48 posts · 9 participants · started Apr 14, 2016, 3:00 PM
Bonita wrote:
“I’m working without a net, and well, I’m not sure what I’m going to put out today is in its best condition.”
“The fact that there are differing levels of reality within…”
Your description today of the purpose and adjustable nature of mind is the clearest I’ve seen!
Thanks, and well done 
Nigel
Nigel Nunn wrote: Your description today of the purpose and adjustable nature of mind is the clearest I’ve seen!
Garsh, that’s a real complement. Thank you. Although you’ve given me some confidence, I’m not all that secure in today’s thoughts on the subject. I keep rewriting them, but decided to stop and just put it out and let you guys rip it up. I’m struggling to focus on the big picture for Bradly, finding it all too easy to go down the side roads. The minimum feedback I would really like to get right now is if it is better to print the related quotes in their entirety, or just cite the reference numbers. The quotes do take a huge amount of space, but I’m under the impression that most folks like quotes and don’t like to be forced to look them up. Not sure which way to go with that. Anyway, here’s what I have today:
The evolution of dominance on a cosmic scale is also present in the microcosm of selfhood. In the worlds of time and space, physical reality is dominant except when personality is present, at which time spirit strives for mastery through the mediation of mind. Mind is the mechanism for conditioning evolution both on cosmic levels and on microcosmic levels of selfhood. Therefore, mind is the arena in which growth and progress take place. It is by mind that we live and die, since it is mind that humans have potential control over. As a mediator between the various aspects of reality, mind naturally strives for spirit dominance. Evidence of the beginning of mind evolution toward spirit dominance is the birth of the soul, a new personal expression of the unification of cosmic reality in the universe.
Spirit dominance of the mind is determined by the personality choosing to utilize all adjutant mind ministries as well as willingness to cooperate with spirit guidance. Entrance into the seventh psychic circle, and birth of the soul, is evidence that a personality has indeed chosen to utilize all seven of the adjutant mind ministries. Each of the adjutants represent an overlapping evolutionary appeal to mind, constantly drawing mind toward higher levels, while also maintaining integrity and balance of function. After reaching the third psychic circle, the adjutant influence on mind gradually diminishes. At some point in soul growth, primarily the two higher adjutants will dominate the mind along with a specific soul function developed to enhance its influence over them.
But until then, as human minds evolve toward spirit they are frequently faced with conflict between the two levels, physical and spiritual. The physical level calls attention to the self, to think first of the well being of the self, its physical survival and material happiness. The spiritual level calls attention to others first with a focus on eternal survival and the true happiness of service. These dual influences set up moral dilemmas that must be dealt with. Mind cannot tolerate unresolved conflicts, particularly the conflict between allegiance to the self (physical) or other-than-self (spiritual). Due to its own gravity, mind is most content when aligned with its spirit source.
The highest material mind ministries are the adjutants of worship and wisdom. These are the spirits which make an individual a functioning human personality. A functioning personality is one with not only self-consciousness, but consciousness of others. This level of consciousness creates moral tensions between self and other-than-self. Morality is a reality level of the cosmic mind. The morally conscious mind is the soil from which a soul is co-created. Recall that of the three elements of reality recognized by mind, duty is the second level. Duty is described as the domain of morals in the philosophic realm, or the realm of reasoning mind; it is a level of reality discrimination between right and wrong.
There are varying degrees of right and wrong, as we’ve seen in Jesus’ description of the six levels of the golden rule. All of those levels represent an evolution of dominance of mind toward spirit. Beginning with the level of the flesh: this is basically a mechanistic response to animal-type instincts where the moral delemmas encountered between the self and other-than-self are based on the material senses, a very self-centered attitude toward reality. It’s hard for me to believe that an individual who has entered the seventh psychic circle would consistently function on this level, but I suppose it is possible.
The level of feelings reveals evolution of emotion to include less of one’s own material senses, and more on another person’s. Feelings of sympathy and concern for others begin to creep into the psyche, which makes it less self-centered. I think that individuals who have entered the seventh psychic circle probably begin to recognize more and more that there are other people with feelings too, and begin to act upon it as evidence of increasing awareness of spirit dominance.
The golden rule level of mind is when it is more obvious that the cosmic reality response is functioning. Although still concerned mostly with the self, as self-respect, there is more evidence that ideals from the spiritual level have begun to influence judgement. Wisdom is beginning to provide leadership in such a way that soul levels of inspiration can begin to be ascertained.
The level of brotherly love denotes a mind willing to put the self aside in the interest of others. Here is the beginning of selflessness with increasing service, which are fruits of the spirit, proof of spirit influence on the mind. The reality reflex of duty has risen to a higher moral level of recognition because of budding spiritual, or soul influence.
The moral level is evidence of even deeper recognition of the cosmic reality reflex of duty because of a more acute ability to discern right from wrong from a philosophical point of view. A philosophical point of view requires that one observe oneself observing. It’s a level of moral consciousness heavily influenced by spiritual input from the soul level. The individual is beginning to recognize spiritual reality and integrate it into thought and behavior, placing less and less significance on the self and aligning more and more with spirit reality. Morality without this kind of spiritual insight is merely superanimal, existing just above the animal level of awareness of duty toward others.
The spiritual level is the soul level. The mind has integrated and coordinated all levels of reality responses, physical, mental and spiritual, into a unified expression of personality based upon actual experience with spirit, God-consciousness. At this level, the individual experiences God’s love first hand and realizes that it is the greatest thing in the world, the ideal of all relationships and the only way to treat other persons.
As you can see, this describes an evolution of spirit dominance in the mind of a personality. I don’t think it is too far from the type of growth one might expect in the psychic, or cosmic circles. The psychic circles are essential circles of mind evolution toward spirit dominance and self-mastery. They are circles of progressive and balanced association of spirit value and mind attainment which indicate soul growth, Adjuster attunement and a budding relationship with the Supreme.
Related Quotes:
0:5.8 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.
12:8.14 On Paradise the three energies, physical, mindal, and spiritual, are co-ordinate. In the evolutionary cosmos energy-matter is dominant except in personality, where spirit, through the mediation of mind, is striving for the mastery. Spirit is the fundamental reality of the personality experience of all creatures because God is spirit. Spirit is unchanging, and therefore, in all personality relations, it transcends both mind and matter, which are experiential variables of progressive attainment.
34:5.3 Mortal man first experiences the ministry of the Spirit in conjunction with mind when the purely animal mind of evolutionary creatures develops reception capacity for the adjutants of worship and of wisdom. This ministry of the sixth and seventh adjutants indicates mind evolution crossing the threshold of spiritual ministry. And immediately are such minds of worship- and wisdom-function included in the spiritual circuits of the Divine Minister.
36:5.1 It is the presence of the seven adjutant mind-spirits on the primitive worlds that conditions the course of organic evolution; that explains why evolution is purposeful and not accidental.
102:4.3 Man very early becomes conscious that he is not alone in the world or the universe. There develops a natural spontaneous self-consciousness of other-mindness in the environment of selfhood. Faith translates this natural experience into religion, the recognition of God as the reality — source, nature, and destiny — of other-mindness.
103:5.4 But man’s interpretation of these early conflicts between the ego-will and the other-than-self-will is not always dependable. Only a fairly well unified personality can arbitrate the multiform contentions of the ego cravings and the budding social consciousness. The self has rights as well as one’s neighbors. Neither has exclusive claims upon the attention and service of the individual. Failure to resolve this problem gives origin to the earliest type of human guilt feelings.
