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The Real Nature Of Religion – Paper 101

141 posts · 8 participants · started Mar 2, 2018, 1:38 PM

GeneParticipant
Mar 6, 2018, 5:07 PM

“Gene – I think that means we are to be trusting and confident in our care and outcomes and we must not clutch preconception tightly enough that it becomes merely ignorance and prejudice….a child is willing, even eager to learn and is trusting of the parent who guides us into discovery!! But we are to grow up upon entering the kingdom…and mature and grow and become skillful and wise and grow fruit by our faith and our discernments. Perhaps we are to enter as such but tadpoles grow….flippers, legs, feet, and lungs as they leave behind the tail and the gills of entry to transformation. Or so I think.”

right, but how then to become adults in the kingdom? We need to grow. And how do we do that? We are taught that we cannot cause growth by our own will but we can create favorable conditions that fosters growth. And how did we do that?

possibly learning how to deal with that constant clamoring self? Get in sync with the cosmos so we can be grown by those spirit ministries that are reaching down to help make it happen?
BonitaParticipant
Mar 6, 2018, 5:11 PM

Gene wrote:

We are taught that we cannot cause growth by our own will but we can create favorable conditions that fosters growth. And how did we do that?

There’s a quote for that:

100.1.8 Religious habits of thinking and acting are contributory to the economy of spiritual growth. One can develop religious predispositions toward favorable reaction to spiritual stimuli, a sort of conditioned spiritual reflex. Habits which favor religious growth embrace cultivated sensitivity to divine values, recognition of religious living in others, reflective meditation on cosmic meanings, worshipful problem solving, sharing one’s spiritual life with one’s fellows, avoidance of selfishness, refusal to presume on divine mercy, living as in the presence of God. The factors of religious growth may be intentional, but the growth itself is unvaryingly unconscious.
GeneParticipant
Mar 6, 2018, 7:57 PM

Bonita wrote:

Gene wrote:

We are taught that we cannot cause growth by our own will but we can create favorable conditions that fosters growth. And how did we do that?

There’s a quote for that:

100.1.8 Religious habits of thinking and acting are contributory to the economy of spiritual growth. One can develop religious predispositions toward favorable reaction to spiritual stimuli, a sort of conditioned spiritual reflex. Habits which favor religious growth embrace cultivated sensitivity to divine values, recognition of religious living in others, reflective meditation on cosmic meanings, worshipful problem solving, sharing one’s spiritual life with one’s fellows, avoidance of selfishness, refusal to presume on divine mercy, living as in the presence of God. The factors of religious growth may be intentional, but the growth itself is unvaryingly unconscious.

Thx

i interpret that the “factors of religious growth” that are “intentional” are synonyms with What’s listed in the first part if the quote as those “habits” which favor growth. One and the same?

those factors or habits are the things we can do that allow spirit to grow us.

Am I tying factors to habits in this quote correctly or am I missing something? It’s easy for me to miss stuff.
BradlyParticipant
Mar 6, 2018, 8:03 PM
Don’t wish to dive down another rabbit hole here….but….note that one of the habits and predispositions for religious growth is the “…recognition of religious living in others….”.

Hmmm……..seems to me that those who voice such disappointment in others faith-expressions or personal religious experience and the low opinion of our world in general do not recognize the religious living in others. And seem to compare themselves more favorably than most others in religious status and perspective. This attitude leads to all sorts of dangerous evils and potentials of spiritual pride and the resistance to the TA’s ministry within. In consideration of “favorable conditions that fosters growth” and “religious habits” that are contributory to growth, consider:

100:0.2 (1094.2) Spiritual growth is mutually stimulated by intimate association with other religionists. Love supplies the soil for religious growth — an objective lure in the place of subjective gratification — yet it yields the supreme subjective satisfaction. And religion ennobles the commonplace drudgery of daily living.

100:1.5 (1094.7) The soil essential for religious growth presupposes a progressive life of self-realization, the co-ordination of natural propensities, the exercise of curiosity and the enjoyment of reasonable adventure, the experiencing of feelings of satisfaction, the functioning of the fear stimulus of attention and awareness, the wonder-lure, and a normal consciousness of smallness, humility. Growth is also predicated on the discovery of selfhood accompanied by self-criticism — conscience, for conscience is really the criticism of oneself by one’s own value-habits, personal ideals.

Notice self criticism and humility and the love for other religionists (and who is not one if we understand the spectrum of spirit response and faith expression in people?)….all 3 seem at odds with those who tend to judge others individually and universally, and have a dim view of our world’s relative epochal progress in spiritualization….those who clearly see the dark patches and are blind to the contrasting truth, beauty, and goodness in and by our fellows.

Jesus was so positive and supporting of his fellows generally and individually…and had/has great affection and hope and a sunny disposition to share in his ministry of love and hope. What is our perspective? For our perspective is in many ways the soil essential for our spiritual growth and progress. A negative perspective will not bear the vine or deliver the fruit of the vine to our life. This is far beyond optimism….it is the foundation of perspective….reality is positive….how real is our view and our soil?

"Live loyally today—grow—and tomorrow will attend to itself. The quickest way for a tadpole to become a frog is to live loyally each moment as a tadpole."
BradlyParticipant
Mar 6, 2018, 11:13 PM
2. The Fact of Religion

101:2.1 (1105.5) The fact of religion consists wholly in the religious experience of rational and average human beings. And this is the only sense in which religion can ever be regarded as scientific or even psychological. The proof that revelation is revelation is this same fact of human experience: the fact that revelation does synthesize the apparently divergent sciences of nature and the theology of religion into a consistent and logical universe philosophy, a co-ordinated and unbroken explanation of both science and religion, thus creating a harmony of mind and satisfaction of spirit which answers in human experience those questionings of the mortal mind which craves to know how the Infinite works out his will and plans in matter, with minds, and on spirit.

