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Who Knows "The Truth"? What is Truth? Where is Truth Found?

203 posts · 11 participants · started Mar 27, 2016, 11:58 AM

BonitaParticipant
Apr 13, 2016, 7:37 PM

Zuimon wrote:  The Urantia Book I feel has been written mostly for people who are true and normal and not living on a Rebellious world.

Blarney! Now that’s a real mess o’malarky, leapin’ leprechauns! It’s called the Urantia Book. Is there another Urantia out there somewhere? I don’t think so. This book was written for Urantia, warts and all.

Zuimon wrote: If I’m correct the notion of soulmates is not broached in TUB – at least I don’t remember reading anything about it. So is that because they don’t exist; or was it simply not included as part of the mandate for revelation because of some undisclosed reason.

Your soul mate is your Adjuster.

Zuimon wrote: . . . surely all of that ‘image’ suggests that God as we know as our Heavenly Father is but one personality expression of a Soulmate pair, with our Heavenly Mother being the – as yet, so far as TUB is concerned – unrevealed ‘other half’.

Are you referring to the Creator Son and Creative Spirit, who are our spirit parents? They created us and the world we live on. They are also together in our souls as the Holy Spirit and Spirit of Truth. But they are not us, so to speak. The Adjuster, however, is our true partner and source of our eternal identity.

A little off topic, but we actually have 7 fathers:

51.6.6   It is intended that mortals who start out from an inhabited world have the experience of recognizing sevenfathers: 1. The biologic father — the father in the flesh. 2. The father of the realm — the Planetary Adam. 3. The father of the spheres — the System Sovereign. 4. The Most High Father — the Constellation Father. 5. The universe Father — the Creator Son and supreme ruler of the local creations. 6. The super-fathers — the Ancients of Days who govern the superuniverse. 7. The spirit or Havona Father — the Universal Father, who dwells on Paradise and bestows his spirit to live and work in the minds of the lowly creatures who inhabit the universe of universes.

Zuimon wrote:  So what do you think and feel about this idea: that God is one Soul, and that Soul is actually expressing two Personalities, and we can get to know Them both?

I don’t feel anything about it. But I’ll tell you that I think it’s more malarky. God has a split personality? Nah! Sounds a little yin/yangy though. Are you into Eastern religions? I’m pretty sure that God is a Trinity and he doesn’t have a soul. The Trinity is existential reality. Souls are morontial reality.

Zuimon wrote:And then, wouldn’t it make more sense that the Mother and Father give rise to the Eternal Son and Infinite (Daughter) Spirit – their Deity ‘children’?

It would make sense if you review the Trinity. The Eternal Son doesn’t have a mother. He was eventuated directly from the I AM.

0:3.22 In this original transaction the theoretical I AM achieved the realization of personality by becoming the Eternal Father of the Original Son simultaneously with becoming the Eternal Source of the Isle of Paradise. Coexistent with the differentiation of the Son from the Father, and in the presence of Paradise, there appeared the person of the Infinite Spirit and the central universe of Havona. With the appearance of coexistent personal Deity, the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit, the Father escaped, as a personality, from otherwise inevitable diffusion throughout the potential of Total Deity. Thenceforth it is only in Trinity association with his two Deity equals that the Father fills all Deity potential, while increasingly experiential Deity is being actualized on the divinity levels of Supremacy, Ultimacy, and Absoluteness.

Zuimon wrote: And, is TUB a revelation that keeps within the boundaries as defined by our rebellion; meaning, that because mankind so heavily denies the feminine and women in general being considered as second class, all stemming from the relationship breakdown between Adam and Eve, so it toes the line by sticking to the masculine side of things and keeping certain feminine personalities from us? That TUB is forbidden within its mandate to actually interfere with the Rebellion as it’s manifesting on Earth, all of which is now of our own making since Lucifer, Satan and the other Evil Ones have effectively been dealt with by Jesus, so leaving certain things out of the revelation which if included would greatly interfere with us and how we view ourselves, Creation, and most importantly – God.

I think this is off topic and should be in a separate thread.
Richard E WarrenParticipant
Apr 14, 2016, 9:57 AM

Fellow Truth Lovers,

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According to the UB’s teachings, the Spirit of Truth was bestowed on Urantia (and the rest of Nebadon) on May 18, forty days after the Master was resurrected. Its CENTRAL function is revealing divine truth, but it has many other facets of education and uplift.

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The world hasn’t yet realized these seven diverse functions are also associated with the Spirit of Truth:

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The SofT is directly connected to the highest philosophical thinking:

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…Spiritual philosophy, the wisdom of spirit realities, is the endowment of the Spirit of Truth…. (1108.1) 101:3.2

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With love:

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…the Spirit of Truth, who directs the loving contact of one human being with another…. (1950:6) 180:5.11

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Comfort:

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“…As my Father has given me of his spirit, so will I give you of my spirit. And this Spirit of Truth which I will bestow upon you shall guide and comfort you and shall eventually lead you into all truth….” (1948.3) 180:4.2

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Beauty:

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…The spirit which my Father and I shall send into the world is not only the Spirit of Truth but also the spirit of idealistic beauty…. (1732.4) 155:6.11

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Character:

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…The Spirit of Truth is concerned primarily with the revelation of the Father’s spirit nature and the Son’s moral character. The Creator Son, in the flesh, revealed God to men; the Spirit of Truth, in the heart, reveals the Creator Son to men…. (2062.10) 194:3.1

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Achievement:

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…The pouring out of the Spirit of Truth provides the spiritual foundation for the realization of great achievements in the interests of the human race of the bestowal world…. (820.3) 72:12.5

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Conviction:

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…The new teacher is the conviction of truth, the consciousness and assurance of true meanings on real spirit levels. And this new teacher is the spirit of living and growing truth, expanding, unfolding, and adaptative truth…. (1949.3) 180:5.1

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And for Bible lovers, there is this verse is from the New Testament Gospel of John, chapter 16. Jesus indicates the SoT also brings the power of prophesy:

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13 “…when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.”