110:6.3 The psychic circles are not exclusively intellectual, neither are they wholly morontial; they have to do with personality status, mind attainment, soul growth, and Adjuster attunement. The successful traversal of these levels demands the harmonious functioning of the entire personality, not merely of some one phase thereof. The growth of the parts does not equal the true maturation of the whole; the parts really grow in proportion to the expansion of the entire self—the whole self—material, intellectual, and spiritual.
110:6.13 The seventh circle. This level is entered when human beings develop the powers of personal choice, individual decision, moral responsibility, and the capacity for the attainment of spiritual individuality. This signifies the united function of the seven adjutant mind-spirits under the direction of the spirit of wisdom, the encircuitment of the mortal creature in the influence of the Holy Spirit, and, on Urantia, the first functioning of the Spirit of Truth, together with the reception of a Thought Adjuster in the mortal mind. Entrance upon the seventh circle constitutes a mortal creature a truly potential citizen of the local universe.
110:6.20 From the seventh to the third circle there occurs increased and unified action of the seven adjutant mind-spirits in the task of weaning the mortal mind from its dependence on the realities of the material life mechanisms preparatory to increased introduction to morontia levels of experience. From the third circle onward the adjutant influence progressively diminishes.
111:1.2 There is a cosmic unity in the several mind levels of the universe of universes. Intellectual selves have their origin in the cosmic mind much as nebulae take origin in the cosmic energies of universe space. On the human (hence personal) level of intellectual selves the potential of spirit evolution becomes dominant, with the assent of the mortal mind, because of the spiritual endowments of the human personality together with the creative presence of an entity-point of absolute value in such human selves. But such a spirit dominance of the material mind is conditioned upon two experiences: This mind must have evolved up through the ministry of the seven adjutant mind-spirits, and the material (personal) self must choose to co-operate with the indwelling Adjuster in creating and fostering the morontia self, the evolutionary and potentially immortal soul.
111:1.4 Material evolution has provided you a life machine, your body; the Father himself has endowed you with the purest spirit reality known in the universe, your Thought Adjuster. But into your hands, subject to your own decisions, has been given mind, and it is by mind that you live or die. It is within this mind and with this mind that you make those moral decisions which enable you to achieve Adjusterlikeness, and that is Godlikeness.
111:3.4 The soul partakes of the qualities of both the human mind and the divine spirit but persistently evolves toward augmentation of spirit control and divine dominance through the fostering of a mind function whose meanings seek to co-ordinate with true spirit value.
116:6.1 In the evolutionary superuniverses energy-matter is dominant except in personality, where spirit through the mediation of mind is struggling for the mastery. The goal of the evolutionary universes is the subjugation of energy-matter by mind, the co-ordination of mind with spirit, and all of this by virtue of the creative and unifying presence of personality. Thus, in relation to personality, do physical systems become subordinate; mind systems, co-ordinate; and spirit systems, directive.
116:6.5 In a human being the mechanism of physical life is responsive, in part, to the dictates of (personal) mind. This very mind may, in turn, become dominated by the leadings of purposive spirit, and the result of such evolutionary development is the production of a new child of the Supreme, a new personal unification of the several kinds of cosmic reality.
130:4.9 Only in degree does man possess mind above the animal level aside from the higher and quasi-spiritual ministrations of intellect. Therefore animals (not having worship and wisdom) cannot experience superconsciousness, consciousness of consciousness.
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.
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.
147:4.3-9 Let me now teach you concerning the differing levels of meaning attached to the interpretation of this rule of living, this admonition to `do to others that which you desire others to do to you’:
1. The level of the flesh. Such a purely selfish and lustful interpretation would be well exemplified by the supposition of your question.
2. The level of the feelings. This plane is one level higher than that of the flesh and implies that sympathy and pity would enhance one’s interpretation of this rule of living.
3. The level of mind. Now come into action the reason of mind and the intelligence of experience. Good judgment dictates that such a rule of living should be interpreted in consonance with the highest idealism embodied in the nobility of profound self-respect.
4. The level of brotherly love. Still higher is discovered the level of unselfish devotion to the welfare of one’s fellows. On this higher plane of wholehearted social service growing out of the consciousness of the fatherhood of God and the consequent recognition of the brotherhood of man, there is discovered a new and far more beautiful interpretation of this basic rule of life.
5. The moral level. And then when you attain true philosophic levels of interpretation, when you have real insight into the rightness and wrongness of things, when you perceive the eternal fitness of human relationships, you will begin to view such a problem of interpretation as you would imagine a high-minded, idealistic, wise, and impartial third person would so view and interpret such an injunction as applied to your personal problems of adjustment to your life situations.
6. The spiritual level. 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. And this is your attitude toward all such problems when your supreme desire is ever to do the Father’s will. I would, therefore, that you should do to all men that which you know I would do to them in like circumstances.
196:3.25 Morality is the essential pre-existent soil of personal God-consciousness, the personal realization of the Adjuster’s inner presence, but such morality is not the source of religious experience and the resultant spiritual insight. The moral nature is superanimal but subspiritual. Morality is equivalent to the recognition of duty, the realization of the existence of right and wrong. The moral zone intervenes between the animal and the human types of mind as morontia functions between the material and the spiritual spheres of personality attainment.
Dear loved ones,
Dear Bradley, here is what ‘’ I found ‘’ concerning a mode of teaching one another in a way I was not aware and is so simple, it redefined my view on it.
All these celestial companionship are invariably mutual. As ascending mortals you not only derive benefit from these successive universe companions and such numerous orders of increasingly divine associates, but you also impart to each of these fraternal beings something from your own personality and experience which forever makes every one of them different and betterfor having been associated with an ascending mortal from the evolutionary worlds of time and space.27:3.4 (301.1)
I hope that comments and questions will come with each new addition to this work. Bonita # 20694
For sureeeeee ,here is my comments.
I feel like going to one of these Adamic’s schools. Whom perpetuates spiritual, morontial, and physical knowledges. And all done by the Spirituals Ministries, including brotherhood.
I appreciated the effort to popularize those epochal revelations.
You know, one of my reader friends often tickling my ears qualifying a lot of experiences done as ‘’morontials’’. Having a soul, whom is of morontial texture and knowing all spiritual consciousness is seated in superconsciousness whom is the soul. Mumbling about all of these, I’m embraced gradually the morontial state as I unconsciously travelling back and forth and through this thread, raised in me, standing consciously at its door.
I continue reading ….
Thanks Bonita,
Thanks Bradly,
…. good brotherhood stuffs.
Thank you Andre. I’m so glad you’re reading. It makes the effort worthwhile.
Since no one gave me feedback about the quotes, I’ve decided to do what I want, and that’s nothing . . . in regards to quotes that is. If anyone wants quotes, I have them on request.
In previous posts I explained that the levels of reality in the cosmos is replicated in the microcosmic environment of experiential selfhood. In this post I would like to concentrate on the microcosm we are most familiar with and try to begin to explain the dynamic interrelation between mind, matter, spirit and personality, particularly in regards to mind and soul. It’s a huge topic, so maybe not all of it today though.
Bradly had requested a discussion on what role gravity plays in transfer of identity, which is changing the dominanting decision making process of the mind from material to spiritual, which would be the soul. I think we all agree that decisions are made in the mind by the personality and when the opportunity arises, are acted upon. I think it is important to point out that decisions are made in the mind often long before they become actionable, but they still count. Decision making primarily affects attitude, and attitude determines reactions in the environment of selfhood. A righteous attitude will bring forth a gracious reaction in the form of spiritual fruit. I bring this point up because it has much to do with mind and spirit gravity as I will point out later.