101:2.2 (1106.1) Reason is the method of science; faith is the method of religion; logic is the attempted technique of philosophy. Revelation compensates for the absence of the morontia viewpoint by providing a technique for achieving unity in the comprehension of the reality and relationships of matter and spirit by the mediation of mind. And true revelation never renders science unnatural, religion unreasonable, or philosophy illogical.

101:2.3 (1106.2) Reason, through the study of science, may lead back through nature to a First Cause, but it requires religious faith to transform the First Cause of science into a God of salvation; and revelation is further required for the validation of such a faith, such spiritual insight.

101:2.4 (1106.3) There are two basic reasons for believing in a God who fosters human survival:

101:2.5 (1106.4) 1. Human experience, personal assurance, the somehow registered hope and trust initiated by the indwelling Thought Adjuster.

101:2.6 (1106.5) 2. The revelation of truth, whether by direct personal ministry of the Spirit of Truth, by the world bestowal of divine Sons, or through the revelations of the written word.

Some very important concepts above: the two forms of revelation presented – personal and epochal; assurance, hope, and trust initiated by the TA; validation for faith and insight (confirmation of the inner life/experience/personal revelation); transformation of the ghost fears of an impersonal creator to a paternal figure of personal love and care; and the rational formation of a workable and harmonious philosophy of living which integrates and unifies reality in mind – both religious and material realities into the unity of comprehension!

How ‘real’ one’s religious experience is has certain measures of function and outcome it appears. And average persons may experience the fullness of true and real religion regardless of its personal nature and unique experience and expressions by each religionist. The yearning, the confirmations, and the fruits may be all that is shared by us all it seems.

That religion which does not integrate the material life and the inner life is not yet rational apparently. It is irrational for science and religion to contradict one another as both are focused on the same reality from differing perspectives….which requires that both perspectives provide harmonious integrations of reality. To the degree that our science/material and religious/spiritual perspectives are self or mutually contradictory must result and provide evidence of the irrationality of one or both points of view I think.

Recall how Jesus taught about the kingdom using the metaphors of the physical/material world of familiarity to portray the realities of the spirit life. Both worlds were a singular, harmonious, and integrated reality to the Son of Man.

"Live loyally today—grow—and tomorrow will attend to itself. The quickest way for a tadpole to become a frog is to live loyally each moment as a tadpole."
BonitaParticipant
Mar 7, 2018, 12:39 AM

Gene wrote:

i interpret that the “factors of religious growth” that are “intentional” are synonyms with What’s listed in the first part if the quote as those “habits” which favor growth. One and the same? those factors or habits are the things we can do that allow spirit to grow us. Am I tying factors to habits in this quote correctly or am I missing something? It’s easy for me to miss stuff.

I think I’m missing something too. I don’t really understand your concerns. There are lots of things essential to religious growth, but it all comes down to attitude, which is why those four faith attitudes are so very, very important in fostering religious habits of thinking. But you do know that spirit doesn’t grow us, right? It’s a co-creative partnership; the soul has two parents. So, I can’t say much else without understanding exactly what it is you’re asking.
BradlyParticipant
Mar 7, 2018, 3:54 PM

Gene wrote:

i interpret that the “factors of religious growth” that are “intentional” are synonyms with What’s listed in the first part if the quote as those “habits” which favor growth. One and the same? those factors or habits are the things we can do that allow spirit to grow us. Am I tying factors to habits in this quote correctly or am I missing something? It’s easy for me to miss stuff.

The quote says such habits/factors MAY be intentional…and sometimes are. But I think a reflexive response or ‘habit’ is not “intentional” by definition….what may have once required consideration and thought becomes habitual and reflexive. And I also think some people develop such reflexes and habits as a natural response to the inner life and spirit/mind ministry within….were the Alpheus twins ‘intentional’ in their sincerities and reflexive responses??

Some of us do intellectualize and conceptualize much related to our situational and circumstantial responses…some are more instinctual and feeling (and remember how spiritual can be our instincts!). Now we are taught that it is our thinking and not our feelings that lead to our relationship with and growth in the spirit…but I’m not sure I really understand that. Don’t those with high ideals and great hopes and faith operate in the super-conscious? I’m not sure at all that I understand this distinction between feeling and thinking. I’m wondering if by “feeling” the authors mean simple emotionalism? And emotional responses?

For I think that there are those who feel their way into great spiritual progress and growth and they have a way of associative integration that harmonizes reality and empowers the Spirit to spiritize…it’s another form of intentionalism. I doubt if I’m helping here…hahahahha!

"Live loyally today—grow—and tomorrow will attend to itself. The quickest way for a tadpole to become a frog is to live loyally each moment as a tadpole."
BonitaParticipant
Mar 7, 2018, 4:55 PM

Bradly wrote:

Now we are taught that it is our thinking and not our feelings that lead to our relationship with and growth in the spirit…but I’m not sure I really understand that. Don’t those with high ideals and great hopes and faith operate in the super-conscious? I’m not sure at all that I understand this distinction between feeling and thinking. I’m wondering if by “feeling” the authors mean simple emotionalism? And emotional responses?