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The Spirit of Truth lives and works in us, like the Adjuster.

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…Truth is relative and expanding; it lives always in the present, achieving new expression in each generation of men–even in each human life…. (888:1) 79:8.8

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…Truth is living; the Spirit of Truth is ever leading the children of light into new realms of spiritual reality and divine service…. (1917:3) 176:3.7

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Richard E Warren
ZuimonParticipant
Apr 14, 2016, 11:05 AM
I want you to give me the best you’ve got Bonita, don’t worry about whether or not I can take it. And here’s one for you: Could it be that you are using TUB by excelling in your mental understanding of it all so as to avoid having to deal with all those terrible feelings of hurt and pain caused by not feeling loved by your mother?

And Bradly, I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself.

The Queen of Flowers.

Once upon a special moonlit Urantian night, a baby queen was born. And this baby queen grew up into a young girl queen, then to become an older girl queen, and finally to be the queen Queen.

And all through the land this queen was adored by her subjects because she so diligently took care of them making sure they had what they wanted and got all they needed and understood everything. She was the most fair queen of all, said even to be a master – or should that be mistress? – queen; anyway, the best queen of all the land. And the queen herself was very happy.

And as the years passed and she grew in her wisdom, she also grew in her happiness, and it grew and grew… all until one day when suddenly she realised that a bad feeling had crept into her state of perfect bliss, a feeling of feeling lonely being the queen all by herself.

And this annoying feeling wouldn’t go away, no matter what she did, all day it continued to plague her, growing in intensity, until finally, no longer being able to keep it contained within her, she lamented: Yes, I am very happy – BUT WHERE IS MY KING!

ARRRRRGH! – that’s me jumping off the cliff when considering life without the idea of having a soulmate. It would be too unbearable not being able to share all my most intimate thoughts and feelings with my soul-partner. And to think that my soulmate is my indwelling spirit – NNOOOOO!, that surely can’t be all there is. Am I to be happy being at-one with Bob? – that’s what I affectionately call my indwelling spirit. (I don’t want a same sex marriage ha,ha – I’ll have to rename Bob: Bobette?) I want to be with my soulmate, the person who is my true equal, yet also my true opposite. I want to feel loved by them, and feel completely loving of them. Sure I love Bob, but it’s not the same sort of love as loving another person like myself.

And besides Bonita, it doesn’t make sense. What’s the point of us having all these relationships, which are the means for us to express our personality and come into being, when all we end up is having the perfect relationship with our indwelling spirit? Okay, sure we might feel pretty good about that, and I would imagine translation being a joyous experience once you’ve finally made the full union, but still there just seems to me like there’d be something majorly missing.

I didn’t get that reading the book, that our indwelling spirit is our soulmate. That is a first for me. Not that I agree with it. So what about this Bonita:

If Eve and Adam had not defaulted, they’d still be here – right? So they’d be living in the Garden of Eden on some beautiful part of our world. And we’d in theory be able to visit them. And even if we couldn’t see them in person we’d still know of them. They would be the ‘Queen’ and ‘King’ on the spiritual level, and we’d all be in love with them and in awe of them, as we’d be in our right states of mind and will.

And everything to do with our perfect (non-rebellious) world would stem from and look up to them, with one of their most amazing characteristics being that they have been alive for such a long time, and will continue to live happily on Earth well after we’ve all come and gone.

And so we’d be looking to them as the first real and true example of a relationship of love, of two perfect people perfectly expressing their perfect personalities to each other. The true and perfect and very real example of a soulmate union.

So why would Material Pairs come to physical worlds being our first spiritual ‘mother’ and ‘father’ who we we are to follow, and want to be like, if we weren’t to surely end up living as happily, perfectly and lovingly in relationships like they do – so with our soulmate.

For me it doesn’t make any sense when we’re being given examples of higher perfection all the way along, and yet we are not able to attain them ourselves. What are the examples for? Why go to all the trouble?

And is it part of the expression of the default of Eve and Adam that we’ve lost faith in the idea and ideal of soulmates, of ever having such a perfect and true relationship? That although so many of us dream and wish and even believe we have found our soulmate, that still deep within us is the scar and hurt and psychic wound of all the Default represents. So unconsciously none of us actually really believe we’ll be able have the perfect relationship, let alone link up with our soulmate, let alone deal with the hurt of such a tragedy inflicted upon us all.
ZuimonParticipant
Apr 14, 2016, 11:09 AM
And here’s another one for you to delight in Bradly – it is off topic; however, I think the whole issue with the Rebellion is the denial of the feminine, that behind the scenes and also unrevealed, are the soulmates of Lucifer, Satan, Caligastia and Daligastia, who are really calling the shots. And that ‘Mrs’ Caligastia was the one whispering coercively in Eve’s ear whilst the male Evil Ones were off making sure Adam felt important having to defend the Garden and his beloved from the invading hordes. And that really Adam was just as at fault as was Eve, that they should have stayed together no matter what honouring their soulmate union; and that Eve, and so women (by default) got it all dumped on her because she technically defaulted even though their relationship was in breakdown long before that, for if it hadn’t been they’d have been able to withstand the interference from the evil higher spirits. So women through Eve had been made to take the fall with Adam (and all men) being made to look like the poor one, when in fact it was probably Adam that should not have left her all alone and vulnerable. So was there more going on than our well-intentioned revelators are willing to let on?

And thank you Angela, and my past has certainly led me to this point now, however I’m afraid I will only be a temporary visitor, staying for only a short ‘season’ as you might say in TUB lingo, as my path is already calling me away.

And I suppose this too should be the topic of another thread, however for me it’s all one thread.

Bonita said:

The truth is that you were not created perfect. None of us are created perfect. If we were perfect, we’d be sitting on Paradise now as existential beings and enjoying the actual personality of the Universe Father face to face. All of us are created imperfect. We are creatures. Only Creators are perfect in the existential sense. Also, your soul is not created perfect either. The soul is an entity in the process of becoming perfected. And to be clear, souls do not pre-exist in a perfected state. There is no giant bank of perfect souls on Paradise who descend to earth. That is the role of the Adjuster.