Gravity can be loosely defined as a force of attraction. Each type of gravity attracts its own level of reality, and each level of reality has its own attractable feature. There are 4 types of universe gravity: physical, mindal, spiritual, and personal. Also, there are two general levels of gravity, absolute, or existential, and subabsolute, or experiential. The subabsolute gravity grasp of the Supreme is only partial and incomplete, the final gravity grasp is on Paradise. As experiential beings, mortal relationship to universe gravity is on a subabsolute level, with the eternal goal being the absolute level. Therefore, the physical substance we are made of remains at the local level of time and space on the material level, subject to material gravity. Mortal mind strives to respond to the level of the Supreme Mind, and our souls and spirits gravitate toward the Creator Son, the Master of Supremacy. But mortal personality is a part of deity reality and thus it gravitates directly to its deity source on Paradise. Personality is pattern and has paid all gravity debt, making it solely responsive to the direct volition of the Universal Father’s personality.
I should also point out that both spirit and mind gravity react to actuals rather than potentials. Various spirit and mind ministries reveal the source of potentials while the creature provides the actuals, or at least attempts to. This is what our earthly life is all about. Can we produce even a flicker of actual reality which will keep our lamps burning into the next life? With just a flicker of reality attunement, the Adjuster is able to make changes in the mind, thus providing more capacity of receptivity to his potentials, the perfect ideals he brings from Paradise. Thoughts that become spiritized by the Adjuster are thoughts ripe for the down grasp of spiritual gravity, and all of this occurs in the soul.
Another way to think about gravity grasp is the concept of quantity and quality. Physical gravity attracts quantity, or mass. Mind gravity attracts discernment of reality, known as the reality response reflexes. Spiritual gravity attracts quality, or values. It should also be noted that gravity and love seem to work together in the universe. Love is eternally out-going; gravity is eternally in-coming. It’s the great circle of universe reality. And this cycle in the cosmos of reaching out and pulling in is essentially the very same process occuring in the microcosm of selfhood, particularly seen in the psychic circles. God sends out his love, and with just a flicker of recognition of potential with the desire to become actual allows gravity to pull us closer to him. At the very core of this cycle is desire. We know that it is what the mind desires to comprehend, what it is striving to identify with and yearning to become that assures progress. The personality’s decision for God-hunger provides the psychic fulcrum which gives God the material to work with in order to feed the soul.
Desire, when expressed in the form of a prayer, activates spiritual gravity forces. Desire alone can activate mind gravity forces, but adding it to prayer, giving it spiritual direction, provides the impetus for the evolution of dominance of that desire, which is always be to become more Godlike. Prayer is a mighty mind opener. It begins with the spirit of worship, and when directionalized by wisdom to higher sources, opens the gateway to the soul, where the down grasp of the Holy Spirit acts as the mind gravity pull within the supermind where spiritual events occur. When it comes to soul growth, there is always a dynamic flow with the mortal reaching up and the divine reaching down. The mortal desiring reality, the divine supplying reality – mindal, spiritual and personal.
Awesome!!! Sorry to be so slow…but it’s been busy and….lots to digest and research already posted. I love the supporting text myself but would also utilize just the link or reference to text for my own study and research.
I really appreciate and am enjoying such clarification and unification of concepts. This is truly wonderful. When completed, I suggest a compilation be posted here: https://urassoc.arko.nyc/category/study-aids-and-resources/
Indeed, your ebook and any/all other works you’d be willing to archive here at the website would illuminate much for many. Thanks Bonita for sharing your insights and harmonization of the teachings in ways which, for me, always deliver greater understanding, appreciation, and utilization of the teachings.
Bradly
"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."
The “evolution of dominance” is the progressive transfer/transition of our personal identity from the material nature dominance we are born into to the spirit nature we are soul-born with sometime later by our first moral choice. And the growth of soul and spirit progress or maturity of mind are a response to the gravity circuits but such a response also establishes an even greater force (magnification?) of those gravity circuits by those volitional choices with survival qualities….and this ascendant ministry is different from or distinguishable from the Spirits of Father, Mother, and Son.
Could we say that these are harmonizing and balancing forces that are internal and personal to the each (TA, Holy Spirit, Spirit of Truth) in one set of ministry – and external and impersonal to the each and all as universal gravity forces that are “responsive to response” or the increasing “mass of self” acquired by the quantity + quality of decisions over time, and sincerity expressed by each ascender by their individual volition and gradual growth, also over time, into maturity and self mastery?
We are “led” into educational opportunities by angel and by TA which allow our free will choices to experience the results of choice according to each choice’s reality alignment…some decisions have meaning and value and others do not and the results verify the value or the lack thereof. As we do better and better in this repetitious process of choice, those choices change in complexity according to our success in choosing sincerely and wisely….and, at the same time, the forces of the gravity circuits increases in their effects upon our being.
This simply to verify my comprehension….so far.
"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."
Bradly wrote:The “evolution of dominance” is the progressive transfer/transition of our personal identity from the material nature dominance we are born into to the spirit nature we are soul-born with sometime later by our first moral choice.
166:3.8 Even the apostles were unable fully to comprehend his teaching as to the necessity for using spiritual force for the purpose of breaking through all material resistance and for surmounting every earthly obstacle which might chance to stand in the way of grasping the all-important spiritual values of the new life in the spirit as the liberated sons of God.159:3.7 Forewarn all believers regarding the fringe of conflict which must be traversed by all who pass from the life as it is lived in the flesh to the higher life as it is lived in the spirit. To those who live quite wholly within either realm, there is little conflict or confusion, but all are doomed to experience more or less uncertainty during the times of transition between the two levels of living. In entering the kingdom, you cannot escape its responsibilities or avoid its obligations, but remember: The gospel yoke is easy and the burden of truth is light.
Bradly wrote:And the growth of soul and spirit progress or maturity of mind are a response to the gravity circuits but such a response also establishes an even greater force (magnification?) of those gravity circuits by those volitional choices with survival qualities….
196:3.20 Every time man makes a reflective moral choice, he immediately experiences a new divine invasion of his soul. Moral choosing constitutes religion as the motive of inner response to outer conditions. But such a real religion is not a purely subjective experience. It signifies the whole of the subjectivity of the individual engaged in a meaningful and intelligent response to total objectivity–the universe and its Maker.
Bradly wrote: . . . and this ascendant ministry is different from or distinguishable from the Spirits of Father, Mother, and Son.
7:3.4 The discriminative operation of the spirit-gravity circuit might possibly be compared to the functions of the neural circuits in the material human body: Sensations travel inward over the neural paths; some are detained and responded to by the lower automatic spinal centers; others pass on to the less automatic but habit-trained centers of the lower brain, while the most important and vital incoming messages flash by these subordinate centers and are immediately registered in the highest levels of human consciousness.
Bradly wrote: Could we say that these are harmonizing and balancing forces that are internal and personal to the each (TA, Holy Spirit, Spirit of Truth) in one set of ministry – and external and impersonal to the each and all as universal gravity forces that are “responsive to response” or the increasing “mass of self” acquired by the quantity + quality of decisions over time, and sincerity expressed by each ascender by their individual volition and gradual growth, also over time, into maturity and self mastery?
The gravities are the same on the outside as they are on the inside. It’s the same gravity and it works the same everywhere, in your head or a star nebula in outer space. Also, only physical gravity is involved with mass. The “mass of self” would not be mass at all unless you’re talking about only one part of the self, the physical body. But selfhood is all the parts, the whole being. The more spiritual selfhood becomes, the less material it is. Material gravity is the antithesis of spiritual gravity; they work in opposite directions in the mind.