I’ve said this before but it didn’t get much acceptance at the time. I think there are different levels of emotions, just as there are different levels of love. There are animalistic emotions and there are divine emotions, and then there’s the entire gamut of human emotions which lie in-between. The four faith attitudes help the mind in directionalizing emotions towards the divine end of the spectrum. Feelings are mostly reflexive, but emotions can be taught to conform to higher meanings and values which lead to a more mature and stable character. The spiritual nature is supposed to gain control over the lower nature, and that includes controlling one’s emotions. They do tell us that a manifestation of greatness is holding one’s tongue, that’s another way of saying, controlling one’s emotions. (Which is why resorting to ad hominem when feelings are hurt is an obvious indicator of immaturity.)

p1121:5 102:3.3 Material feelings, human emotions, lead directly to material actions, selfish acts. Religious insights, spiritual motivations, lead directly to religious actions, unselfish acts of social service and altruistic benevolence.
BradlyParticipant
Mar 7, 2018, 5:34 PM
Thanks for that Bonita!!

It would be interesting and topical to consider this issue further I think. I’m also not sure I understand super-conscious any more than I do ‘feelings’ or emotions. How specifically cognitive or intellectual is ‘thinking’ anyway? Cannot people find righteousness in motives, intentions, priorities, and choices without intentional, cognitive belief constructs? (I’m not sure I can…but what makes me so special or representative either one?)

I mean, even for me, I feel my faith and my trust and my truth confirmations and the flow of energy and events and the rightness of situations and outcomes and the touch of the Spirit…..these feelings do bring about many thoughts and thinking but do others ‘think’ in the same way as me? We are told the angels have feelings and emotions – affection is an emotion/feeling, as is sympathy I think. And what of loyalty? Is it cognitive and intellectual? No, I don’t think so. In fact, love itself may be defined and discussed by the intellect and by thinking, but it can never be understood or experienced or given intellectually can it?

This is directly related to Religion In Human Experience and The Real Nature of Religion (thanks Gene for taking the discussion in this direction! – I don’t think you missed anything but rather discovered something to share – and thanks Bonita for the clarification!). So, aren’t emotions/feelings also sourced in mind and by the gift/loan of mind? From where else might it arise? Love has a specific source. Is it given to us by the mind circuits? I don’t think there is a feeling/emotion ‘circuit’ but they are certainly normal…both the good and bad – fear and pride are also emotions/feelings, no? So I assume the mind is the source of both cognition and feelings. Is feeling a form of thinking? There are negative emotions and there certainly is stinkin’ thinkin’! How are they similar and different? (Help!)

We certainly can change our auto reactions and control our lower/lesser/negative emotions by mind and we can change what we think about and what we think about what we think about….how is all this related?

113:2.5 (1243.2) The angels develop an abiding affection for their human associates; and you would, if you could only visualize the seraphim, develop a warm affection for them. Divested of material bodies, given spirit forms, you would be very near the angels in many attributes of personality. They share most of your emotions and experience some additional ones. The only emotion actuating you which is somewhat difficult for them to comprehend is the legacy of animal fear that bulks so large in the mental life of the average inhabitant of Urantia. The angels really find it hard to understand why you will so persistently allow your higher intellectual powers, even your religious faith, to be so dominated by fear, so thoroughly demoralized by the thoughtless panic of dread and anxiety.

113:5.2 (1246.1) Angels are so near you and care so feelingly for you that they figuratively “weep because of your willful intolerance and stubbornness.” Seraphim do not shed physical tears; they do not have physical bodies; neither do they possess wings. But they do have spiritual emotions, and they do experience feelings and sentiments of a spiritual nature which are in certain ways comparable to human emotions.

This study group remains, so far, mysteriously small….but it has been mighty in its results for this student and tadpole. So much discovery and integration and harmonization ….thanks Bonita and Gene and Enno! Have you noticed what teachers we often become by the asking of a question? I recall even the Master taught with questions in many situations and with great results. Wonderful.

"Live loyally today—grow—and tomorrow will attend to itself. The quickest way for a tadpole to become a frog is to live loyally each moment as a tadpole."
BonitaParticipant
Mar 7, 2018, 7:27 PM

Bradly wrote:

How specifically cognitive or intellectual is ‘thinking’ anyway?

Well obviously there is thinking all of the time, 24/7. The mind never sleeps. That doesn’t mean that we’re fully conscious of all that goes on in our minds. There are two unconscious levels, the subconscious and superconscious, but even those levels occasionally become conscious. It all depends on where the focus is. Focusing only on stimuli from the external world, reacting only to incoming data without thinking about it, is what amoebas do. Even animals think and learn using mind ministry. Humans who don’t think and prefer to react to their environment with only feelings and emotions seems rather infantile to me. Mind is more than just feelings and emotions. So, if you’re not conscious of thinking during wakeful hours, I think there’s something wrong. Mind is where identity is established (12.8:16). The soul cannot exist without moral thinking (133:6.5).

There are several quotes which explain how personality changes everything when it comes to thinking. Mind without personality is rather mechanical with some learning from trial and error. But personalities think about external stimuli; they turn their focus inward and mull through various ideas concerning incoming data. Mind being unified by personality has the capability of transcending time, looking to the past and the future in order to formulate ideas concerning the present. It also has the reservoirs of subconscious memories and superconscious guidance. I think we’re meant to be deep thinkers, if we’re utilizing the cosmic reality responses, which incidentally never fail to appear in all bona fide human beings . . . that’s creatures with personality.

p1479:7 133:7.7 Ideas are not simply a record of sensations; ideas are sensations plus the reflective interpretations of the personal self; and the self is more than the sum of one’s sensations. There begins to be something of an approach to unity in an evolving selfhood, and that unity is derived from the indwelling presence of a part of absolute unity which spiritually activates such a self-conscious animal-origin mind.

p1480:1 133:7.9 Neither is the human self merely the sum of the successive states of consciousness. Without the effective functioning of a consciousness sorter and associator there would not exist sufficient unity to warrant the designation of a selfhood. Such an ununified mind could hardly attain conscious levels of human status. If the associations of consciousness were just an accident, the minds of all men would then exhibit the uncontrolled and random associations of certain phases of mental madness.

