© 1999 Stephen Dreier
© 1999 The Urantia Book Fellowship
| Two Cosmologies — Astronomy and The Urantia Book | Volume 2, Number 1, 1999 (Winter) — Index | The Dual Nature of Supremacy |
Immortality is a fundamental concern of human living. Does personal life, with its relationships, values and memories survive physical death, or does it come to a sudden and permanent end? The question holds profound personal and philosophic significance.
Except for The Urantia Book there is a poverty of material to aid in thoughtful consideration of immortality. What little there is tends to be vague, simplistic and inconsistent. Often the afterlife is conceived simply as a reward or punishment for behavior in this life, its nature being pleasant or unpleasant accordingly. While these concepts are decreasingly meaningful to individuals, few more satisfactory concepts have developed to replace them. Many individuals are left in a state of confusion and uncertainty about the matter; they avoid thinking about it seriously.
The Urantia Book is unique in that it provides a relatively detailed and self-consistent account of the nature, purposes and activities of the afterlife not otherwise available. After so long with virtually nothing, suddenly a floodgate opens and we are deluged with so much detail that many who study it report difficulty in comprehending and coordinating it all. It will take some time and consider able effort to understand what it all means, and to replace old and stale concepts of the nature of immortality by new models vibrating with expanded meanings and dynamic potentials.
The concept of “cosmic citizenship” takes survival for granted. It assumes an eternal destiny, progressively achieved, and attempts to locate and live this life in the context of that destiny. The Urantia Book is designed to facilitate this effort. “The real purpose of all universe education is to effect the better co-ordination of the isolated child of the worlds with the larger realities of his expanding experience.” (UB 2:7.12)
“Cosmic citizenship” does not have a fixed meaning. Its meanings must be established by the lives of those who claim to practice it. Invariably, it will show a wide range of interpretation. For some it may mean little more that a comforting vague personal conviction of being part of a grand undertaking of infinite and eternal significance, requiring little active response. Some may be stimulated to higher levels of planetary ethical and moral behavior in living this life, an effort to elevate the level of what is, while awaiting what is to be. Still others may feel immediately connected to extra-planetary realities of the system, constellation and universe, and seek to live their lives increasingly in accordance with their understanding of the nature and requirements of these connections. The last of these is the most challenging, and is likely to be the area in which The Urantia Book makes a distinctive contribution to planetary progress.
How do we effect “ better coordination with the larger realities of expanding experience?” One possible way is to ask what will be required of us when we arrive on the mansion worlds. It may be possible to begin to prepare for those requirements now. Perhaps we can arrive on the mansion worlds better qualified for service than might otherwise be the case. We know that the mansion worlds are prepared to deal with the deficiencies, but that is no reason to arrive with more deficiencies than we can avoid. If there are things we can do here to arrive there with fewer deficiencies, it seems only fair to try to do that; it is a matter of cosmic ethics.
A specific example may help illustrate the possibilities. It appears that shortly after arriving on the mansion worlds we will find ourselves involved with the management of universe information. Management of information, for cosmic purposes, is a high order skill. It cannot be learned suddenly; it takes time and practice. If our information management skills are defective when we arrive on the mansion worlds, it will limit our usefulness. Instead of contributing, we will consume the resources of the mansion worlds in remedial services designed to bring our information management skills up to a level acceptable for responsible assignments in the mansonia economy. The next few paragraphs will provide the basis for this conclusion.
The cosmos described in The Urantia Book depends upon an enormous amount of information for its efficient and intelligent operation. Endless decisions are constantly being made about all manner of complex matters, large and small. Accurate information is the basic material of these efforts. Without reasonably complete and accurate information it is impossible to make intelligent decisions.
The mechanisms described in The Urantia Book for the gathering and retrieval of information are vast. A significant fraction of universe personalities and realities are devoted to this task. For example, more than one-seventh of the seraphim, the recorders, are assigned to this effort; other orders of universe life are also involved. Consider the following comment about the Celestial Recorders on UB 25:6.4:
While the advancing recorders stationed on the subordinate spheres of record in the Orvonton universes number trillions upon trillions, those of attained status on Uversa are not quite eight million in number. These senior or graduate recorders are the superuniverse custodians and forwarders of the sponsored records of time and space. (UB 25:6.4)
What does this tell us? First, that an enormous number of beings - trillions upon trillions - are involved in assembling the Orvonton information database. Second, that very few of these, less than 8 million, are of attained status - masters of the art. The rest are still learning how to do it. The management of information is not a simple matter; it is a high order skill that can only be learned by patient and devoted application.