7:3.2 The mortal mind, for example, initiates its career as a material mechanism and is eventually mustered into the Corps of the Finality as a well-nigh perfected spirit existence, becoming progressively less subject to material gravity and correspondingly more responsive to the inward pulling urge of spirit gravity during this entire experience. The spirit-gravity circuit literally pulls the soul of man Paradiseward.12:8.5 As the mind of any personality in the universe becomes more spiritual – Godlike – it becomes less responsive to material gravity. Reality, measured by physical-gravity response, is the antithesis of reality as determined by quality of spirit content. Physical-gravity action is a quantitative determiner of nonspirit energy; spiritual-gravity action is the qualitative measure of the living energy of divinity.
Mass is quantity. Soul is quality. Mind responds to all reality by recognizing and discerning which gravity is functioning, and it’s the recognition and coordination process that is mind gravity. Personality uses mind in order to chose which gravity pull to identify with. If and when it chooses spiritual gravity, it becomes more real since spirit is dominant in the universe.
Bradly wrote: We are “led” into educational opportunities by angel and by TA which allow our free will choices to experience the results of choice according to each choice’s reality alignment…some decisions have meaning and value and others do not and the results verify the value or the lack thereof. As we do better and better in this repetitious process of choice, those choices change in complexity according to our success in choosing sincerely and wisely….and, at the same time, the forces of the gravity circuits increases in their effects upon our being.
Free will choices don’t experience, personalities experience. Choices are made in the mind before acting upon them. Once they are acted upon, yes, it is possible to determine if the choice made in the mind was true and real or not. If the choice can be acted out, if it is satisfying, then it was a wise and true choice, a choice accepted by the universe as fitting into reality. If the choice doesn’t have a good fit, the mind will be conflicted and wondering why what seemed like such a good idea isn’t working out the way it was hoped. That’s an indication that maybe the personality chose the wrong mind interpretation, or never recognized the best option in the first place, the one most aligned with reality, the one with the light shining on it. That idea with the light shining on it is a spiritized thought. If you recognize it and start to head in its direction mentally, bingo, you’re allowing your mind to be pulled by spiritual gravity. Then the Spirit of Truth gets to work on it, translating it for you so you can see how it fits into the your microcosm of the universe if you choose to act upon it. And then, once you make that choice to act, you’re invaded by more spirit, which simply means that spirit gravity becomes all the more discernible (capacity for receptivity). It’s a mind invasion, but discernible by the higher mind, the one with spirit in it.
6:4.6 The indwelling Father fragment adjusts the human mind to progressively divine attitudes, whereupon such an ascending mind becomes increasingly responsive to the spiritual drawing power of the all-powerful spirit-gravity circuit of the Second Source and Center.
Hi Bradly. Thanks for trying to understand my point of view. I’m obliged to you for the amount of respect you give my work, but I’m not sure it really deserves it. It’s just my interpretation of the world of TUB. Let me ask you a few questions to better understand what you wrote in your last post. I’m having difficulty following you.
Bradly wrote: The “evolution of dominance” is the progressive transfer/transition of our personal identity from the material nature dominance we are born into to the spirit nature we are soul-born with sometime later by our first moral choice.
Bonita asks: Are you saying that the soul is born with a certain “nature”? And, how are defining personal identity?
Geez Bradly, I hope you know that I’m being sincere when I say I don’t understand one word of this next sentence:
Bradly wrote: And the growth of soul and spirit progress or maturity of mind are a response to the gravity circuits but such a response also establishes an even greater force (magnification?) of those gravity circuits by those volitional choices with survival qualities….
Your sincerity has never been doubted by me Bonita….but my articulations often leave much for improvement – no doubt! 
Okay….I am attempting to confirm (or seek correction regarding) my understanding that as the evolution of dominance or the identity/identification shift occurs in mind and we grow in the spirit (circle progress) the force of attraction by the gravity circuits increases proportionately thereby – a “response” magnification or gravity effect. The more we respond to the spirit and align our selfhood with universe reality, then the ever greater and greater the “pull” to the source and center of reality by the gravity circuits.
I remain confused by your assertion that the gravity circuits are the same as the 3 great mind ministry spirits. It seems to me that the spirit within are distinct/different and in addition to the adjutant ministries and that the gravity circuits are, also, distinct and in addition to the mind ministries which lead us to the birth of soul and the growth of soul and that the gravity circuits have their greatest effects once the “evolution of dominance” begins. I have thought that this is related to being “born again”….which is more than moral choice or spirit response but is a conscious commitment to know God and to serve in love. Prior to this conscious choice of personal commitment, we have not yet truly chosen the seat of our identity….we have been responsive, yes – but specifically committed and declarative of purpose and priority – no, not yet…that’s a distinct change in reality alignment and the very purpose of being.
I appreciate the patience you give me (and always have) in my attempt to integrate these many concepts into a working perspective and philosophy of living. There is much to learn about how things work and are related/supported by all the spirits and forces designed to bring tadpoles to Paradise in this grand adventure of learning and growing and transcending the material nature to become true spirit beings in time to come. The knowledge of such details does not, in itself, actually add to the spiritization of anyone perhaps, but it is thrilling to know how important ascenders are in the purpose and plans of Deity and all creation itself. We matter. We belong. We contribute. We create. We are loved……
It’s all good Bonita….thanks for taking time to understand my perspective and helping me learn by this gift of epochal revelation.
A Forever Friend – Bradly
"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."
Bradly wrote: I am “saying” that the soul is born “by” our spirit nature which responds to the highest adjutants as youth by our first moral choice.
You say that “the soul is born by our spirit nature”. If our spirit nature is our soul, how would that sentence make sense? It would be the same as saying “the soul is born by the soul.” Do you get what I’m saying? It’s not our spirit nature that gives birth to the soul, it’s the moral mind. The moral mind is not spiritual. It is subspiritual.
156:5.2 Your spirit nature — the jointly created soul — is a living growth, but the mind and morals of the individual are the soil from which these higher manifestations of human development and divine destiny must spring. The soil of the evolving soul is human and material, but the destiny of this combined creature of mind and spirit is spiritual and divine.”
196:3.25 The moral nature is superanimal but subspiritual.
Bradly wrote: I’d appreciate your perspective on “defining personal identity”
112:0.7 Personality, while devoid of identity, can unify the identity of any living energy system.6:8.1 Concerning identity, nature, and other attributes of personality, . . .42:12.9 Mind is always creative. The mind endowment of an individual animal, mortal, morontian, spirit ascender, or finality attainer is always competent to produce a suitable and serviceable body for the living creature identity. But the presence phenomenon of a personality or the pattern of an identity, as such, is not a manifestation of energy, either physical, mindal, or spiritual. The personality form is the pattern aspect of a living being; it connotes the arrangement of energies, and this, plus life and motion, is the mechanism of creature existence.140:4.7 Personality is basically changeless; that which changes — grows — is the moral character.
Bradly wrote: When I first choose “others’ interest” over self interest, soul is born. Am I now a new “me” or the same me with spirit-response-identity
You’re not really new, you’re still Bradly, but now Bradly has a more mature and spiritually real character growing in the soul. And that’s the character you take with you to the mansion worlds. When we meet there, I will quite readily recognize that you are Bradly, but I will have to get to know your character, as that may have grown and changed since we last met. Get it?
Bradly wrote:Is the birth of soul the beginning of the gateway you describe and the evolution of spirit dominance? Does any of this change “who” me is or just the nature of who I am and am becoming by decisions, decisions and more decisions?
110:5.3 During the slumber season the Adjuster attempts to achieve only that which the will of the indwelt personality has previously fully approved by the decisions and choosings which were made during times of fully wakeful consciousness, and which have thereby become lodged in the realms of the supermind, the liaison domain of human and divine interrelationship.