Bonita, if I’m correct, which is what you’ve deduced from TUB, our soul comes into existence at the time our indwelling spirit arrives, and all that goes along with that which you’ve painstakingly pointed out. And from then on we’re evolving our soul as we ascend. And that presumably pre-adjuster arrival we, what… didn’t have a soul? That we are somehow under the ward of the Divine Minister and her seven adjutants, until our soul-life begins? And that we’ve been brought into being by Jesus and the Divine Minister, so are really their ‘children’.

TUB for me is lightweight on the soul, something again I’ve not been able to understand when it clearly is a VERY BIG DEAL for us, but I hadn’t picked up this meaning about soul and our relationship to it as you’ve pointed out. And what’s more, I disagree completely with it.

For me the soul is existential, that being what God’s Soul is all about. That God (and the same being for us) is first and foremost SOUL. And that our whole life in Creation is to grow in truth through personality experience, which really means, helps us to understand the soul that we are.

So soul, His and our souls, exist in ‘existential land’ wherever that might be. But it is not in Creation, not in time and space which is ‘experiential land’, the place where our existential soul expresses its two experiential personalities. And the incredible thing about Paradise as I understand is it being something of a manifestation of the existential Soul that is God. So that’s why it’s such a big deal being there in our Father’s ‘House’, as you said, being face to face with Him.

So I see God (our Mother and Father), created our souls – the souls of all Their children. And then bestow two personalities on them in our ascending soul status. And when the time is right, the soul ‘incarnates’, which means, it starts expressing its personalities in Creation. The soul stays where it is in soul-land, with Creation being, the creation of Soul, so all our souls from God’s through to ours, are Creating – expressing personalities in all the different ways we do. The soul expressing its personalities is creative, it has an impact on Creation, as we all do by simply living.

So the idea of soul being somehow with us and which follows us or is the part of us that survives physical death to wake up in spirit, is simply confusing the spirit-body and spirit part of us with the soul. And that because the soul is the cause of Creation, so the soul doesn’t need to go anywhere as it is already everywhere and in any time. However still I feel our souls have a defined ‘space’ within soul-land. And I even think they are ‘created’, ‘bought into being’, ‘made’, in batches by our Heavenly Soul Parents as the Feelings, move Them.

So for me the soul is expressing itself in Creation through its two personalities right from conception, and even possibly before that on other higher levels; and then within the soul is coded all our life’s experiences for eternity, with the pattern simply unfolding as required by its personality expression.

So the soul is seeking self-realisation through its personalities in life, just as we being focused on the personality part are trying to also express ourselves truly and lovingly, which in turn is leading us in truth to understand what our own soul is all about. So our ascension is the first leg of our journey in understanding, not only our own soul, but the Soul that created us. So by focusing on our feelings and thoughts and trying to understand the truth of them – why we have them, is helping us to get to know the truth of ourselves, which is the truth of soul. And as we come to understand the truth of our soul, so we are also coming to understand the truth of Soul.

And I wonder, can’t you sense or perceive or feel that your soul has been in existence before your adjuster arrived, and that your soul is something far more than just an experientially evolving part of yourself? Don’t have a longing to be with another person so you can experience all of this together? Don’t you want to have that other persons indwelling spirit speaking to you through them, knowing it is are helping you become unified in your relationship together? And conversely knowing your indwelling spirit is inspiring your thoughts so as to communicate your feelings across to them? And can’t you see within your own life that everything is meticulously planned – even pre-planned, even taking into consideration your free will and every decision and act of will? That our free will pertains to our personality expression to some small degree, whereas underlying it all is absolute perfection and no freedom whatsoever. And that the existential needs the experiential so as to experience its existentialism. Which is why the Soul of God set the whole Creation in motion.

I think the animals and the plants, all of nature is perfect in its Natural love, and it’s created. I think we too are perfect, yet it’s owing to the Rebellion and Default that we’ve become imperfect. I see perfect as being a relative term. Sure those humans before the Rebellion were not as ‘perfect’ as more truth-evolved humans are, but they are still perfect in their ‘imperfection’ because they were untainted by Rebellion. I see imperfection so far as it concerns us humans on Earth is ONLY caused by rebellion, with the Default adding to our woes. And that at some point we are to no longer want to live in our wrongness, we will want to stop being evil and rebellious, and want to deal with our imperfection, which is what I call doing my Healing, by looking to my feelings for the truth of my problems.

And for me this paragraph perfectly sums up: ‘The Greatest Cop Out We Can Live’.

Bonita:

You cannot blame your earthly parents for your imperfection. They are imperfect creatures too, and what else can two imperfect creatures create except another imperfect creature? Give them a break. Give yourself a break. You have always been loved, loved by your true parent, God the Father. You just failed to recognise it until now. It doesn’t matter that your earth parents didn’t love you like you wanted to be loved when you were a kid. You’re all grown up now. It really doesn’t matter one hoot. I think it’s fine to acknowledge it for what it is, then promise yourself not to be like your parents and move on in faith and trust in your real Parent. The universe is rife with loving personalities chomping at the bit to be of service to you. Once you recognise that, you can forgive your earth father and move on.

This says it all, it let’s our parents off the hook by saying we can’t blame them, that it wasn’t their fault that they didn’t love us properly, yet the truth remains: they didn’t love us properly. That is the whole truth of the Rebellion we are to see, it’s why we’ve started our incarnation in the darkness – that we’ve been denied love by our parents and influential early carers to begin with, and we’re to experience what being denied love feels like. We are living – so are to understand the truth of – feeling unloved, a no-love life. Because what we come to understand, which is part of that truth which awakens within us, is that all we call love in anti-love, in anti-truth, in rebellion, in no-love, is ‘false’ love, it’s not love based on truth, it’s love based on untruth. And because of that we’ve gown up being as unloving as our parents are, that being how we pass the Rebellion and Default on generation after generation. And just deciding to ‘not be like your parents’, I’m afraid is not enough to change that which is so heavily ingrained within you. And we have to one day deal with that. And so one day we have to blame them as much as we feel wronged and hurt by them. And once we’ve brought out and healed all that pain, then perhaps we might no longer need to blame them, however that is a long time down the track with a heap of misery, pain, suffering, anguish, sadness, hurt coming first.