p1480:2 133:7.10 A human mind, built up solely out of the consciousness of physical sensations, could never attain spiritual levels; this kind of material mind would be utterly lacking in a sense of moral values and would be without a guiding sense of spiritual dominance which is so essential to achieving harmonious personality unity in time, and which is inseparable from personality survival in eternity.

p1480:3 133:7.11 The human mind early begins to manifest qualities which are supermaterial; the truly reflective human intellect is not altogether bound by the limits of time. That individuals so differ in their life performances indicates, not only the varying endowments of heredity and the different influences of the environment, but also the degree of unification with the indwelling spirit of the Father which has been achieved by the self, the measure of the identification of the one with the other.

p1480:4 133:7.12 The human mind does not well stand the conflict of double allegiance. It is a severe strain on the soul to undergo the experience of an effort to serve both good and evil. The supremely happy and efficiently unified mind is the one wholly dedicated to the doing of the will of the Father in heaven. Unresolved conflicts destroy unity and may terminate in mind disruption. But the survival character of a soul is not fostered by attempting to secure peace of mind at any price, by the surrender of noble aspirations, and by the compromise of spiritual ideals; rather is such peace attained by the stalwart assertion of the triumph of that which is true, and this victory is achieved in the overcoming of evil with the potent force of good.
BonitaParticipant
Mar 7, 2018, 7:34 PM

Bradly wrote:

So, aren’t emotions/feelings also sourced in mind and by the gift/loan of mind?

TUB’s definition of mind:

0:5.8 2. Mind. The thinking, perceiving, and feeling mechanism of the human organism. The total conscious and unconscious experience. The intelligence associated with the emotional life reaching upward through worship and wisdom to the spirit level.

Mind is associated with the emotional life but note the reference to intelligence, specifically intelligence reaching up. Emotions exist on all levels. The ones we strive for are the ones on the spirit level. They are the ones we learn from the Father’s nature. The only place to learn that is the soul, which you get to by reaching up through the adjutants of worship and wisdom (gateway).

BonitaParticipant
Mar 9, 2018, 12:41 PM

Bradly wrote:

I don’t think there is a feeling/emotion ‘circuit’ but they are certainly normal…both the good and bad – fear and pride are also emotions/feelings, no? So I assume the mind is the source of both cognition and feelings. Is feeling a form of thinking? There are negative emotions and there certainly is stinkin’ thinkin’! How are they similar and different? (Help!)We certainly can change our auto reactions and control our lower/lesser/negative emotions by mind and we can change what we think about and what we think about what we think about….how is all this related?

There are quotes for that:

140:4.8 An effective philosophy of living is formed by a combination of cosmic insight and the total of one’s emotional reactions to the social and economic environment. Remember: While inherited urges cannot be fundamentally modified, emotional responses to such urges can be changed; therefore the moral nature can be modified, character can be improved. In the strong character emotional responses are integrated and co-ordinated, and thus is produced a unified personality. Deficient unification weakens the moral nature and engenders unhappiness.

108:6.4   The Adjuster is the wellspring of spiritual attainment and the hope of divine character within you. He is the power, privilege, and the possibility of survival, which so fully and forever distinguishes you from mere animal creatures. He is the higher and truly internal spiritual stimulus of thought in contrast with the external and physical stimulus, which reaches the mind over the nerve-energy mechanism of the material body.

(1786.1) 161:2.6 5. He seems to know the thoughts of men’s minds and to understand the longings of their hearts. And he is always sympathetic with our troubled spirits. He seems to possess all our human emotions, but they are magnificently glorified. He strongly loves goodness and equally hates sin. He possesses a superhuman consciousness of the presence of Deity. He prays like a man but performs like a God. He seems to foreknow things; he even now dares to speak about his death, some mystic reference to his future glorification. While he is kind, he is also brave and courageous. He never falters in doing his duty.

34:7.1   The flesh, the inherent nature derived from the animal-origin races, does not naturally bear the fruits of the divine Spirit. When the mortal nature has been upstepped by the addition of the nature of the Material Sons of God, as the Urantia races were in a measure advanced by the bestowal of Adam, then is the way better prepared for the Spirit of Truth to co-operate with the indwelling Adjuster to bring forth the beautiful harvest of the character fruits of the spirit. If you do not reject this spirit, even though eternity may be required to fulfill the commission, “he will guide you into all truth.”

100:7.1   Although the average mortal of Urantia cannot hope to attain the high perfection of character which Jesus of Nazareth acquired while sojourning in the flesh, it is altogether possible for every mortal believer to develop a strong and unified personality along the perfected lines of the Jesus personality. The unique feature of the Master’s personality was not so much its perfection as its symmetry, its exquisite and balanced unification. The most effective presentation of Jesus consists in following the example of the one who said, as he gestured toward the Master standing before his accusers, “Behold the man!”

194:3.1 When man yields the “fruits of the spirit” in his life, he is simply showing forth the traits which the Master manifested in his own earthly life. When Jesus was on earth, he lived his life as one personality—Jesus of Nazareth. As the indwelling spirit of the “new teacher,” the Master has, since Pentecost, been able to live his life anew in the experience of every truth-taught believer.

BonitaParticipant
Mar 9, 2018, 2:17 PM
And incidentally, all those quotes above are also about the evolution of dominance – transfer of identity. When we discover, recognize, interpret and choose the higher, divine emotions we are creating a divine character, like Jesus’ character, which then becomes the soul. It’s our evolving divine character that awakens on mansonia, and that character is created by habitually choosing to become more like Jesus, become more Godlike, aka, divinity attainment. The only way I know how to do that is through prayer/worship/meditation/reflective thinking, or whatever you want to call it. The four faith attitudes encourage the mind to develop this habit of thinking which promotes the evolution of dominance toward a divine character.