It is clear that many of the angels are involved in information services, but what does this have to do with human beings like ourselves? Consider the following:
The human race was created just a little lower than the more simple types of the angelic orders. Therefore will your first assignment of the morontia life be as assistants to the seraphim in the immediate work awaiting at the time you attain personality consciousness subsequent to your liberation from the bonds of the flesh. (UB 113:7.3)
Here we are told that the first work of the morontia life involves assisting the seraphim. Since much of their work concerns universe information services, it appears reasonable to conclude that at least some of the immediate work of the afterlife will involve assisting the seraphim with their duties of managing universe information.
Knowing this, it seems appropriate to begin preparation for these assignments NOW. It becomes important to develop new and better habits of information management now. These improved habits should serve to insure that the information we store and communicate is sound - in fact and in truth. We should increasingly learn to distinguish skillfully between good and bad information, accepting only the good, rejecting the bad, and realizing that:
…you will resume your intellectual training and spiritual development at the exact level whereon they were interrupted by death. …You begin over there right where you leave off down here. (UB 47:3.7) The life after death is no different in the essentials than the mortal existence. Everything we do in this life which is good contributes directly to the enhancement of the future life. …Every mortal gain is a direct contribution to the enrichment of the first stages of the immortal survival experience. (UB 103:5.7)
This brings us to a consideration of rumor, gossip and hearsay. They are too often the means by which we acquire information and form understandings of persons and situations. We are told something or hear something about someone, and accept it with little or no effort to verify the correctness of the information. It is rarely correct; it is usually biased, positively or negatively; it is often partial, distorted, prejudiced and false. Nevertheless, information communicated through rumor, gossip and hearsay is frequently accepted as valid.
It is difficult to imagine how the angels could rely on the assistance of individuals who were in the habit of managing information in this manner. The angels are devoted to insuring that the information they record and provide is accurate - a factual and truthful account of the person or situation concerned. They do their work with a sense of sacred obligation; they are not likely to trust those who are careless in the management of information to hold any responsible role in their efforts.
Of course, rumor, gossip and hearsay are often understood to be evil. Even those who have no expectation of immortality have concluded, on purely humanistic grounds, that they are inferior behaviors. Those who believe and practice the teachings of The Urantia Book should sense this in much deeper manner since they are equipped to see these and similar things as matters of “cosmic citizenship,” involving not only the doings of this world but also of the worlds to come. The ability to manage information skillfully is basic to “cosmic citizenship.” It is among the ABCs of cosmic education, fundamental to the ability to serve responsibly in the early assignments of the morontia life.
This specific example of the concept of “cosmic citizenship” is not likely to have universal appeal, but hopefully it will serve to stimulate further thought about the connections between this world and the next. Some of these connections may be relatively easy to discern; others will require a careful study of the detailed descriptions of cosmic reality presented in The Urantia Book, along with the use of the creative imagination. It is those relationships, simple and complex, which form the foundation for the practice of “cosmic citizenship.”
The concept of “cosmic citizenship” takes survival for granted and proceeds with a determined and intelligent effort to develop specific attitudes and skills which appear to have continuing value in the mansonia life. It attempts to identify those morontia values and incorporate them into the life we live here, imparting particular meanings to Jesus’ statement:
You are not now as men among men but as the enlightened citizens of another and heavenly country among the ignorant creatures of this dark world. It is not enough that you live as you were before this hour, but henceforth must you live as those who have tasted the glories of a better life and have been sent back to earth as ambassadors of the Sovereign of that new and better world. (UB 140:3.1)
The practice of “cosmic citizenship” is twice blessed. While seeking to enrich the next life, it also enriches this life. It brings the values of the next level of universe reality into the current level, thus contributing to the progress of the current level towards its destiny of light and life.
We are just at the beginning of this adventure of discovery. There are an endless number of such connections waiting to be clarified and incorporated into the lives of those who study The Urantia Book, and subsequently to the world. To the degree that we identify these connections and make them real in our lives we experience “cosmic citizenship” as a growing personal reality, enriching both this life and the next, and causing ripples which expand out to the edges of supreme reality.
Stephen (Steve) Dreier, a retired professor of chemistry, former President of The Urantia Book Fellowship, currently serves as The Fellowship’s Vice President. He has been a student of the book for more than 25 years and has invested countless hours in the service of The Fellowship, his local society and readers everywhere.
Faith most willingly carries reason along as far as reason can go and then goes on with wisdom to the full philosophic limit; and then it dares to launch out upon the limitless and never-ending universe journey in the sole company of TRUTH. UB 103:9.7
| Two Cosmologies — Astronomy and The Urantia Book | Volume 2, Number 1, 1999 (Winter) — Index | The Dual Nature of Supremacy |