© 1996 Seppo Niskanen
© 1996 International Urantia Association (IUA)
| United States URANTIA Association - USUA's First Birthday | Journal — September 1996 — Index | Britain Cries Out for Cooperation |
Seppo Niskanen, Helsinki, Finland
From time to time, each of us has been pondering the reasons for our existence: why do we exist; is all this labour and toil worth the pain? At the Summer Conference of the Finnish URANTIA Association, in mid-June, a concerted effort was made to find the cosmic viewpoint into human existence. The URANTIA Book is a true treasure chest for anyone in search of a cosmic viewpoint—provided one reads the book from beginning to end. I shall hereunder present some of the findings of the Conference.
Existence is divided into two major sectors: the existential and the experiential existences. Within existentiality, everything is absolute and perfect in actuality; in experientiality, everything is imperfect, or perfecting, yet perfect in potentiality. God views the universe looking from the centre out; we view the universe looking from the outside in. God gains our viewpoint of looking from outside in as his gift, the Thought Adjuster, in each of us, looks upon the existence through our eyes. It will be difficult but it would be worth the effort should we strive to perceive, at least to a limited extent, how it feels to look upon the existence from God’s viewpoint, from the cosmic viewpoint.
All worth-while experiences will be preserved
The tension between the infinity of existence and the subinfinite existence is solved through experience, through experiencing. We are currently traversing the first stage of experientiality, the experientiality of Supremacy. Each of us is a unique personality; and the experiences of each of us are equally unique.
It is hard to believe, but we are perfect even now; that is, potentially perfect; we are, after all made in images of God.
“Let us make mortal man in our own image.” UB 6:5.7
We just need to remember that our perfection is, potential; in actuality we are imperfect. We are designed to experience and to grow perfect; to translate potentials into actuals; and to do that through our freewill efforts.
“Mortal man earns even his status as an ascension candidate by his own faith and hope. Everything divine which the human mind grasps and the human soul acquires is an experiential attainment; it is a reality of personal experience and is therefore a unique possession in contrast to the inherent goodness and righteousness of the inerrant personalities of Havona.” UB 3:5.16
Nowhere in the vast universe of universes is there, or will there ever be, another order of beings with our kind of acquired bulk of experiences; and we shall know whereof we speak, for we will have traversed it all.
All worthwhile experiences will be preserved; they are morontial, supermaterial. Our minds and our Thought Adjusters use our worthwhile experiences in the construction of our morontia souls; and the soul is the vehicle for our surviving personalities. Personality relationships possess a cosmic value. We shall remember and we shall be remembered from the mansion worlds up to Paradise. We may assert that the most valuable experiences are gained in relationships with other personalities, from human through superhuman to divine personalities. Other personalities can be a source of unending pleasure, but they likewise constitute the element of unpredictability in our experiences; we cannot always anticipate the reactions and responses of other personalities. Our fellow men are on divergent levels of growth, and each of us is a unique personality.
The ultimate question is: Do you want to be part of all this experiencing? Every one of us has to give a reply to this question, at one juncture or another…
The Greek philosopher Protagoras (fifth century b.c.) proposed a thesis that the sensory world, in contradistinction to the world of ideas, appears differently to each observer. He evidently realised that each of us is unique, and consequently, our viewpoints must be unique.
God is no respecter of persons; for him all persons are equally dear, and the experiences of all are equally important. In terms of endowments and knowledge we are dissimilar, but spiritually we are all of equal value — sons of the same Father. The more we remember this, the more tolerant we become. It is sound, from time to time, to make an effort to place oneself in someone else’s position and try to look upon the world from his viewpoint. That will be one more step in our growth towards cosmic citizenship.
The ultimate question is: Do you want to be part of all this experiencing? Every one of us has to give a reply to this question, at one juncture or another; either here on earth, or on the morontia worlds. The decision must be made and the answer be given consciously, in full awareness. Our sole contribution toward experientiality and our sole gift to God is this freewill dedication to be involved in experiencing, the will to be involved in the forward struggle, in the progress from outside in.
The most momentous and crucial problems of life are, in a certain sense, unsolvable, insoluble. The German philosopher Carl Jung said (in 1929) that they can never be solved but only outgrown. We are unable to solve problems through mere thinking, no matter how much we might try. “Well planned is half-done,” goes an old adage; which means that thinking is needed, but only practical living carries us forward. In retrospect, even the most difficult problems tend to lose their significance, provided they have been “outgrown.” There is no true happiness without effort and living. Afterwards, having made the effort and surmounted the difficulty, we feel a supernal satisfaction, something that is otherwise inexperiencible.
All of us enjoy a direct communion with God. If we so desire, we may communicate with him either through prayer or in worship. You only need to put your problems before God in a prayer and it will help you to solve them and to grow out of them. All our petitions will be answered, even though the answers are not what we possibly expected them to be. If some of our petitions cannot be answered right now, the answer will be waiting for us somewhere along our ascension careers, as soon as we are able to appreciate and comprehend it.
These were only a sample of the findings and ideas which were articulated at the Conference. I hope the Journal readers found them edifying.
| United States URANTIA Association - USUA's First Birthday | Journal — September 1996 — Index | Britain Cries Out for Cooperation |