© 2019 ANZURA, Australia & New Zealand Urantia Association
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By Study Day Service Group
When ANZURA arranges an International Study Day, the hope is to provide an opportunity for students of The Urantia Book to participate in a specially formed study group in their regional areas so that reads are meeting on the same day studying the same paper all over the world.
The value of meeting with other readers is not to be underestimated—after all, our personal growth and religious experiences are best fostered while we are relating—inter-acting—with other personalities—other people!
In this way ANZURA attempts to foster a sense of belonging and cohesion amongst Urantia Book readers across the vast oceans! Very importantly, such events can also encourage leadership and outreach as practical involvement in study groups can strengthen our resolve and dedication to fulfil the mandate of disseminating the Urantia revelation with a personal approach.
Groups met around over the weekend of 1st June to study Paper 9: Relation of the Infinite Spirit to the Universe. The following articles contain some reflections from some who met.
¶ Sydney Meeting Reflections
Rita Schaad
For a regular and consistent study group to exist you need a committed host or organizer and for events like a yearly Study Day it’s pretty much the same story. So we in the Sydney region are blessed to have a place near the ocean; the home of Kathleen and Trevor, to gather and enjoy each other’s company and tackle yet another of those magnificent papers in The Urantia Book.
Regular Sydney study group folks as well as travelers from Wollongong and Newcastle gathered. One of the Sydney visitors brought his young son along, who surprised us with his daily Urantia Book reading routine—he is just 12 years of age!!
We noticed after more than half an hour of reading, that we hadn’t even turned the page yet. The first paragraph of Paper 9, starting with the opening phrase: A strange thing that occurred… had us truly puzzled. How can anything in the Paradise ‘household’ be unforeseen or un-foreshadowed? What else could we do but wonder about the unique prerogatives of synthesis.
The Third Source and Center is the universal unifier of the manifold energies and diverse creations which have appeared in consequence of the divine plan and the eternal purpose of the Universal Father. [UB 9:0.2]
The God of Mind is also close to our hearts. We do treasure our minds, our consciousness, our sanity. How else could we really be able to think, make choices, create and maintain relationships, reflect and project on ideas and ideals? The Third Source and Centre is the very reason we can actually study these lofty concepts that make our heads spin. It is truly awe-some!
Those eight sections had us engaged in deep study for many hours and the contributions of those present, the sharing of their minds, has been a great and enriching gift. May it sustain all of us during the coming months!
Reading the book is one thing, studying with others is an energizing and inspiring affair. The Revelators had good reasons to admonish us to creating “thousands of study groups”. And—where two or more are gathered in the spirit of cooperation…great things may and do happen!
With many thanks… until next year!
¶ Adelaide Meeting Reflections
Phillip Marriott
We came together for the first time in ages. Some readers are of ‘old stock’ and some very new. It seems the last conference in QLD did inspire both Beverely and Roger to persevere with the study of The Urantia Book and so they travelled from Milang to Mount Barker to meet others at my house.
This regional gathering drew Urantia Book readers from Milang, Strathalbyn, Mount Barker and Adelaide. Milang is on the shores of Lake Alexandrina, Strathalbyn midland about halfway between Milang and Mount Barker, Mount Barker is in the Adelaide hills on the South Eastern freeway heading toward Murray Bridge, about halfway between Adelaide and Murray Bridge, 35 minutes’ drive either way, Seacliff a beach side suburb of Adelaide. This illustrates nicely, how spread-out we are across this land, but with goodwill and the various transport options “we can do it!” and we did. We decided to make such meetings more regular in the future.
Paper 9 was indeed a good starting point. As Beverly reflected afterwards, the collective reading and shared time were welcoming and informative. “Focusing on the universe Mother Spirit made you feel the inner mindal compass and as we are drawn toward our Third Source and Centre our Universe Journey toward the First Source and Centre is in this way guaranteed.”
We really did enjoy one another’s company and paused to ask questions and comment on various aspects of the Paper. Thank you, Stephen, Tamara, Beverly and Roger; you made it all come together so perfectly.
¶ Online Forum Discussion Reflections
Nigel Nunn
(Editor’s Note: An online study group was held on Urantia Association International’s Forum. The full discussion can be found on the website at: https://urantia-association.org/forums/topic/2019-international-study-day. Here is a summary and compilation of some of the discussion.)
Following on from this year’s International Study Day, the online discussion began to explore the role of the local universe Divine Minister in the actual creation of human souls. This question arose while considering the role of the Infinite Spirit in making possible our transformation, from tadpole to Finaliter.