Having written the above, I just read Rick’s post about the Spirit of Truth. This might be stretching our new-found friendship a bit too far, however in keeping with this post and soulmates, has the thought ever occurred to you that Jesus might actually have a soulmate, that being Mary Magdalene. And that Mary after she died liberated her Spirit of Truth, so effectively we have BOTH their Spirits of Truth doing all the things for us Rick has pointed out. And that we actually need to welcome and long for and want both the masculine and feminine aspects of truth as representing by their ministering Spirits of Truth to help us, and that without having that balance, we’re lopsidedly trying to spiritually grow?
BonitaParticipant
Apr 14, 2016, 12:14 PM

Zuimon wrote: Could it be that you are using TUB by excelling in your mental understanding of it all so as to avoid having to deal with all those terrible feelings of hurt and pain caused by not feeling loved by your mother?

No, I don’t have any hurt or pain caused by my mother. She confused me when I was young, but confusion is not a feeling that I dislike. I kinda like it because it forces me to solve problems. I’m a problem solver by nature. I like challenges. I have an analytical brain; feelings don’t rule my mind, they’re just incoming data. Mom ignored me, any efforts on my part to love her were rebuffed. She was very happy with herself and her little world. If Mom was happy, we were all happy. Simple and painless. Mom always got what she wanted and everyone in my family was happy to give it to her. Otherwise there were tsunamis to deal with. The truth is, her example of total self-centeredness was the stimulus for me to strive to be the opposite. She was good for me. Thanks Mom!

Zuimon wrote:(I don’t want a same sex marriage ha,ha – I’ll have to rename Bob: Bobette?) I want to be with my soulmate, the person who is my true equal, yet also my true opposite. I want to feel loved by them, and feel completely loving of them. Sure I love Bob, but it’s not the same sort of love as loving another person like myself.

A relationship with the Adjuster is not like a marriage at all, it’s better than marriage. If you aren’t feeling the love from your Adjuster, then maybe you need to do more praying? And you’re supposed to love another person like God loves you, not like you love yourself. How can you love another person like God loves you if you never feel God’s love? I don’t think it can be done.

83:8.3 Neither can marriage be truly compared to the relation of the Adjuster to man nor to the fraternity of Christ Michael and his human brethren. At scarcely any point are such relationships comparable to the association of husband and wife. And it is most unfortunate that the human misconception of these relationships has produced so much confusion as to the status of marriage.

140:5.1 From the Sermon on the Mount to the discourse of the Last Supper, Jesus taught his followers to manifest fatherly love rather than brotherly love. Brotherly love would love your neighbor as you love yourself, and that would be adequate fulfillment of the “golden rule.” But fatherly affection would require that you should love your fellow mortals as Jesus loves you.

It might be easier to love Jesus, who is also in your soul. TUB calls his spirit presence the Spirit of Truth. You know Jesus, I’m sure you love him too, but the goal is to know him, feel him and experience his presence. Once you know how Jesus loves you, then you know how to love others. And no, you’re not going to marry him. Marriage is for the material level of reality only. In the morontia worlds you don’t get married. The main purpose of marriage is to produce offspring. Perhaps you could start another thread on soul mates and marriage?

Zuimon wrote: And besides Bonita, it doesn’t make sense. What’s the point of us having all these relationships, which are the means for us to express our personality and come into being, when all we end up is having the perfect relationship with our indwelling spirit? Okay, sure we might feel pretty good about that, and I would imagine translation being a joyous experience once you’ve finally made the full union, but still there just seems to me like there’d be something majorly missing.

The whole purpose of living is to serve others. If divinity attainment is our goal, and if divinity means having the characteristics of Deity, and the major characteristic of Deity is outgoing love, or sharing, then that’s what we can expect as the result of divinity attainment. The more divine you become, the more outgoing your love to others will be. It’s not about you and your comfort zone. What’s majorly missing in the soul mate scenario is that it’s only sharing between two persons. We’re supposed to be socializing our personality, learning to get along with a diversity of persons in a diversity of situations and learning how to solve universe problems on many different levels. If you’re all wrapped up in the fantasy world surrounding yourself and your soul mate, how is that socializing your personality? How is that spreading the love? I think there’s a reason that soul mates don’t really exist.

I think you would do better with a confiding friend, someone loyal to you and respectful of your whole being. True friendship is something beautiful and good. Jesus told his apostles that they were supposed to teach friendship with God. Like love, true friendship needs a model. God is that model. But, I think confiding friends are very hard to find in that few people really understand what true friendship is. Friendship is defined by the midwayers as:

“Friendship is the first and basic human conviction. It is more than an emotion, it is greater than an impulse, it transcends a sentiment. There is something profound about friendship at its best. It is undoubtedly based on the sentiment of love, and has in association with it many other emotions, including, no doubt, both sympathy and respect. Friendship is the equivalent of love plus loyalty and more or less of the sex-element. It is so influential in human experience that there appear to be no lengths to which it will not go to assert itself and to justify its existence.”

