationships
¶ I - The facts
The reality of the facts is practically undeniable. Only by theorizing a superhuman perspective can it be considered that real is that which either exists independent of time -the eternal-, or persists in time in an unlimited way -the eternalized-; considering eternal what is by itself, and eternalizing what has acquired that quality by an action external to itself. From this perspective, everything that does not maintain identity eternally is not real, and since all material reality is ephemeral, it must be real only in appearance, in a circumscribed, partial and incomplete way. In this way the fact is a reality only at the level of the material and the concrete.
¶ II - Ideas
The idea is the mortar of the mind, an intimate laboratory where the human being raises, plans, builds and corrects realities -which, not being such at the concrete level, take their being there guided by the will and shaped by the acts-. The mind is the only portion of universal reality over which the material creature can have absolute control, and the idea is its building material there. The idea is thus a reality at the level of the mental and the abstract.
¶ III-Relationships
The relationship is a binding union that transforms the realities it unites into a new reality, many times with unexpected characteristics that exceed the mere sum of the characteristics of the parties.
to. Relationships at the concrete level
As an example, let us consider the following: at the concrete level it is hardly imaginable that the union of two gases, two units of one highly corrosive and one of the other highly explosive, generates a new reality that is not only completely innocuous (neither corrosive nor explosive) but also Furthermore, it is fundamental for the sustenance of life as we know it: liquid water, with unique chemical and physical properties that are radically different from those of its origins. At the concrete level, the relationship generated between realities translates into hydrogen bonds, orbitals with shared electrons (covalent bonds) or open magnetic attractions (ionic bonds); basic forces of cohesion of matter.
b. Relations at the abstract level
Albert Einstein said that thought is a free game of concepts that the mind interrelates, links and compares; when he finds a coherent but unexpected relationship, he is surprised. The idea is itself a reality arising from the relationship of pre-existing concepts; Thus, at the level of the abstract, the relationship between concepts is translated into new concepts.
c. Relationships at the transcendent level
Dare to venture into the level of the transcendental and the eternal, is to resign ourselves to covering it only in a partial, incomplete and relative way; and I dare with the consolation of thinking that while the deity must be infinitely more than anything we can imagine as its ideal, it must not be-necessarily-nothing less. Therefore, to the best of our ability, by referring to that ideal we will be getting closer to what it really is.
The only way I imagine to get closer to that level is through the extrapolation of the levels that are at least partly comprehensible to me, the concrete and the abstract.
If in them we have previously observed that the relationship between circumscribed, partial and relative realities is in itself a new reality of the same level, it is legitimate to postulate the probability that the same thing happens at the level of the transcendental where the true infinite realities are supposedly found. , eternal and absolute. In this way I think I have justified the possible existence of the three levels, and the capacity of the three to contain their own universal realities.
¶ Thing, Meaning and Value
Regarding its manifestation as a thing, meaning and value, let’s say that “thing” covers everything inanimate, material and accessory of life, whether it is specifically an object or a particular event that only involves other inanimate, material and accessory objects; with this definition, a chair or a syringe would be a “thing”, but also the fall of a ripe fruit from a tree or a thunderous tsunami that hits the coast.
Meaning is the interpretation that an intelligent mind makes about the thing. Thus, a tsunami can mean the graceful aggression of a violent god or the unfortunate product of the natural cycle of drift of the continents, depending on the conceptual framework and the convictions of the mind that analyzes.
Value is the acquired teaching, arising both from lived experience and from meditation on the meaning of the thing and its contextual framework. The difference between meaning and value is that since value is a reality greater than meaning, value -although it can be broadened and deepened- is what it is, transcending the situation that gave rise to it; while the meaning is such only within its original context.
As an example, let’s say that the thing can be an accident that produces some kind of disability. The meanings will be as many as the minds that analyze it, for some it will be a punishment from the gods, for others an undeserved misfortune, for others the opportunity to assume their own responsibility for what happened… now, once the accident has happened, Once the meanings have been analyzed and the consequences have been overcome or assumed, the three perspectives could have gained awareness of their own capacity to overcome unexpected misfortunes as a new value of their personality. While the meaning of the thing was circumscribed to the perspective of the particular reality in which it arose, this value thus acquired is superior to rational considerations and can be reused and reinterpreted on many different future occasions. Thus, spiritual values are spiritual realities that man wins through the struggle of his material existence, as real on the spiritual level as are material realities in the concrete world.
The quality of thought directly affects the quality of the conceptual constructions that are built there and, if these constructions are the theoretical scaffolding of the individual’s acts, they must have the best possible quality so that it is reflected at the concrete level once that will and action have given it its being there.
Pure thought, understood as thinking about abstract concepts and thinking about thought itself, are fundamental exercises to increase the depth and breadth of the individual’s mental capacity. But the acquisition of spiritual values is independent of mental capacity (always assuming healthy minds capable of moral decision), the most ignorant mortal can acquire true spiritual values from the experiences of his life, even interpreting them from the most abject superstition. In this way, the universe compensates for the various opportunities and capacities that man has throughout his life. If what is truly perennial is the acquired spiritual value and this arises fundamentally from experience and meditation on experience, the superstitious ignoramuses are on an equal footing with the wise scientists… even without knowing it.
The more we resemble the ideal we have of ourselves, the more real we will become in the universe and the friendlier it will become towards us. The universe is not a conflicting duality, it is a harmony of unity in diversity.
These three levels are manifested in the human personality as body (the level of the concrete, material and ephemeral), mind (the level of the abstract, ideas, the interpreter, harmonizer, coordinator and classifier of the experiences of the concrete level) and spirit (the level of the transcendent, the eternal, where all the spiritual values arising from ideas and experiences and treasured by the personality are kept for the future as true tools for the eternal construction of the spiritual self).
The harmonious balance of each level - to which we all naturally aspire - is known on a day-to-day basis as health, sanity and happiness.
¶ References
- Light and Life Magazine (all old issues): https://aue.urantia-association.org/numeros-antiguos-del-lyv/
| Luz y Vida — No. 28 — Presentation | Luz y Vida — No. 28 — March 2012 — Index | The spiritual evolution of man for the achievement of mortal survival (first part) |