Rodan explained it well:

(1777.2) 160:3.1 The effort toward maturity necessitates work, and work requires energy. Whence the power to accomplish all this? The physical things can be taken for granted, but the Master has well said, “Man cannot live by bread alone.” Granted the possession of a normal body and reasonably good health, we must next look for those lures which will act as a stimulus to call forth man’s slumbering spiritual forces. Jesus has taught us that God lives in man; then how can we induce man to release these soul-bound powers of divinity and infinity? 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? How best can I awaken these latent powers for good which lie dormant in your souls? One thing I am sure of: Emotional excitement is not the ideal spiritual stimulus. Excitement does not augment energy; it rather exhausts the powers of both mind and body. Whence then comes the energy to do these great things? 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. And this interchange of strength for weakness, courage for fear, the will of God for the mind of self, constitutes worship. At least, that is the way the philosopher views it.

(1777.3) 160:3.2 When these experiences are frequently repeated, they crystallize into habits, strength-giving and worshipful habits, and such habits eventually formulate themselves into a spiritual character, and such a character is finally recognized by one’s fellows as a mature personality. These practices are difficult and time-consuming at first, but when they become habitual, they are at once restful and timesaving. 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.
BradlyParticipant
Mar 9, 2018, 5:18 PM
Thanks for all the great commentary and quotes Bonita!! Appreciate the text by Rodan and the higher emotions and their source.

Yes…The Real Nature of Religion and Religion In Human Experience describes the transfer of the seat of our personal and personally chosen identity – it is about the formation of character – or at least that character that is based on reality and our reality recognition and reality response. And this progressive and transformative process delivers maturity and wisdom and strength and capacity and capability in our experience and the expressions of our experience as demonstrated by our choices. Sincerity does not equal wisdom…but, over time, it will or should deliver it by the experience of ever more decisions….(sincerity + decisions + time – think quantity) x (faith + discernment – think quality) = (experience + maturity) = (self mastery + the fruits of the Spirit) = Personal Identity, Character, Selfhood as resident in Soul.

Religion is transformative or it is not real or true or useful. We are taught in this Paper and others that there is immature and primitive forms of faith and religious experience and there is that enlightened form and experience exemplified by the Master and there is that everywhere on the spectrum in between. Jesus taught that no matter our position on this scale or spectrum, every decision and motive and intention and priority and decision and act at every intersection of choice is an opportunity to either progress or regress in our religious experience and transformative outcomes. We do not hold ground gained or fruit born on the branch without continuation of growth by choice and decision and sincerity and faithfulness and trust….the branch grows or weakens always.

Besides the errors and mistakes of judgment due to inexperience and immaturity which are improved primarily by repetition over time (experience) which should lead to better judgement and wisdom by that experience, we are taught that there are impediments to transformation, growth, wisdom, maturity, and the fruits of the Spirit….feelings and thoughts which weaken the branch’s hold and attachment and growth to the vine….these are called poisons. We choose to embrace them and ingest them. Some of us become either intoxicated, habituated, addicted, or otherwise obsessed by these poisons. Some of us only nibble on them time to time and they text our faith in their effects upon us. But for those who do successfully transfer the seat of our identity, we do also wean ourselves off of and away from these more material and animal identity influences that are normal enough but also peculiarly and uniquely human in their manifestations. We should note that it is these same attributes that also poison society and retard the growth and progress of civilization on every material world.

110:1.5 [Part III]
The Adjuster remains with you in all disaster and through every sickness which does not wholly destroy the mentality. But how unkind knowingly to defile or otherwise deliberately to pollute the physical body, which must serve as the earthly tabernacle of this marvelous gift from God. All physical poisons greatly retard the efforts of the Adjuster to exalt the material mind, while the mental poisons of fear, anger, envy, jealousy, suspicion, and intolerance likewise tremendously interfere with the spiritual progress of the evolving soul.

48:7.20 [Part II]
18. Impatience is a spirit poison; anger is like a stone hurled into a hornet’s nest.

111:7.5 [Part III]
“Much of my difficulty was due to the unending conflict between the two natures of my subject: the urge of ambition opposed by animal indolence; the ideals of a superior people crossed by the instincts of an inferior race; the high purposes of a great mind antagonized by the urge of a primitive inheritance; the long-distance view of a far-seeing Monitor counteracted by the nearsightedness of a creature of time; the progressive plans of an ascending being modified by the desires and longings of a material nature; the flashes of universe intelligence cancelled by the chemical-energy mandates of the evolving race; the urge of angels opposed by the emotions of an animal; the training of an intellect annulled by the tendencies of instinct; the experience of the individual opposed by the accumulated propensities of the race; the aims of the best overshadowed by the drift of the worst; the flight of genius neutralized by the gravity of mediocrity; the progress of the good retarded by the inertia of the bad; the art of the beautiful besmirched by the presence of evil; the buoyancy of health neutralized by the debility of disease; the fountain of faith polluted by the poisons of fear; the spring of joy embittered by the waters of sorrow; the gladness of anticipation disillusioned by the bitterness of realization; the joys of living ever threatened by the sorrows of death. Such a life on such a planet! And yet, because of the ever-present help and urge of the Thought Adjuster, this soul did achieve a fair degree of happiness and success and has even now ascended to the judgment halls of mansonia.”

A link to the quotes for “anxiety OR anxieties”:

https://urassoc.arko.nyc/search/?zoom_sort=2&zoom_query=anxiety+OR+anxieties&zoom_per_page=100&zoom_and=0&zoom_cat%5B%5D=-1

48:7.21 [Part II]
19. Anxiety must be abandoned. The disappointments hardest to bear are those which never come.