Bradly wrote:And this is where the study of personality begins to befuddle me…….the spirit changes me but it only makes “me” more real doesn’t it? More responsive to reality? More capable and effective in service? Where do personality and mind diverge regarding “me” and the seat of personal identity?
Your personality changes its character by becoming more divine, by actually owning divine qualities. You borrow everything else, but your character is earned and owned. If you choose to get rid of it, the Adjuster holds onto it forever, since he helped create it. Of course, the more divine your character becomes the more real you become and the more useful you are to others and to the universe. This happens with soul growth and when the soul reaches a certain point in growth, it becomes conscious of the mind. At this point it can influence the material mind if the gateway stays open by the choice of the personality. (That’s how the personality chooses to transfer the seat of identity, by keeping the gateway open 24/7). When the personality chooses to keep the mind connected like that, it is growing or evolving dominance toward divinity.
56:10.12 Goodness is the mental recognition of the relative values of the diverse levels of divine perfection. The recognition of goodness implies a mind of moral status, a personal mind with ability to discriminate between good and evil. But the possession of goodness, greatness, is the measure of real divinity attainment.111:3.4 The soul becomes increasingly conscious of both the mind and the Adjuster as associated identities, proportional to its own evolutionary growth. The soulpartakes of the qualities of both the human mind and the divine spirit but persistently evolves toward augmentation of spirit control and divine dominance through the fostering of a mind function whose meanings seek to co-ordinate with true spirit value.
Bradly wrote:The more we respond to the spirit and align our selfhood with universe reality, then the ever greater and greater the “pull” to the source and center of reality by the gravity circuits.
No, I think gravity stays the same. What changes is recognition and response to gravity. When the reaction capacity increases, receptivity increases. In other words, the more acute your ability to recognize gravity, the more often you’ll allow yourself to be attracted to it and latch on. There are no augmentations of gravity, only increasing capacity for receptivity. You increase capacity by keeping that gateway open. What keeps the gateway open is a desire to be Godlike, or in other words, a desire to know and do the will of God. The more you sincerely want that, the more you’ll recognize it when it shows up and the more of it you’ll get. But you’re not getting gravity, you’re getting a divine character, aka soul. And although you are being pulled to Paradise as part of the ascension of your personality (since that is the source of personality), the choices you make to grow your character (an evolutionary acquirement) are really being pulled by gravity toward the Supreme. And when you leave Paradise as a finaliter, your experiences continue to contribute to the evolution of the Supreme.
Bradly wrote: I remain confused by your assertion that the gravity circuits are the same as the 3 great mind ministry spirits.
I don’t think that’s what I said. First of all there are four gravity circuits: personality, material, mental and spiritual. Material gravity plays a role in producing the tension and conflict, which is part of a previous conversation. Also, I think it’s important to point out that gravity itself is a presence. Presence makes these gravities personal.
15:91 The universal circuits of Paradise do actually pervade the realms of the seven superuniverses. These presence circuits are: the personality gravity of the Universal Father, the spiritual gravity of the Eternal Son, the mind gravity of the Conjoint Actor, and the material gravity of the eternal Isle.
Bradly wrote: . . . the gravity circuits are, also, distinct and in addition to the mind ministries which lead us to the birth of soul and the growth of soul and that the gravity circuits have their greatest effects once the “evolution of dominance” begins.
Well that certainly isn’t true when it comes to material gravity, but that’s another issue. All mind is responsive to mind gravity. Just like the neural network, mind gravity pulls different aspects of mind to different destinations. The mind ministries are living presence ministries, they have mind energy and the power of gravity that comes from the Universe Mother Spirit. The adjutants provide differential urges for forward evolution of both the material and mind levels. (Mind over matter).
0:6.8 Mind is a phenomenon connoting the presence-activity of living ministry in addition to varied energy systems; and this is true on all levels of intelligence. In personality, mind ever intervenes between spirit and matter; therefore is the universe illuminated by three kinds of light: material light, intellectual insight, and spirit luminosity.36:5.1 It is the presence of the seven adjutant mind-spirits on the primitive worlds that conditions the course of organic evolution; that explains why evolution is purposeful and not accidental. These adjutants represent that function of the mind ministry of the Infinite Spirit which is extended to the lower orders of intelligent life through the operations of a local universe Mother Spirit. The adjutants are the children of the Universe Mother Spirit and constitute her personal ministry to the material minds of the realms. Wherever and whenever such mind is manifest, these spirits are variously functioning.
Hi Bradly. Thanks for explaining your post. I still have confusions, sorry to say.
Bradly wrote: I am “saying” that the soul is born “by” our spirit nature which responds to the highest adjutants as youth by our first moral choice.
Bonita: You say that “the soul is born by our spirit nature”. If our spirit nature is our soul, how would that sentence make sense? It would be the same as saying “the soul is born by the soul.” Do you get what I’m saying? It’s not our spirit nature that gives birth to the soul, it’s the moral mind. The moral mind is not spiritual. It is subspiritual.
156:5.2 Your spirit nature — the jointly created soul — is a living growth, but the mind and morals of the individual are the soil from which these higher manifestations of human development and divine destiny must spring. The soil of the evolving soul is human and material, but the destiny of this combined creature of mind and spirit is spiritual and divine.”
Thanks Bonita…..as I understand it then, the gateway is the mind’s connection and response to the highest two Adjutants which eventually results in the first moral decision in mind which gives birth to the soul with mind and TA as the parents of this joint creation.
It would help me in this topic to consider what goes on prior to soul birth during infancy, toddling, and childhood related to personality and mind….character development. Watching children and grandchildren grow up, (especially grandchildren as I was so better prepared and cognizant of growth in children the second time around – I think I recall the UB saying that adult longevity which delivered the first grandparent generation was a major social/cultural/family progression in history and I can believe it!), it is obvious to see this “gateway” connection become established as we witness friendliness, kindness, generosity, empathy, etc. We are told that soul birth is by the first moral act/choice/decision….but I witness very “moral” choices before the age given as the common age of soul birth.
What’s going on there? or then?
Thanks also for the gravity details. I think I’m too hung up on the relationship of mass to physical gravity….or perhaps it is the same as well….the gravitational effect does not change but only the reaction/response increases resulting in the appearance (to me) that the “force” of the attracting gravity (non-physical forms) itself increases. Very helpful. As is the clarification that the gravity circuits are connective to the Spirit ministries…not the same but inherently connected in purpose and effect.
So, it is not a “mass” response to non-physical gravity circuits…but as we grow in the Spirit and progress through the circles, do you think there is a form of acceleration in progress as we grow and learn in experience and wisdom to actually be more responsive and progress through the evolution of dominance as pre-fusion ascenders? As we become more real and actualized by experience and wisdom development, how is progress affected thereby?
I’m so glad for the teaching that we may remain confident in the face of all confusions and uncertainties!! For this tadpole still has plenty of those…hahahaha!
"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."
Bradly wrote: We are told that soul birth is by the first moral act/choice/decision….but I witness very “moral” choices before the age given as the common age of soul birth. What’s going on there? or then?
First of all, although it’s drilled into our heads that it’s a moral decision that brings the Adjuster, it’s actually more than that. It involves a conscious discernment of the difference between good and evil and then a choice for good. The adjutants of worship and wisdom have to be activated as part of that conscious decision. There has to be a moral decision with a religious meaning, an up-reach toward spirit values.