As Source and Center for both (a) material engineering and (b) personal spiritual ministry, the Infinite Spirit not only makes the arena in which we live, but also makes possible our progress within that arena. Crucial to such progress is accommodating (and managing!) the phenomenon of change. For us humans, one of the most interesting of changes is the shifting of our seat of identity, from material association to morontia identification:
This actual transfer from material association to morontia identification is effected by the sincerity, persistence, and steadfastness of the God-seeking decisions of the human creature. [UB 112:2.20]
Which led us to wonder about the various systems of mind required to make possible such transformation. For example, regarding our first type of mind, in Paper 117 section 5, the author writes:
In the mortal experience the human intellect resides in the rhythmic pulsations of the adjutant mind-spirits and effects its decisions within the arena produced by encircuitment within this ministry. [UB 117:5.7]
Earlier, in Paper 36 section 5, this same system of Adjutants is described as “…a level of consciousness of the Divine Minister…” (UB 36:5.4), exposing the intimacy of our relationship with this “local universe representation of the Infinite Spirit”. But the plot thickens. Later in the same section, we read about “the spirit cycles of the local universe Mother Spirit”, plus the idea of a “supermind endowment”:
With the appearance of the spiritual response of the creature intellect, such created minds at once become superminded, being instantly encircuited in the spirit cycles of the local universe Mother Spirit. [UB 36:5.15] emphasis added
Becoming superminded, and “instantly encircuited in the spirit cycles of the local universe Mother Spirit” raises lots of questions. Fortunately, our most experienced forum contributor was on hand to lead us into these super-adjutant relationships. Most importantly, our relationship with the personal presence of the Divine Minister, “the Holy Spirit”:
…the spirit of the personal presence of the Divine Minister, the Holy Spirit of the inhabited worlds;… [UB 36:5.16]
The Holy Spirit – this is the initial supermind bestowal, and it unfailingly appears in all bona fide human personalities. This ministry to a worship-craving and wisdom-desiring mind creates the capacity to self-realize the postulate of human survival, both in theologic concept and as an actual and factual personality experience. [UB 92:0.4]
Man’s first supermind endowment is that of personality encircuitment in the Holy Spirit of the Universe Creative Spirit… [UB 103:0.1]
Bonita explained in detail how and why the Holy Spirit is, for us humans, the most accessible and personal of these “spirit cycles of the local universe Mother Spirit”. This was a deep and moving insight into our personal relationship with the Infinite Spirit, via his local universe creative daughter. But what was truly fascinating was the role her Holy Spirit plays in weaning us from dependency on her initial adjutant system of mind.
The Holy Spirit – this is the initial supermind bestowal, and it unfailingly appears in all bona fide human personalities. This ministry to a worship-craving and wisdom-desiring mind creates the capacity to self-realize the postulate of human survival, both in theologic concept and as an actual and factual personality experience. [UB 92:0.4]
While learning to orchestrate those “rhythmic pulsations of the adjutant mind-spirits”, while getting the hang of “effecting decisions”, and tuning our adjutant mind to be “worship-craving and wisdom-desiring”, the Holy Spirit has already embraced us. Thus we enjoy dual ministry from our local universe Divine Minister: the urges of her seven adjutants from below, plus the “lures of maturity” whispered by her Holy Spirit from above.
So what has this to do with the creation of our soul?
Pointing to the Midwayers’ description of the human soul as “mid-mind” (UB 111:2.8), Bonita made a case that our soul emerges, naturally and automatically, as part of our encircuitment by the Holy Spirit.
Others pointed to Paper 40:5.4-7, which describes the repersonalization of human survivors on the mansion worlds. In each case, the soul of the awakening survivor had been associated – either transiently or permanently – with an Adjuster:
Spirit identification constitutes the secret of personal survival and determines the destiny of spiritual ascension. And since the Thought Adjusters are the only spirits of fusion potential to be identified with man during the life in the flesh, the mortals of time and space are primarily classified in accordance with their relation to these divine gifts, the indwelling Mystery Monitors. This classification is as follows:
