© 1977 Stephen Zendt, Kaye and William Cooper, Duane L. Faw, Alice Clark, Ann Cole
© 1977 The Urantia Book Fellowship (formerly Urantia Brotherhood)
“How shall we induce men to let go of God that he may spring forth to the refreshment of our own souls while in transit outward and then to serve the purpose of enlightening, uplifting, and blessing countless other souls? … Look to your Master. Even now he is out in the hills taking in power while we are here giving out energy. The secret of all this problem is wrapped up in spiritual communion, in worship. From the human standpoint it is a question of combined meditation and relaxation. Meditation makes the contact of mind with spirit; relaxation determines the capacity for spiritual receptivity.” (UB 160:3.1) Rodan of Alexandria.
When we observe the words which Jesus chose in his admonition to “Let your life so shine…” we see that we are to let, to allow our lives to shine with the Father’s presence within us. I take this to mean that we need very much to learn to relax into the presence of the Spirit. Modern life is filled with the need to meet various situations with vigorous and courageous good will, with the need to put a guard on our tongues, with the need to find forgiveness through forgiving others, with the need to be of service. Perhaps, with all these needs to be met, we forget to remember to relax, to be still enough to commune with the spirit, I wonder how brightly our light might shine if we were to become centers of calm in this troubled world; how well might we whet our loved one’s curiosity by the possession of truly God-centered calm and conscious peace?
— Stephen Zendt
It has been man’s elusive goal throughout his history to learn the art of living. Throughout the ages men have felt there must be some secret technique to control circumstances so that they might live an ideal life. Only relatively seldom has it been discovered that the art of living lies not in the control of external factors but in one’s personal basic orientation toward spiritual priorities and a universe perspective.
Reordering our lives around spiritual priorities places persons rather than things as most important. We are about our Father’s work when we are genuinely relating to other personalities. Placing first priority on persons naturally leads to spending time with our families, our friends, other people (especially those who need help) and with spiritual persons-in meditation, prayer, and worship.
— Kaye and Bill Cooper
The URANTIA Book teaches that the universes are created for an “eternal and divine purpose” (UB 42:0.2) and that the purpose of “mortal creatures of animal origin.” including all mankind, is to become ascending sons of God. (UB 40:6.3) Rodan, the Greek philosopher from Alexandria, saw mortal man as fulfilling his basic purpose in the divine plan through mastering the “art of living.” (Paper 160)
Man shares with his primal ancestors the animal urges of survival: sustenance, safety, shelter and sex. But with the added endowments of the spirits of worship and wisdom (UB 62:5.4) man also responds to the human desires of greed, social recognition, self-aggrandizement, and self-importance. As a human animal, man is constantly lured by those things which gratify himself
— Duane Faw
Jesus had the habit of going off alone to commune with his Father in heaven. In speaking of this spiritual communion, or worship, which Jesus so often engaged in, Rodan said, “The more complex society becomes, and the more the lures of civilization multiply, the more urgent will become the necessity for God-knowing individuals to form such protective habitual practices designed to conserve and augment their spiritual energies.” (UB 160:3.2)
Never before has man been faced with the possibility of doing so many things in such a short period of time. The average person is required to respond to myriad situations and personalities beginning early in the day and ending late. From the “Today Show” to the “Tonite Show” we move through our day at what would seem a frenzied pace to our not-too-distant ancestors. Our challenge is not how best to escape this rapidly advancing sociological monster, the technological age, but how to tame it and make it serve mankind’s purpose-finding God and becoming like him.
—A Urantian Friend
In the beginning of our study group the more evangelistic members soon found out the perils of talking too much to people not interested in having their religious viewpoints changed. A few unhappy experiences caused us to seek better ways to approach our friends. To this end we began studying the life of Jesus to find out how he did it.
One of the first lessons was that we needed to be very careful about our own reasons; we had to remove ourselves from the focus point. Jesus reached out to people with a positive attitude. Beginning at the level of the person’s understanding he led them gently and lovingly into higher concepts, so that they rejoiced at having been touched and never felt bruised or manipulated.
We found that by using this kind of method we could enter creatively into the church’s activities. We took to heart such lessons as “The Positive Nature of Jesus’ Religion,” and “The Future.” (UB 159:5.1, UB 195:10.1) Inspiration from The URANTIA Book has enabled us to continue our work in the church. We wanted to keep this relationship, which has always meant so much to us, because of our many friends there and because of our own need for a worship center. Even though there may be some limits to the content of our sharing with our church friends there is no limit to the reality of the love and caring that we feel for each other. Life would be so much narrower without this connection.
—Alice Clark
To the degree that our will is to have God’s will be done in our life, to be taught, led, filled by his spirit, to that degree we are receptive to the work he would do in us. Whatever small impulse one may have to learn about and from God will be our beginning. We ask, we learn and on the basis of our new knowledge we ask from a more informed position and learn more, As we proceed we become more adept in asking and learning, stronger in ability to live what we are learning, and our curiosity and sense of adventure are piqued more and more! As long as we so choose, the process is self-perpetuating.
This learning is not intellectual or emotional response to information read or heard, but experiential realization of the truth, of the relationship of cause and effect in spiritual matters, of the value of spiritual qualities, of spiritual reality. For example, one learns the far reaching and reciprocal effects of kindheartedness when one feels such an impulse, expresses it and experiences the inner transformation as well as the outer response from others. Even if one’s ability to show kindness is poor, one knows the goodness and nobility of having felt and tried to express a kindhearted impulse. Implementation will improve with practice, and the tendency to kindheartedness will be amplified so that greater and more subtle aspects of kindheartedness can be shown us by our divine teacher.
— Ann Cole
“And Then Last, But Greatest Of All, We Attain The Level Of Spirit Insight and spiritual interpretation which impels us to recognize in this rule of life the divine command to treat all men as we conceive God would treat them. That is the universe ideal of human relationships.” Jesus to the Apostles.” (UB 147:4.9)