In regards to all your other questions concerning soul mates, I’ll await the new thread you will start on the subject. It’s really not fair to Rick to be constantly derailing his thread. I’m happy to entertain all of your musings, it’s fun. But let’s think of others here and do the right thing. Start a new topic.
BonitaParticipant
Apr 14, 2016, 12:29 PM

Zuimon wrote:

Having written the above, I just read Rick’s post about the Spirit of Truth. This might be stretching our new-found friendship a bit too far, however in keeping with this post and soulmates, has the thought ever occurred to you that Jesus might actually have a soulmate, that being Mary Magdalene. And that Mary after she died liberated her Spirit of Truth, so effectively we have BOTH their Spirits of Truth doing all the things for us Rick has pointed out. And that we actually need to welcome and long for and want both the masculine and feminine aspects of truth as representing by their ministering Spirits of Truth to help us, and that without having that balance, we’re lopsidedly trying to spiritually grow?

Wow Zui, you really exposed your underbelly in that last post. I can see that you’re not really interested in TUB, and that’s okay. Your feelings are taking you elsewhere and I’m sure you will follow your feelings. So, I don’t see any sense in showing you what’s in the book if you’re already decided it’s a bunch of hooey. But one last correction in regards to the paragraph above.

Jesus, our Creator Son, does have a so-called “soul mate”. She’s called the Creative Spirit, the Divine Minister, the Universe Mother Spirit. They are partners. Simply put, in your soul Jesus is present as the Spirit of Truth and his partner, the Creative Spirit, is present as the Holy Spirit. You do have a feminine and masculine presence right there in your soul. And the other personality you speak of in the soul is not a personality at all, your true soul mate, the Adjuster, is a PRE-personality. If you would like to know what that means, I’d be happy to explain it in another thread, if you choose to start one. While you’re at it, please also start a thread on the pre-existence of the soul. I have a half dozen essays written on that subject ready for print. So, game on! I’m ready if you are.
BonitaParticipant
Apr 14, 2016, 2:10 PM

Rick Warren wrote:

According to the UB’s teachings, the Spirit of Truth was bestowed on Urantia (and the rest of Nebadon) on May 18, forty days after the Master was resurrected. Its CENTRAL function is revealing divine truth, but it has many other facets of education and uplift.

Yes, getting back to the purpose of this thread! Many years ago I posted a compilation of quotes on the Spirit of Truth. I’m repeating them below in service.

The Spirit of Truth:

1. Is designed to live in man (2060:06)

2. Restates the Jesus message to each new generation (2060:06)

3. Provides personal enlightenment and group guidance for solving spiritual difficulties (2060:06)

4. His first mission is to foster and personalize truth. (2061:00)

5. Is the spirit of both the Universal Father and Creator Son. (2061:01)

6. Never creates a consciousness of himself, only a consciousness of Michael. (2061:02)

7. Came to help men recall and understand the words of Jesus as well as to illuminate and reinterpret his life on earth. (p2061:3 194:2.5)

8. The term “baptism of the spirit” signifies the conscious reception of the Spirit of Truth. (p2061:8 194:2.10)

9. The personal acknowledgment of the Spirit of Truth gives new spiritual power and augments all of the spiritual influences previously experienced by God-knowing souls. (p2061:8 194:2.10)

10. Since the completion of Michael’s bestowal, the Spirit of Truth, in his local universe, became literally the spirit of the sovereign Michael. (p230:2 20:6.9)

11. The bestowal Spirit of Truth, within the human mind, is unerringly responsive to truth–the living spirit relationship of all things and all beings as they are co-ordinated in the eternal ascent Godward. (p647:4 56:10.13)

12. Religious experiences result from the impress made upon the mind of man by the combined operations of the Adjuster and the Spirit of Truth as they function amid and upon the ideas, ideals, insights, and spirit strivings. (1104:06)

13. Begins to function in an individual upon entering the seventh psychic circle. (1210:08)

14. The coming of the Spirit of Truth purifies the human heart and leads the recipient to formulate a life purpose single to the will of God and the welfare of men. (2065:07)

15. Protects the individual from the traitorous ones. (p610:3 53:8.7)

16. Is the spiritual force which draws all truth seekers. (p377:10 34:4.2 )

17. Is the personification of truth in the local universe. (p377:10 34:4.2 )

18. Is a divine presence derived from the personality of our Creator Son which emerges directly from his divine nature. (p377:10 34:4.2 )

19. The means by which Michael is able to be in perfect communication with all bestowal worlds in his local universe. (241:04)

20. Is receptive and reactive to all the emerging values in ascending personality, and faithfully transmits them through the Sevenfold to the Supreme. (p1286:6 117:5.8 )

21. Even when we leave the local universe, we will be in contact with the Spirit of Truth through superuniverse reflectivity. (p1286:7 117:5.9)

22. Is concerned primarily with the revelation of the Father’s spirit nature and the Son’s moral character. (p2062:11 194:3.1)

23. Enables the Master to live his life anew in the experience of every truth-taught believer. (p2062:11 194:3.1)

What Jesus taught about the Spirit of Truth:

1. You must abide in me, and I in you; the branch will die if it is separated from the vine. (1945:04)

2. As the branch cannot bear fruit except it abides in the vine, so neither can you yield the fruits of loving service except you abide in me. (1945:04)

3. If you will maintain this living spiritual connection with me, you will bear abundant fruit. (1945:04)

4. If you abide in me and my words live in you, you will be able to commune freely with me, and then can my living spirit so infuse you that you may ask whatsoever my spirit wills and do all this with the assurance that the Father will grant us our petition. (1945:04)

5. Unless you are born again, born of the spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. (1829:04)

6. Behold, I stand at the doors of men’s hearts and knock, and if any man will open to me, I will come in and sup with him and will feed him with the bread of life; we shall be one in spirit and purpose, and so shall we ever be brethren in the long and fruitful service of the search for the Paradise Father. (1829:04)

7. I am the door, I am the new and living way, and whosoever wills may enter to embark upon the endless truth-search for eternal life. (1829:04)

8. In a very short time I am going to send you my spirit, just like me except for this material body. (p1949:1 180:4.5 )

9. This new teacher is the Spirit of Truth who will live with each one of you, in your hearts, and so will all the children of light be made one and be drawn toward one another. (p1949:1 180:4.5 )