1. Mortals of the transient or experiential Adjuster sojourn.
2. Mortals of the non-Adjuster-fusion types.
3. Mortals of Adjuster-fusion potential. [UB 40:5.4-7Paper 40:5.4-7]
This section suggests that the creation of a soul requires some action on the part of an Adjuster. However, Bonita pointed us to Paper 108, section 2, “Prerequisites of Adjuster Indwelling”. To Bonita, this section implies that in the days before the bestowal of the Spirit of Truth, few mortals would have satisfied the list of “influences and conditions” required for receiving an Adjuster. But if that list was for permanent association between Adjuster and human, then the door remains open for all normal humans in these pre-Bestowal times (who show that “faintest flicker of faith”, (UB 155:6.17) to survive via spirit fusion, as indicated in UB 63:7.2(/en/The_Urantia_Book/63#p7_2)),
On Jerusem both Andon and Fonta were fused with their Thought Adjusters, as also were several of their children, including Sontad, but the majority of even their immediate descendants only achieved Spirit fusion. [UB 63:7.2] emphasis added
If a majority of these “immediate descendants” of Andon and Fonta “achieved Spirit fusion”, then this would resolve the issue of human survival in the days before Michael’s bestowal of his Spirit of Truth. Millions of survivors from pre-Bestowal times could have hosted virgin Adjusters, whose first act in their acquirement of experience is to initiate a soul in a human destined to achieve spirit fusion.
On the other hand, Bonita clarified her case regarding the role of the Holy Spirit in the creation of a human soul. Bonita wrote:
“She (the Holy Spirit) provides the supermind, the liaison between material consciousness and superconsciousness and the link from material life to emerging morontia life. Mind and life go together. Without it there’d be no interrelationship between the two levels of consciousness. And without her personal presence, the cocreative event which gives birth to the morontia soul would have nothing to cocreate with. Only personalities cocreate. Once the soul is cocreated there is a dwelling place for the Adjuster. The Adjuster needs a mind to live in. First the dwelling place, then the indwelling.”
I replied: “Bonita, thanks for sharpening the question! It’s precisely this “cocreative event which gives birth to the morontia soul” that we were wondering about. Regarding the actual birth or creation of our human souls, here’s a quick sample of cherry-picked quotes. At the end, I raise that question we bumped into.
As the soul of joint mind and Adjuster creation becomes increasingly existent… UB 5:2.5 emphasis added
The indwelling of the Mystery Monitor constitutes the inception and insures the possibility of the potential of growth and survival of the immortal soul. UB 5:5.13 emphasis added
A human mind discerning right and wrong and possessing the capacity to worship God, in union with a divine Adjuster, is all that is required in that mortal to initiate and foster the production of his immortal soul of survival qualities… UB 5:5.14 emphasis added
This material personality and this spirit prepersonality are capable of so uniting their creative attributes as to bring into existence the surviving identity of the immortal soul. UB 5:6.7 emphasis added
During this temporary sojourn they foster the evolution of an immortal soul just as in those beings with whom they hope to fuse… UB 37:5.1
During this temporary sojourn the Adjusters effectively build up the same spirit counterpart of mortal nature — the soul — that they do in the candidates for Adjuster fusion. UB 40:9.2
You should understand that the morontia life of an ascending mortal is really initiated on the inhabited worlds at the conception of the soul, at that moment when the creature mind of moral status is indwelt by the spirit Adjuster. UB 48:6.2 emphasis added
As civilization advances, this superstitious concept of the soul is destroyed, and man is wholly dependent on revelation and personal religious experience for his new idea of the soul as the joint creation of the God-knowing mortal mind and its indwelling divine spirit, the Thought Adjuster. UB 86:5.2 emphasis added
The material mind of mortal man is the cosmic loom that carries the morontia fabrics on which the indwelling Thought Adjuster threads the spirit patterns of a universe character of enduring values and divine meanings — a surviving soul of ultimate destiny and unending career, a potential finaliter. UB 111:2.2
The mistakes of mortal mind and the errors of human conduct may markedly delay the evolution of the soul, although they cannot inhibit such a morontia phenomenon when once it has been initiated by the indwelling Adjuster with the consent of the creature will. UB 111:3.1 emphasis added
This newly appearing entity is the soul, and it survives the death of both your physical body and your material mind. This entity is the conjoint child of the combined life and efforts of the human you in liaison with the divine you, the Adjuster. UB 112:5.12 emphasis added
The evolving immortal soul of man, the joint creation of the material mind and the Adjuster… UB 117:5.3 emphasis added
So here’s the question: given all the above, is an Adjuster required for creating a human soul?
For Bonita’s reply, and the entire excellent discussion, see:
https://urantia-association.org/forums/topic/2019-international-study-day
A soul emerges. “Discover, recognize, interpret, and choose.” [UB 196:3.10]
“Now, mistake not, my Father will ever respond to the faintest flicker of faith. He takes note of the physical and superstitious emotions of the primitive man. And with those honest but fearful souls whose faith is so weak that it amounts to little more than an intellectual conformity to a passive attitude of assent to religions of authority, the Father is ever alert to honor and foster even all such feeble attempts to reach out for him. But you who have been called out of darkness into the light are expected to believe with a whole heart; your faith shall dominate the combined attitudes of body, mind, and spirit.” [UB 155:6.17]
¶ References
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