Personally, I have found it not so easy to completely abandon anxiety. It has been many years since I was at all anxious about my soul or my destiny and in my yondering years I learned to trust in my daily bread and the bounty of God’s love for me. But then there are my children and grandchildren and parents and wife and clients and the strangers I meet and never meet who suffer and face life’s vicissitudes and conflicts….and my personal obligations to them and my service to them. I have few anxieties for myself but there are those who depend upon me…what of them? It is not just me….and has not been for a long, long time….the era of footloose and fancy free are now gone. And I am not so nimble or strong myself anymore. My anxieties now include my own dependence and loss of independence….am I to be served rather than serve? How does one get their mind around that? I see my own parents and my wife’s parents suffering from such transitions now.

Ahhhh…. the Master said:

140:6.13 [Part IV]
“….. be not anxious for your lives; much less be concerned with what you shall eat or what you shall drink; nor yet for your bodies, what clothing you shall wear. Already have you learned that willing hands and earnest hearts shall not go hungry. And now, when you prepare to devote all of your energies to the work of the kingdom, be assured that the Father will not be unmindful of your needs. Seek first the kingdom of God, and when you have found entrance thereto, all things needful shall be added to you. Be not, therefore, unduly anxious for the morrow. Sufficient for the day is the trouble thereof.”

Me here: Sufficient Indeed!!! Hahahahahaha…..Jesus has quite the sense of humor!

"Live loyally today—grow—and tomorrow will attend to itself. The quickest way for a tadpole to become a frog is to live loyally each moment as a tadpole."
BradlyParticipant
Mar 9, 2018, 6:00 PM
101:2.7 (1106.6) Science ends its reason-search in the hypothesis of a First Cause. Religion does not stop in its flight of faith until it is sure of a God of salvation. The discriminating study of science logically suggests the reality and existence of an Absolute. Religion believes unreservedly in the existence and reality of a God who fosters personality survival. What metaphysics fails utterly in doing, and what even philosophy fails partially in doing, revelation does; that is, affirms that this First Cause of science and religion’s God of salvation are one and the same Deity.

101:2.8 (1106.7) Reason is the proof of science, faith the proof of religion, logic the proof of philosophy, but revelation is validated only by human experience. Science yields knowledge; religion yields happiness; philosophy yields unity; revelation confirms the experiential harmony of this triune approach to universal reality.

101:2.9 (1106.8) The contemplation of nature can only reveal a God of nature, a God of motion. Nature exhibits only matter, motion, and animation — life. Matter plus energy, under certain conditions, is manifested in living forms, but while natural life is thus relatively continuous as a phenomenon, it is wholly transient as to individualities. Nature does not afford ground for logical belief in human-personality survival. The religious man who finds God in nature has already and first found this same personal God in his own soul.

101:2.10 (1106.9) Faith reveals God in the soul. Revelation, the substitute for morontia insight on an evolutionary world, enables man to see the same God in nature that faith exhibits in his soul. Thus does revelation successfully bridge the gulf between the material and the spiritual, even between the creature and the Creator, between man and God.

101:2.11 (1107.1) The contemplation of nature does logically point in the direction of intelligent guidance, even living supervision, but it does not in any satisfactory manner reveal a personal God. On the other hand, nature discloses nothing which would preclude the universe from being looked upon as the handiwork of the God of religion. God cannot be found through nature alone, but man having otherwise found him, the study of nature becomes wholly consistent with a higher and more spiritual interpretation of the universe.

Me here: Let us consider the role of personal revelation to faith. Note that personal revelation not only reveals but also confirms, adjusts, aligns, integrates, and harmonizes….to the degree that our personal philosophy for living is truthful and based on reality we grow and become more mature and wise and grow the fruits of the Spirit! But faith alone and trust in the Lord will also deliver fruit and attach the branch to the vine….faith is itself a form of wisdom I think.

"Live loyally today—grow—and tomorrow will attend to itself. The quickest way for a tadpole to become a frog is to live loyally each moment as a tadpole."
BonitaParticipant
Mar 9, 2018, 8:35 PM

Bradly wrote:

Personally, I have found it not so easy to completely abandon anxiety.

I don’t think it’s possible to completely abandon all anxiety. There are different kinds of anxiety and some I think are useful (see quotes). I think the kind of anxiety Jesus taught against is the kind that produces unreasonable fear and disproportionate concern for the self.

My own anxieties arise when it comes to decision making. Wanting most fervently to do God’s will, I do concern myself, perhaps too much, with weighing all the options, until I’m sure. And when I say sure, I’m saying that I’m sure I’ve come across a very good option. Whether or not it’s the best option God laid out for me, I cannot say. But I can be sure that there probably is a better or best option that I missed and I hope I get another opportunity some day to rediscover it. But I do stress over that sort of thing, the “what am I missing here,” “am I seeing the whole picture,” type of worry. I thought at one time it would be wise not to have those worries, then I laughed at myself. Only the religiously frothy flit about and go with their gut feelings. Reflecting on a problem/decision cannot be wrong. Becoming paralyzed by thoughts, however, is a mistake. At some point you just have to take your best decision and go with it, knowing it’s a learning curve and mistakes are a normal part of it.

23:2.5 Your anxieties and sorrows, your trials and disappointments, are just as much a part of the divine plan on your sphere as are the exquisite perfection and infinite adaptation of all things to their supreme purpose on the worlds of the central and perfect universe.

86:2.1 Anxiety was a natural state of the savage mind. When men and women fall victims to excessive anxiety, they are simply reverting to the natural estate of their far-distant ancestors; and when anxiety becomes actually painful, it inhibits activity and unfailingly institutes evolutionary changes and biologic adaptations. Pain and suffering are essential to progressive evolution.