10. And when my spirit comes to indwell you, he will illuminate the difference between sin and righteousness and will enable you to judge wisely in your hearts concerning them. (p1951:3 180:6.2)

11. When he, the Spirit of Truth, comes, he shall eventually guide you into all truth as you pass through the many abodes in my Father’s universe. (p1951:4 180:6.3 )

12. This spirit will not speak of himself, but he will declare to you that which the Father has revealed to the Son, and he will even show you things to come;he will glorify me even as I have glorified my Father. (p1951:5 180:6.4)

13. This spirit comes forth from me, and he will reveal my truth to you. (p1951:5 180:6.4)

14. This new teacher would take of that which is mine and reveal it to you. (p1951:5 180:6.4)

15. By the old way you seek to suppress, obey, and conform to the rules of living; by the new way you are first transformed by the Spirit of Truth and thereby strengthened in your inner soul by the constant spiritual renewing of your mind, and so are you endowed with the power of the certain and joyous performance of the gracious, acceptable, and perfect will of God. (p1609:5 143:2.4)

16. Thus by your faith and the spirit’s transformation, you become in reality the temples of God, and his spirit actually dwells within you. (p1609:5 143:2.4)

17. The new law of the spirit endows you with the liberty of self-mastery in place of the old law of the fear of self-bondage and the slavery of self-denial. ((p1609:5 143:2.4)

18. You are not to attack the old ways; you are skillfully to put the leaven of new truth in the midst of the old beliefs. Let the Spirit of Truth do his own work. (p1932:1 178:1.16)

Experiencing the Spirit of Truth in your life:

1. Love, unselfishness, must undergo a constant and living readaptative interpretation of relationships in accordance with the leading of the Spirit of Truth. (1950:05)

2. And so must we clearly recognize that neither the golden rule nor the teaching of nonresistance can ever be properly understood as dogmas or precepts. They can only be comprehended by living them, by realizing their meanings in the living interpretation of the Spirit of Truth, who directs the loving contact of one human being with another. (1951:00)

3. Destroys the believer’s feeling of orphanhood and loneliness. (2061:00)

4. The proof of fellowship with the Spirit of Truth is in your experience of enhanced fellowship with Michael. (2061:02)

5. Came to help the believer witness to the realities of Jesus’ teachings and his life as he lived it in the flesh, and as he now again lives it anew and afresh in the individual believer. (p2061:4 194:2.6)

6. And today, as in Galilee, he continues to unify mortal experience and to co-ordinate human endeavors. (1103:06)

7. Unifies life, ennobles character, and simplifies experience. (1103:06)

8. Enters the human mind to elevate, transform, and transfigure it. (1103:06)

9. The joy of this outpoured spirit, when it is consciously experienced in human life, is a tonic for health, a stimulus for mind, and an unfailing energy for the soul. (2065:07)

10. Is almost wholly limited in function and power by man’s personal reception of that which constitutes the sum and substance of the mission of Jesus. (p379:5 34:5.5)

11. Will always speak, saying, “This is the way.” (p383:02)

12. When in the heart, reveals the Creator Son to men and enables them to yield the “fruits of the spirit”; and in so doing shows forth the traits which the Master manifested in his earthly life. (p2062:11 194:3.1)

13. Jesus made it plain that he had come to establish personal and eternal relations with men which should forever take precedence over all other human relationships. And he emphasized that this intimate spiritual fellowship was to be extended to all men of all ages and of all social conditions among all peoples. (p1593:6 141:7.5)
BradlyParticipant
Apr 14, 2016, 3:44 PM
Greetings fellow truthseekers!!

Zuimon – It is apparent you have given much thought to your belief set and life perspective regarding source and destiny and your relative position within your reality construct. Such thinking shows the intention to understand the nature of our being and relationship with God and creation….that’s all good!

I wish to clarify that none here, as students of the Papers, have any need to convince or convert anyone to believe the Papers are what the authors claim nor even factual in their presentation of cosmology. We must all believe what we believe and do what we choose and will with our personal perspective of source, destiny, purpose, and priority. All students come to the UB with such a set of personalized beliefs based on their own experience in life, in learning, in feeling and thinking, and with the Divine Ministering Spirits within. At UB study groups, like this one, the central focus held in common is the teachings given and facts of cosmology provided IN the UB and how those are both experienced and expressed in our daily walk.

So this, and all, discussion is not about what you or any other should believe – but simply what is within the Papers. The UB says what it says and does not say what it does not. We study what it says. Those who disagree with what it says are welcome for which student ever agreed with everything in the text when first approaching or reading it even more than once? Not me. I read it twice before the various threads of the teachings began to become the cloth of the integrated whole in mind and the individual threads could be seen running through the entire weave in patterns that convinced me of its value as the meanings became clearer as expressed in my life’s daily walk and inner life with God.

Like all other students I have met, the UB was not my first rodeo in my truthseeking. And I know that truth may be found everywhere if one can but discern it as we all have in many other words and deeds and decisions and relationships and results of our free will choices. The UB is no straw for the drowning one or quick fix and solution to life’s ills by merely reading its facts and truths. It takes courage to learn and to live according to our highest ideals….those ideals must come first. Every seasoned truth seeker knows there is more to know and the limits of our understanding cannot be transcended by tightly gripping that which is believed or “known” – there is no humility and no hunger in those who think they have everything they need.

I have previously posted both the mind poisons and the fruits of the spirit as listed in the Papers. I well knew those prior to ever touching a UB….and so does most of humanity. Am I happy and hopeful and useful and loved? If not, my beliefs, faith, and choices are not in alignment with reality. Am I fearful or angry or self absorbed and self indulgent and unhappy? If so, then my beliefs, faith, and choices fail me. The proof of rightness and righteousness is in the pudding as they say. The mind poisons prevent happiness and progress while the love of and for God and all those in creation leads to the reality of our very being. An honest and sincere truth seeker knows this without ever knowing of or reading the UB.