Children are naturally trustful and positive if not given reasons to develop otherwise. They advance in the utilization of the adjutants rather uneventfully, and the ego appears rather early in development along with all the growing conflicts of self. Young kids always seem to have issues over sharing, some more than others. That goes on for quite a while before a child comes to the point where the idea dawns on them that there’s a difference between good and evil. It’s not really about right and wrong because kids are taught that ( usually), so the decision is not really their’s. Right or “good” behavior that is taught does not have the proper motive; the motive is duty. It’s more than the duty of being nice, friendly, or sharing because their parents taught them. The ability to discriminate morally all on their own without the motivation to please or be “good” for some reason they’ve been taught, and to arrive all in the own conscious mind with the clear motivation to give of themselves when faced with a strong impulse to do otherwise because to do otherwise would be evil.
103:2.6 In the absence of wrong teaching, the mind of the normal child moves positively, in the emergence of religious consciousness, toward moral righteousness and social ministry, rather than negatively, away from sin and guilt.
103:2.9 But before a child has developed sufficiently to acquire moral capacity and therefore to be able to choose altruistic service, he has already developed a strong and well-unified egoistic nature. And it is this factual situation that gives rise to the theory of the struggle between the “higher” and the “lower” natures, between the “old man of sin” and the “new nature” of grace. Very early in life the normal child begins to learn that it is “more blessed to give than to receive.”
108:2.2 Creature mind must exhibit the worship outreach and indicate wisdom function by exhibiting the ability to choose between the emerging values of good and evil — moral choice.
196:3.17 Moral evaluation with a religious meaning — spiritual insight — connotes the individual’s choice between good and evil, truth and error, material and spiritual, human and divine, time and eternity.
but as we grow in the Spirit and progress through the circles, do you think there is a form of acceleration in progress as we grow and learn in experience and wisdom to actually be more responsive and progress through the evolution of dominance as pre-fusion ascenders? As we become more real and actualized by experience and wisdom development, how is progress affected thereby?
I think acceleration is a process of increasing capacity of receptivity. The more often and the longer the channel is open, the wider it gets, as I understand it. Didn’t Jesus say that to those who have much, more will be given?
176:3.5 To every one who has, more shall be given, and he shall have abundance; but from him who has not, even that which he has shall be taken away. You cannot stand still in the affairs of the eternal kingdom. My Father requires all his children to grow in grace and in a knowledge of the truth. You who know these truths must yield the increase of the fruits of the spirit and manifest a growing devotion to the unselfish service of your fellow servants. And remember that, inasmuch as you minister to one of the least of my brethren, you have done this service to me.
56:2.2 Mind is the indispensable channel of communication between spiritual and material realities. The material evolutionary creature can conceive and comprehend the indwelling spirit only by the ministry of mind.
91:7.2 The soul of man requires spiritual exercise as well as spiritual nourishment.
Research on the topic of “soul” recently delivered me to Paper 113 Seraphic Guardians of Destiny. They are key ministers in our circle progress who coordinate and enhance much that is going on in mindal/spirit ministries. All mortals with soul are blessed by the Guardians in their care and guidance through the transfer of the seat of our personal identity.
113:3.1 (1244.2) One of the most important things a destiny guardian does for her mortal subject is to effect a personal co-ordination of the numerous impersonal spirit influences which indwell, surround, and impinge upon the mind and soul of the evolving material creature. Human beings are personalities, and it is exceedingly difficult for nonpersonal spirits and prepersonal entities to make direct contact with such highly material and discretely personal minds. In the ministry of the guarding angel all of these influences are more or less unified and made more nearly appreciable by the expanding moral nature of the evolving human personality.
113:3.2 (1244.3) More especially can and does this seraphic guardian correlate the manifold agencies and influences of the Infinite Spirit, ranging from the domains of the physical controllers and the adjutant mind-spirits up to the Holy Spirit of the Divine Minister and to the Omnipresent Spirit presence of the Paradise Third Source and Center. Having thus unified and made more personal these vast ministries of the Infinite Spirit, the seraphim then undertakes to correlate this integrated influence of the Conjoint Actor with the spirit presences of the Father and the Son.
113:3.3 (1244.4) The Adjuster is the presence of the Father; the Spirit of Truth, the presence of the Sons. These divine endowments are unified and co-ordinated on the lower levels of human spiritual experience by the ministry of the guardian seraphim. The angelic servers are gifted in combining the love of the Father and the mercy of the Son in their ministry to mortal creatures.
113:4.2 (1245.2) Mortal man, subject to Adjuster leading, is also amenable to seraphic guidance. The Adjuster is the essence of man’s eternal nature; the seraphim is the teacher of man’s evolving nature — in this life the mortal mind, in the next the morontia soul. On the mansion worlds you will be conscious and aware of seraphic instructors, but in the first life men are usually unaware of them.
113:4.3 (1245.3) Seraphim function as teachers of men by guiding the footsteps of the human personality into paths of new and progressive experiences. To accept the guidance of a seraphim rarely means attaining a life of ease. In following this leading you are sure to encounter, and if you have the courage, to traverse, the rugged hills of moral choosing and spiritual progress.
113:4.4 (1245.4) The impulse of worship largely originates in the spirit promptings of the higher mind adjutants, reinforced by the leadings of the Adjuster. But the urge to pray so often experienced by God-conscious mortals very often arises as the result of seraphic influence. The guarding seraphim is constantly manipulating the mortal environment for the purpose of augmenting the cosmic insight of the human ascender to the end that such a survival candidate may acquire enhanced realization of the presence of the indwelling Adjuster and thus be enabled to yield increased co-operation with the spiritual mission of the divine presence.
113:4.5 (1245.5) While there is apparently no communication between the indwelling Adjusters and the encompassing seraphim, they always seem to work in perfect harmony and exquisite accord. The guardians are most active at those times when the Adjusters are least active, but their ministry is in some manner strangely correlated. Such superb co-operation could hardly be either accidental or incidental.
113:4.6 (1245.6) The ministering personality of the guardian seraphim, the God presence of the indwelling Adjuster, the encircuited action of the Holy Spirit, and the Son-consciousness of the Spirit of Truth are all divinely correlated into a meaningful unity of spiritual ministry in and to a mortal personality. Though hailing from different sources and different levels, these celestial influences are all integrated in the enveloping and evolving presence of the Supreme Being.
I just couldn’t identify anything to leave out of the above texts…and there’s far more in the Paper for review. Our entire ascension career is an educational experience. The more we learn and acquire in reality-actualization, our education proceeds to the more complex and challenging lessons still to learn. Spirit led choices require repetition to move from “choice” to “reflex” and once a choice becomes reflexive, we are provided new and greater opportunities to discern and choose by the Spirit nature again….and again.
Found this related text posted by Angela at the Calling All Philosopher’s topic:
117:5.3 (1286.1) The evolving immortal soul of man, the joint creation of the material mind and the Adjuster, ascends as such to Paradise and subsequently, when mustered into the Corps of the Finality, becomes allied in some new way with the spirit-gravity circuit of the Eternal Son by a technique of experience known as finaliter transcendation. Such finaliters thus become acceptable candidates for experiential recognition as personalities of God the Supreme. And when these mortal intellects in the unrevealed future assignments of the Corps of the Finality attain the seventh stage of spirit existence, such dual minds will become triune. These two attuned minds, the human and the divine, will become glorified in union with the experiential mind of the then actualized Supreme Being.
117:5.13 (1287.4) What man himself takes with him as a personality possession are the character consequences of the experience of having used the mind and spirit circuits of the grand universe in his Paradise ascent. When man decides, and when he consummates this decision in action, man experiences, and the meanings and the values of this experience are forever a part of his eternal character on all levels, from the finite to the final. Cosmically moral and divinely spiritual character represents the creature’s capital accumulation of personal decisions which have been illuminated by sincere worship, glorified by intelligent love, and consummated in brotherly service.
"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."