111:6.1 Many of the temporal troubles of mortal man grow out of his twofold relation to the cosmos. Man is a part of nature—he exists in nature—and yet he is able to transcend nature. Man is finite, but he is indwelt by a spark of infinity. Such a dual situation not only provides the potential for evil but also engenders many social and moral situations fraught with much uncertainty and not a little anxiety.
BonitaParticipant
Mar 9, 2018, 9:03 PM

Bradly wrote:

. . . faith is itself a form of wisdom I think.

TUB mentions in three places that “the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom.”. Each time it’s in quotes, which means it’s from the Bible, so I looked it up. Sure enough, it’s from the following: Proverbs 9:10, 1:7; Psalms 111:1; Job 28:28.

But revelation is supposed to change that fear of what God does to praise for what God is.

(1675.6) 149:6.5 “Your forebears feared God because he was mighty and mysterious. You shall adore him because he is magnificent in love, plenteous in mercy, and glorious in truth. The power of God engenders fear in the heart of man, but the nobility and righteousness of his personality beget reverence, love, and willing worship. A dutiful and affectionate son does not fear or dread even a mighty and noble father. I have come into the world to put love in the place of fear, joy in the place of sorrow, confidence in the place of dread, loving service and appreciative worship in the place of slavish bondage and meaningless ceremonies. But it is still true of those who sit in darkness that ‘the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.’ But when the light has more fully come, the sons of God are led to praise the Infinite for what he is rather than to fear him for what he does.

We humans have the amazing gift of the full nature of God, what he is, actually living in our heads (sorry George). By having a relationship with him in our heads, (sharing the inner life with him), we have the opportunity to become more like him in our own nature. Sonship means we have inherited the divine nature. All that is left for us to do is self-realization, which is another way of saying self-revelation, allowing our true and divine self to be revealed to ourselves. And that comes from sharing the inner life and imitating what we discover there. Imitation will be imperfect at first, but as the ego/alter-ego relationship grows, the nearer to divinity we get in our attempts. We have less fear, less duty-bound thinking, and more love and loyalty.

111:5.1 The doing of the will of God is nothing more or less than an exhibition of creature willingness to share the inner life with God--with the very God who has made such a creature life of inner meaning-value possible. Sharing is Godlike–divine. God shares all with the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit, while they, in turn, share all things with the divine Sons and spirit Daughters of the universes.

111:5.2 The imitation of God is the key to perfection; the doing of his will is the secret of survival and of perfection in survival.

But is faith itself a form of wisdom? Great question. Isn’t wisdom part of the philosophical realm of cosmic mind ministry, and faith part of worship? I think true wisdom leads to faith, just like worship and wisdom opens the gateway to the soul. Open to other ideas though.

p1141:4 103:9.6 . . . In the higher philosophy of the universe, wisdom, like reason, becomes allied to faith. Reason, wisdom, and faith are man’s highest human attainments. Reason introduces man to the world of facts, to things; wisdom introduces him to a world of truth, to relationships; faith initiates him into a world of divinity, spiritual experience.
BradlyParticipant
Mar 12, 2018, 1:23 PM

Bonita wrote:

But is faith itself a form of wisdom? Great question. Isn’t wisdom part of the philosophical realm of cosmic mind ministry, and faith part of worship? I think true wisdom leads to faith, just like worship and wisdom opens the gateway to the soul. Open to other ideas though.

Or is it that faith is the foundation of and delivers wisdom? Perhaps both? Maybe faith is the first proof of and act of wisdom? To view life within and our life in the material world by faith immediately delivers a perspective of unity or required unification to both natures – the spiritual and material – and results in or requires a new paradigm of view and consideration of all feelings in and responses to the situations and circumstances and relationships in life. Faith forces a new dynamic of our philosophy of living that includes the Spirit nature…and by this view are we transformed by the spirit connection and the spiritization of soul in cooperation with our God Fragment. We transcend the animal view and seat of identity by simple faith….the beginning of wisdom? So faith is both the seed and the fruit of wisdom I think. The seed which sprouts and the source of the seed itself.

We are taught that nature is very illuminating in its demonstrations of greater realities and truths. The seed and stem and flower and fruit which delivers the seed and stem and flower and fruit has always been a miraculous demonstration of great truths. Gardening is recommended to us as a way to discern and learn and connect….and not merely to feed ourselves. The patterns of material reality and the connectivity of so many elements of supporting and dependent mechanisms of process and result are illustrative of the spirit nature and life and reality too.

Of course, there’s nothing really simple about it!! It’s beginning is simple enough I suppose…we feel a yearning within that we respond to for which we receive a confirmation which we also respond to and that becomes more personal and feelings of mutual affection in this deliver a relationship which makes us glad and satisfies the yearn, hunger, and thirst in mind….the personality response of the personality endowment within the mortal to the original or source personality…it’s all very personal! From there, faith in the person of God and the voice and touch of God within us changes us over time and grows soul which further transforms us and also reinforces and grows our very faith too….our mind transcends our origins and material nature by the power of faith. We are told that “faith reveals God in the soul” and “is the proof of religion”.

Remember that faith is not just an experience within but is also an expression in living and being and growing….faith is our primary fulcrum for becoming while the resulting spiritization is the lever of power and lift for transcendence and the transfer of the seat of identity…or so I understand it. Wisdom is the result of the experience of faith in time for those who are attentive and discerning – growing by learning….becoming by being. Faith brings personal revelation for the delivery of insight and understanding reality and integrating and harmonizing our perspective and our philosophy of living….mysteries become answered even if not understood and priorities are formed based on faith itself rather than knowledge and proofs….our trust in God and God’s reality and God’s creation, purpose, plan, and power overcomes all mystery, confusion, doubt, uncertainty, ignorance, blindness, and material disappointments. Faith delivers the fruits of happiness and contentment and patience and kindness to others and fortitude and courage and hope and assurance to the faith child.