140:5.6 (1573.8) The faith and the love of these beatitudes strengthen moral character and create happiness. Fear and anger weaken character and destroy happiness. This momentous sermon started out upon the note of happiness.

140:5.7 (1573.9) 1. “Happy are the poor in spirit — the humble.” To a child, happiness is the satisfaction of immediate pleasure craving. The adult is willing to sow seeds of self-denial in order to reap subsequent harvests of augmented happiness. In Jesus’ times and since, happiness has all too often been associated with the idea of the possession of wealth. In the story of the Pharisee and the publican praying in the temple, the one felt rich in spirit — egotistical; the other felt “poor in spirit” — humble. One was self-sufficient; the other was teachable and truth-seeking. The poor in spirit seek for goals of spiritual wealth — for God. And such seekers after truth do not have to wait for rewards in a distant future; they are rewarded now. They find the kingdom of heaven within their own hearts, and they experience such happiness now.

140:5.8 (1574.1) 2. “Happy are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” Only those who feel poor in spirit will ever hunger for righteousness. Only the humble seek for divine strength and crave spiritual power. But it is most dangerous to knowingly engage in spiritual fasting in order to improve one’s appetite for spiritual endowments. Physical fasting becomes dangerous after four or five days; one is apt to lose all desire for food. Prolonged fasting, either physical or spiritual, tends to destroy hunger.

140:5.9 (1574.2) Experiential righteousness is a pleasure, not a duty. Jesus’ righteousness is a dynamic love — fatherly-brotherly affection. It is not the negative or thou-shalt-not type of righteousness. How could one ever hunger for something negative — something “not to do”?

"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
Apr 14, 2016, 4:25 PM
Thanks Bonita!! What an illuminating compilation!

I’d like to share an ancient Zen truth I discovered long ago before I was handed a UB, a truth verified in the UB:

Things are not as they appear….and neither are they different!

Universe reality is not as it appears to ANY mortal mind due to its inherent limitations. Is there eternity? Who is God? How do I survive mortality? (and so many more) The limits of mortal mind, or even morontia mind, cannot possibly grasp such realities of totality from our perspective and experience. Even the authors of the Papers claim unknown mysteries of their own. So no matter our knowledge of things, things are not as they appear to us for there is always MORE than what appears or is apparent to us no matter how accurate our current knowledge may be. Accuracy is not totality. Inaccuracy is even more confusing and daunting to overcome….for some.

And yet, the reality that does appear to us is the only reality or the appearance of how things “are” that we have or can have. So reality as it appears to us is the reality we know. What we may know is not complete (and often quite inaccurate) but it is all that we know….now.

This is where the mind poison of prejudice comes into play. If we accept that we do not know everything about reality but cling to what we think we “know” as absolute or complete, we are being self deceptive and childish. For those of us who have come to believe the claims of the authors, the UB presents facts and truths to reduce such confusions and eliminate errors – a new perspective of reality which answers many questions and brings clarity of focus on that which we can know and apply of universe reality in this life here and now. But it clearly confirms the truth that the time and space adventure is progressive, experiential, and ever expanding our ability to learn more, understand more, and express more of reality as we ascend in our spirit careers.

How things “appear” changes constantly for the sincere truth seeker because of the progressive and experiential nature of universe education and spirit progress. It is a grave error to believe things are as they appear at any stage of mortal progression and in the ascension career because…..the more we come to know, the larger reality becomes perpetually leaving us with more yet to know!! Impressively, this holds true for students of the Revelation too….every reading reveals more truth and meaning as we grow in the Spirit and in the experience of living and choosing and loving. The UB is not a static collection of words but offers a dynamic approach to living and realization and understanding by the experience of living truthfully and sincerely as God’s child among all God’s children.

This is why we are taught to embrace living, learning, sharing, and teaching and to not fear confusion and uncertainty as we confidently trust God in purpose, plan, and power in this friendly universe to transcend what we know today and anticipate what we are about to learn next!! Life is good. Fear not. Love one another. And all truth will be revealed in its time on the pilgrim’s path to Paradise!

Please excuse my exuberance….can’t help myself.

"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."
GeneParticipant
Apr 14, 2016, 9:56 PM
Anyone mention faith yet?

can I toss in a quote that ties faith to truth, the title of this thread?

this is from paper 101.8

Belief has attained the level of faith when it motivates life and shapes the mode of living. The acceptance of a teaching as true is not faith; that is mere belief. Neither is certainty nor conviction faith. A state of mind attains to faith levels only when it actually dominates the mode of living. Faith is a living attribute of genuine personal religious experience. One believes truth, admires beauty, and reverences goodness, but does not worship them; such an attitude of saving faith is centered on God alone, who is all of these personified and infinitely more.

It’s telling us to do something with what we learn from all of those spiritual Influences that get through our barriers, no?

doing something is Unselfish service, the real nature of religion.
BonitaParticipant
Apr 14, 2016, 10:24 PM

Gene wrote: Anyone mention faith yet?

Yeah, you did on March 29, 2016 at 1:05 pm, remember?

Gene wrote: What say you about how faith may fit into all of this TBG stuff?

I know both Rick and I responded.
GeneParticipant
Apr 14, 2016, 10:41 PM
Failing memory circuits

sorry
ZuimonParticipant
Apr 15, 2016, 5:53 AM
Bonita:

Wow Zui, you really exposed your underbelly in that last post. I can see that you’re not really interested in TUB, and that’s okay. Your feelings are taking you elsewhere and I’m sure you will follow your feelings. So, I don’t see any sense in showing you what’s in the book if you’re already decided it’s a bunch of hooey.

You are right Bonita, I did expose my underbelly and on purpose. And it’s not that I’m not really interested in TUB, I am, I love it, and funnily enough even more so for having spoken with you all; however I also feel now that I have put it more into an understandable perspective for myself, again for which I am grateful for your help, but I don’t think you’d want to hear just what that perspective is. I have realised more that I am Off Topic, I can’t relate to it, or much else in life for that matter, that’s not off topic. So I will let it go.