Thanks for bringing up the angels Bradly. They do play an important role in soul growth as well as making sure our souls arrive on the mansion worlds. It’s no real surprise since both angels and souls are morontial. Also, when we finally arrive on the mansion worlds, our first jobs will be as assistants to angels. I marvel at how well the universe functions and how well we are all taken such good care of. If only we humans would take care of each other so well . . . alas, another topic.
I do want to bring up a few things in regards to angels and the soul. First of all, they cannot invade the mind, but they obviously know what’s going on in the mind since they record every little thing. In terms of making impersonal spiritual influences personal, one naturally wonders what those impersonal influences might be. We know that the pre-personal Adjuster is impersonal, and that the angels work to make the Adjuster’s presence available as a personal experience, but what else?
Well, being that they are created from the same source as mind, and being morontial, it makes sense that they are concerned with influencing anything that can make connections between the material mind and the morontia soul. I call that the gateway phenomenon which I’ve described several times now. If you recall, the urge to pray often arises from seraphic influence. Prayer begins with the spirit of worship. The spirit of worship adjutant is impersonal; in fact, all of the adjutants are impersonal. But when a personal being utilizes them in such a way that the spirit of wisdom can coordinate all seven in up-reach, then the marvelous down reach by the personal presence of the Creative Spirit, the Holy Spirit, opens up the morontia mind of communication to the divine, the soul.
Moreover, through adjutant stimulation, the angels are able to accentuate certain facts on the material level of existence which need personal interpretation, or in other words, need to be given meaning, especially moral meaning. Meanings are meant to be coordinated with values on the morontia or soul level. This is the way angels teach the mind to reach for higher personal meanings and values. Don’t forget that mind is the coordinator between the material and spiritual, or mortional, levels. Angels stimulate the coordination process by emphasizing reality (recognition reflexes) which activates the mind to do its work of unifying the two levels of reality. It’s up to the person to do something with it, to make the choices necessary for soul growth.
113:3.2 More especially can and does this seraphic guardian correlate the manifold agencies and influences of the Infinite Spirit, ranging from the domains of the physical controllers and the adjutant mind-spirits up to the Holy Spirit of the Divine Minister and to the Omnipresent Spirit presence of the Paradise Third Source and Center.
113:3.5 On the spiritual level, seraphim make personal many otherwise impersonal and prepersonal ministries of the universe; they are co-ordinators. On the intellectual level they are the correlators of mind and morontia; they are interpreters. And on the physical level they manipulate terrestrial environment through their liaison with the Master Physical Controllers and through the co-operative ministry of the midway creatures.
113:4.1 The guardian seraphim are not mind, though they do spring from the same source that also gives origin to mortal mind, the Creative Spirit. Seraphim are mind stimulators; they continually seek to promote circle-making decisions in human mind. They do this, not as does the Adjuster, operating from within and through the soul, but rather from the outside inward, working through the social, ethical, and moral environment of human beings. Seraphim are not the divine Adjuster lure of the Universal Father, but they do function as the personal agency of the ministry of the Infinite Spirit.
113:4.4 The impulse of worship largely originates in the spirit promptings of the higher mind adjutants, reinforced by the leadings of the Adjuster. But the urge to pray so often experienced by God-conscious mortals very often arises as the result of seraphic influence. The guarding seraphim is constantly manipulating the mortal environment for the purpose of augmenting the cosmic insight of the human ascender to the end that such a survival candidate may acquire enhanced realization of the presence of the indwelling Adjuster and thus be enabled to yield increased co-operation with the spiritual mission of the divine presence.
113:7.3 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.
36:5.13 The adjutant mind-spirits experientially grow, but they never become personal.
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.
Spirit led choices require repetition to move from “choice” to “reflex” and once a choice becomes reflexive, we are provided new and greater opportunities to discern and choose by the Spirit nature again….and again.
I’ve been thinking about this Bradly and I’m not really sure I agree completely. I agree that we can make our response to spiritual reality a reflex. In fact, we can work to make our response to all reality, on all three levels, a reflex. But I’m quite sure that decisions shouldn’t become a reflex. A reflex is something that bypasses the conscious mind, and decisions need to be conscious in order to count. I think we learn to reflexively see every new situation with spiritual insight, but the decision process must be deliberate, coming from higher conscious centers. Free will can only be executed when it’s conscious. A person is only free to choose when the choice is within the realm of consciousness, otherwise it’s not a choice at all.
If you recall the neural network analogy, reflex activity occurs at the spinal cord level. The incoming data never makes it to the higher functions of the cortex. When the doc hits your kneecap, you kick him. It’s quick, and automatic. It takes no thought whatsoever. You can override the reflex, if you know it’s coming, by sending stop messages from the cortex. But if you don’t know it’s coming, your leg will act all on its own without any direction from your brain at all. The same thing happens when you accidentally burn your finger. Your hand will remove itself from the heat seconds before your brain even knows to say, “ouch.” Your arm is activated at the lower spinal level reflexively before the message ever gets to the cortex. It’s part of our animal heritage.
Reflex spiritual reactions are okay to develop. It’s possible to get them to function automatically, without exercising the conscious mind at all. Jesus called them the four spiritual attitudes which should come to dominate thinking and feeling. When they become reflexes, you no longer have to force yourself into a spiritual frame of mind because you live 24/7 in a spiritual frame of mind. The gateway is wide open, your mind is praying without ceasing, constantly as if in the presence of God, which is what Jesus did. Jesus made prayer his expression of spiritual attitude. And that’s a fantastic place to be, but even so, decisions won’t just happen all on their own. The fruits of the spirit will happen all on their own, but decisions still need the personality to say, “Yep, that’s the way to go. That’s the best way I can come up with, given the options (God’s will), and that’s the way I’m going on this matter. End of story.”
34:3.8 One is free to choose and act only within the realm of one’s consciousness.
140:5.4 The Master introduced this momentous discourse by calling attention to four faith attitudes as the prelude to the subsequent portrayal of his four transcendent and supreme reactions of fatherly love in contrast to the limitations of mere brotherly love.
155:6.17 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.
110:2.5 You as a personal creature have mind and will. The Adjuster as a prepersonal creature has premind and prewill. If you so fully conform to the Adjuster’s mind that you see eye to eye, then your minds become one, and you receive the reinforcement of the Adjuster’s mind. Subsequently, if your will orders and enforces the execution of the decisions of this new or combined mind, the Adjuster’s prepersonal will attains to personality expression through your decision, and as far as that particular project is concerned, you and the Adjuster are one. Your mind has attained to divinity attunement, and the Adjuster’s will has achieved personality expression.
Yes Bonita….I agree that all minds, especially mortal minds, are endlessly faced with choice and decision, conscious decision making. What I intended to describe is the function of learning, experience, and wisdom developed/acquired, over time, by all prior choices/decisions. I meant to point out that this continuum of choice changes in its demands, according to our wisdom and experience, in the nature and complexity of choices faced….the endless learning curve of making better and better choices for better and better reasons in more complex situations – and do so with continued uncertainty but growing confidence in the face of uncertain outcomes resulting from choice…even when the choice itself may seem obvious….the results are seldom obvious until realized.
I’ve posted my decision hierarchy before but I’d like your consideration of it here on this topic.
It’s my understanding that ascenders experience every level of decision making – slowly purifying or perfecting our motive and intent at every intersection of choice and relationship and slowly improving our discernment and insight by wisdom and experience to make better and better tactical or response choices. This is part of perfecting. Pure motive does not equate to great wisdom. We must learn both between here and Paradise…..thus we are always making decisions. But we are not always making the same decisions. Sufficient experience and wisdom narrows down the optional choices within every decision once those choices have been faced and made over and over. But not to worry….there’s always more to learn. I was hoping to address the quality improvement of our decisions. The quantity is basically endless…we will always be choosing and deciding….but quality is another challenge. For me, many hard decisions of my past are not difficult anymore and do not require great thought or reflection as to right and wrong or self serving and other serving. But proper alignment of motive does not solve what is the best choice and act given new variables and prior experience. Always something to think about indeed!