101:2.12 (1107.2) Revelation as an epochal phenomenon is periodic; as a personal human experience it is continuous. Divinity functions in mortal personality as the Adjuster gift of the Father, as the Spirit of Truth of the Son, and as the Holy Spirit of the Universe Spirit, while these three supermortal endowments are unified in human experiential evolution as the ministry of the Supreme.

101:2.13 (1107.3) True religion is an insight into reality, the faith-child of the moral consciousness, and not a mere intellectual assent to any body of dogmatic doctrines. True religion consists in the experience that “the Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.” Religion consists not in theologic propositions but in spiritual insight and the sublimity of the soul’s trust.

101:2.14 (1107.4) Your deepest nature — the divine Adjuster — creates within you a hunger and thirst for righteousness, a certain craving for divine perfection. Religion is the faith act of the recognition of this inner urge to divine attainment; and thus is brought about that soul trust and assurance of which you become conscious as the way of salvation, the technique of the survival of personality and all those values which you have come to look upon as being true and good.

101:2.15 (1107.5) The realization of religion never has been, and never will be, dependent on great learning or clever logic. It is spiritual insight, and that is just the reason why some of the world’s greatest religious teachers, even the prophets, have sometimes possessed so little of the wisdom of the world. Religious faith is available alike to the learned and the unlearned.

101:2.16 (1107.6) Religion must ever be its own critic and judge; it can never be observed, much less understood, from the outside. Your only assurance of a personal God consists in your own insight as to your belief in, and experience with, things spiritual. To all of your fellows who have had a similar experience, no argument about the personality or reality of God is necessary, while to all other men who are not thus sure of God no possible argument could ever be truly convincing.

101:2.17 (1107.7) Psychology may indeed attempt to study the phenomena of religious reactions to the social environment, but never can it hope to penetrate to the real and inner motives and workings of religion. Only theology, the province of faith and the technique of revelation, can afford any sort of intelligent account of the nature and content of religious experience.

"Live loyally today—grow—and tomorrow will attend to itself. The quickest way for a tadpole to become a frog is to live loyally each moment as a tadpole."
BonitaParticipant
Mar 13, 2018, 12:01 PM
In regards to the interplay between faith and wisdom, we know one thing: Wisdom is not necessary for survival, but faith is.

(739.8) 65:8.4 As mind evolution is dependent on, and delayed by, the slow development of physical conditions, so is spiritual progress dependent on mental expansion and unfailingly delayed by intellectual retardation. But this does not mean that spiritual evolution is dependent on education, culture, or wisdom. The soul may evolve regardless of mental culture but not in the absence of mental capacity and desire — the choice of survival and the decision to achieve ever-increasing perfection — to do the will of the Father in heaven. Although survival may not depend on the possession of knowledge and wisdom, progression most certainly does.

146:3.4 And Jesus said to Thomas: “Your assurance that you have entered into the kingdom family of the Father, and that you will eternally survive with the children of the kingdom, is wholly a matter of personal experience — faith in the word of truth. . . .

146:3.5 . . . You survive your life in the material world of the flesh because you are identified with the Father’s living spirit, the gift of eternal life. . . . .

Moreover, there are many types of wisdom. In one place (27:6.3) they tell us that there are seventy functional divisions of wisdom on Paradise. And even on this lowly world of existence, TUB refers to many different levels of wisdom. Mota is a form of morontia wisdom (45:7.6), which I think may require faith to discover, recognize and interpret; but, I can’t find a reference yet (not that there isn’t one) which says faith is a necessary component of worldly wisdom.

When it comes to wisdom, I find the following quote useful. Wisdom is that middle ground between fact and truth. I don’t think faith is necessary to become conscious of facts, but at some point the mind must draw upon faith in order to become conscious of ideal values (truth) which reside in the soul. Without spiritual insight wisdom could not evolve to its highest achievable level.

102:3.5 Science, knowledge, leads to fact consciousness; religion, experience, leads to value consciousness; philosophy, wisdom, leads to co-ordinate consciousness; revelation (the substitute for morontia mota) leads to the consciousness of true reality; while the co-ordination of the consciousness of fact, value, and true reality constitutes awareness of personality reality, maximum of being, together with the belief in the possibility of the survival of that very personality.
BonitaParticipant
Mar 14, 2018, 1:19 PM
Below is a list of the ascending levels of mortal wisdom. I’m not sure what exact role faith plays in the first level, the knowledge of things, but it certainly does play a role in the integration of knowledge with higher meanings and values. It is interesting that spiritual insight is the highest level of mortal wisdom, and yet they also tell us that spiritual insight is a gift, while human wisdom must evolve (101:4.2). TUB also mentions that spiritual insight is not dependent upon worldly wisdom (101:2.15). TUB additionally mentions that a seventh circler can be God-conscious just as a first circler (110:6.16).

(806.5) 71:7.5 Education is the business of living; it must continue throughout a lifetime so that mankind may gradually experience the ascending levels of mortal wisdom, which are:

(806.6) 71:7.6 1. The knowledge of things.

(806.7) 71:7.7 2. The realization of meanings.

(806.8) 71:7.8 3. The appreciation of values.

(806.9) 71:7.9 4. The nobility of work — duty.

(806.10) 71:7.10 5. The motivation of goals — morality.

(806.11) 71:7.11 6. The love of service — character.

(806.12) 71:7.12 7. Cosmic insight — spiritual discernment.

(806.13) 71:7.13 And then, by means of these achievements, many will ascend to the mortal ultimate of mind attainment, God-consciousness.

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