100:1.8 (1095.3) 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.
118:1.4 (1295.4) Experience, wisdom, and judgment are the concomitants of the lengthening of the time unit in mortal experience. As the human mind reckons backward into the past, it is evaluating past experience for the purpose of bringing it to bear on a present situation. As mind reaches out into the future, it is attempting to evaluate the future significance of possible action. And having thus reckoned with both experience and wisdom, the human will exercises judgment-decision in the present, and the plan of action thus born of the past and the future becomes existent.
118:1.5 (1295.5) In the maturity of the developing self, the past and future are brought together to illuminate the true meaning of the present. As the self matures, it reaches further and further back into the past for experience, while its wisdom forecasts seek to penetrate deeper and deeper into the unknown future. And as the conceiving self extends this reach ever further into both past and future, so does judgment become less and less dependent on the momentary present. In this way does decision-action begin to escape from the fetters of the moving present, while it begins to take on the aspects of past-future significance.
118:1.6 (1295.6) Patience is exercised by those mortals whose time units are short; true maturity transcends patience by a forbearance born of real understanding.
118:1.7 (1295.7) To become mature is to live more intensely in the present, at the same time escaping from the limitations of the present. The plans of maturity, founded on past experience, are coming into being in the present in such manner as to enhance the values of the future.
118:8.2 (1301.7) Mortal man is a machine, a living mechanism; his roots are truly in the physical world of energy. Many human reactions are mechanical in nature; much of life is machinelike. But man, a mechanism, is much more than a machine; he is mind endowed and spirit indwelt; and though he can never throughout his material life escape the chemical and electrical mechanics of his existence, he can increasingly learn how to subordinate this physical-life machine to the directive wisdom of experience by the process of consecrating the human mind to the execution of the spiritual urges of the indwelling Thought Adjuster.
"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."
Hi Bradly,
In terms of motive and intention I believe you’re over thinking the whole thing. There’s really only one motive for faith-sons, and that is seeking God’s will. And there’s only one valid intention for faith-sons, and that’s carrying out God’s will. God’s will is a fundamental motive that covers all ground, not just because it’s God’s, but because spirit is the dominating motive in the universe, and God’s spirit is Love.
1:3.8 I know the truth of the great declarations: “God is spirit” and “God is love,” and these two attributes are most completely revealed to the universe in the Eternal Son.
12:8.12 Spirit. The highest personal reality. True spirit is not subject to physical gravity but eventually becomes the motivating influence of all evolving energy systems of personality dignity.
Motive precedes intent. Motive is the reason behind the intention, and the intention is merely the decision to carry out the underlying motive. So, if the motive is God’s will, then the intention is always to do it. That’s all you need to know, stripped down to it’s basics of course.
Every faith-son’s motive has the same thing in common, which is seeking the spirit dominance of love in his whole self. Intentions, however are not always the same in that living in the spirit, living truth, is always changing with life. And that is because all the factors of experiential life keep changing. But, if all the motives are the same, the results of intentions will eventually knit together into the experience of the Supreme.
110:6.17 The motivation of faith makes experiential the full realization of man’s sonship with God, but action, completion of decisions, is essential to the evolutionary attainment of consciousness of progressive kinship with the cosmic actuality of the Supreme Being. Faith transmutes potentials to actuals in the spiritual world, but potentials become actuals in the finite realms of the Supreme only by and through the realization of choice-experience. But choosing to do the will of God joins spiritual faith to material decisions in personality action and thus supplies a divine and spiritual fulcrum for the more effective functioning of the human and material leverage of God-hunger. Such a wise co-ordination of material and spiritual forces greatly augments both cosmic realization of the Supreme and morontia comprehension of the Paradise Deities.
The intention of carrying out the will of God in this life will often result in imperfect decisions. It will take our whole ascension career to arrive at our potential level of perfection. The goal during this entire adventure is to keep our motive pure, focused on seeking God and his will, which is love. And even that motive needs to be honed as we ascend. The more we comprehend the love of God the higher our motivations soar and the greater usefulness our intentions (acts), become to the Supreme. When we arrive on Paradise the only thing we’ve achieved is perfection of purpose, which means perfection of motive in this universe era. Presumably we will develop transcendental motives in the next. Not sure.
196:3.29 Religious insight possesses the power of turning defeat into higher desires and new determinations. Love is the highest motivation which man may utilize in his universe ascent. But love, divested of truth, beauty, and goodness, is only a sentiment, a philosophic distortion, a psychic illusion, a spiritual deception. Love must always be redefined on successive levels of morontia and spirit progression.
I think quality of decisions are related to one’s nearness to God. Jesus wasn’t worried about quality decisions because he knew that if we maintain spiritual fellowship with God (keep the gateway open), then quality will naturally manifest itself in service. Real quality service is the same as goodness and true goodness is unconscious. The decision to seek God is conscious, the desire to serve, is a natural consequence. Actually serving, making the decision to follow through, is also conscious. The quality of the natural outflow of our inner relationship with God is of no concern to us though. Ideally we should not even concern ourselves with it. It is God’s fruit and he determines the quality. All we do is maintain as sincere and genuine a relationship we can muster so quality fruit can be produced. The nearer we get, the greater the quality. The only way I know to get nearer to God is through that gateway thing of prayer . . . worship and wisdom straight through to Divinity.
170:3.9 The righteousness of any act must be measured by the motive; the highest forms of good are therefore unconscious. Jesus was never concerned with morals or ethics as such. He was wholly concerned with that inward and spiritual fellowship with God the Father which so certainly and directly manifests itself as outward and loving service for man. He taught that the religion of the kingdom is a genuine personal experience which no man can contain within himself; that the consciousness of being a member of the family of believers leads inevitably to the practice of the precepts of the family conduct, the service of one’s brothers and sisters in the effort to enhance and enlarge the brotherhood.
100:2.4 Spirituality becomes at once the indicator of one’s nearness to God and the measure of one’s usefulness to fellow beings. Spirituality enhances the ability to discover beauty in things, recognize truth in meanings, and discover goodness in values. Spiritual development is determined by capacity therefor and is directly proportional to the elimination of the selfish qualities of love.
Bumping this thread, which I missed when it was first posted, so I will remember to read it later when I have time. Bonita, thanks for the time and thought you obviously put into this thoroughly researched information about the soul. Thanks, also to all who contributed perspectives.
Bumping this thread, which I missed when it was first posted . . .
Shoot! I was right. Hardly anybody reads this stuff. Well, glad you’re willing to read it now. Yes, I spent years on this subject and just wanted to share my research and personal experience. There’s lots more but I caved in to the ennui.
Mind you, I didn’t miss it intentionally. There are days and weeks that go by that I do not check this forum. So that is why I didn’t see it; not that I saw it and chose not to read it at the time.
Bonita, your posts are replete with excellent references and the ability to bring TUB teachings to a practical level that is understandable by many of us who lack the scholarship and philosophical abilities that you have. I often feel overwhelmed reading your material because it is so substantive and requires a considerable investment of thought to truly assimilate. In that respect, I am sometimes just not in that ‘place’ at the time I am browsing the forum.
Thanks for your honesty Keryn. I guess I’ll have to rethink my reason for being here. Maybe try a new approach. Don’t know.
Hi Bonita, no need to rethink. Remember that his instruction to “feed my sheep” was to make sure there was food available when his sheep wanted (or were ready) to eat