So I think I will take my cue and bow out. I am sorry that I disturbed Rick’s thread. I don’t feel any further need for myself to start new threads as it hurts my head too much to get my mind around all the mental stuff. Feelings are becoming far easier for me to deal with, and as far as I’m concerned, they are providing me with all the truth I need, my mind can hardly keep up with them.

So thank you all for your time and your comments. I’ve been asking Bob about what he reckons, and although being PRE-personality, he is more than ready to adopt my personality a little ahead of time, helping me to understand much of what my feelings are pushing me to look at.

And so with once last parting thought I would ask: Don’t you think Jesus acted upon his feelings, don’t you think he was lead by them, and that he allowed himself to go with them? For after all, once his indwelling spirit was personalised and left him, all he had was his own thoughts and feelings.

And Bonita, when you tire of your mind realising that it’s not actually providing you with the truth that satisfies your deeper needs, and want to look more to your feelings for their truth, it will be a pleasure working with you, so please don’t hesitate to look me up at Divine Love Spirituality.

So thank you all again, goodbye,

Zuimon.
BonitaParticipant
Apr 15, 2016, 10:38 AM

Zuimon wrote: And Bonita, when you tire of your mind realising that it’s not actually providing you with the truth that satisfies your deeper needs, and want to look more to your feelings for their truth, it will be a pleasure working with you, so please don’t hesitate to look me up at Divine Love Spirituality.

Goodbye Zui and Bob. Thanks for sharing your story. So is your real name James Moncrief then? Are you the guy who writes all the stuff on the Divine Love Spirituality web site? James says he has conversations with God and writes them all down. Do you do that? Is that you? Is that where your theological ideas come from? Just curious. If so, I can certainly understand why you can’t wrap your mind around TUB. It makes a lot of sense that it would be tiring. That’s okay. It seems like you’re very happy with your religion and I would never suggest changing something that is working for you. All the best and thanks for a good chat even though it was mostly off topic. I’m pretty sure Rick doesn’t mind. I was only thinking of him and his feelings.
BonitaParticipant
Apr 15, 2016, 10:49 AM

Gene wrote: Failing memory circuits . . . sorry

No need to be sorry. Nigel is suffering from a similar problem, you’re not alone. I was just wondering if you remembered what Rick and I posted about truth and faith back then. Thought you might want to go back and take a look at it. But obviously, whatever we said didn’t satisfy your question because it came up again. So, I guess I’m sorry for not developing the idea better or in a more satisfying way. Not that I’m actually capable of doing that, but I always try to help if possible.

You mentioned truth leading to service. Do you remember this quote about acting out truth?

p42:7 2:7.6 Intellectual self-consciousness can discover the beauty of truth, its spiritual quality, not only by the philosophic consistency of its concepts, but more certainly and surely by the unerring response of the ever-present Spirit of Truth. Happiness ensues from the recognition of truth because it can be acted out; it can be lived. Disappointment and sorrow attend upon error because, not being a reality, it cannot be realized in experience. Divine truth is best known by its spiritual flavor.
Richard E WarrenParticipant
Apr 15, 2016, 11:40 AM
One memorable line in the UB suggests to truly know a thing, being or concept, then origin, history and destiny must be considered. Truth comes from God, circulates, and returns, like all else–except evil.

Truth’s history here on Urantia surely began after Andon and Fonta were Adjustered. No doubt truth, beauty and goodness were taught in the first epoch, at Dalamatia, since they are universal standards.

…When the Planetary Prince arrives on a primitive world, the evolved religion of fear and ignorance prevails. The prince and his staff make the first revelations of higher truth and universe organization…. 52:2:3

.

Of course Adam and Eve taught truth to their children, and they taught it to humans.

.

…The children of Adam, except for four years’ attendance at the western schools, lived and worked in the “east of Eden.” They were trained intellectually until they were sixteen in accordance with the methods of the Jerusem schools. From sixteen to twenty they were taught in the Urantia schools at the other end of the Garden, serving there also as teachers in the lower grades….74:7:1

.

Then came Melchizedek. The Melchizedeks are the wise ones in Nebadon. It was them who oversaw the writing of Part 4 of UB. These are just some of the rich, eloquent, piercing statements on truth in the Melchizedek Papers. I tried to condense them so the post isn’t overly long:

.

…with approaching maturity, mankind is ripening for the appreciation of real religion, even a beginning of the revelation of truth itself…. (1003:7) 92:1.2

…the power of any idea lies, not in its certainty or truth, but rather in the vividness of its human appeal…. (1005:5) 92:3.3

…The future of Urantia will doubtless be characterized by the appearance of teachers of religious truth–the Fatherhood of God and the fraternity of all creatures…. (1010:4) 92:5.16

…It is always difficult to induce evolutionary minds suddenly to accept advanced revealed truth…. (1011:17) 92:6.19

…It is a fallacy for any group of religionists to conceive of their creed as The Truth…. (1012:4) 92:7.3

…There is not a Urantia religion that could not profitably study and assimilate the best of the truths contained in every other faith, for all contain truth…. (1012:4) 92:7.3

…religion is genuine and worth while if it fosters in the individual an experience in which the sovereignty of truth, beauty, and goodness prevails, for such is the true spiritual concept of supreme reality…. (1089:12) 99:4.4

…Truth is always a revelation: autorevelation when it emerges as a result of the work of the indwelling Adjuster; epochal revelation when it is presented by the function of some other celestial agency, group, or personality…. (1109:4) 101:4.3

…Truth may be but relatively inspired, even though revelation is invariably a spiritual phenomenon…. (1109:6) 101:4.5

…Personally revealed religions are sponsored by the bestowal spirits representing the three persons of the Paradise Trinity and are especially concerned with the expansion of truth…. (1111:1) 101:5.11

…Truth is made accessible to the wisdom-endowed individual by the bestowal on such a mind of the spirits of the Father and the Sons, the Thought Adjuster and the Spirit of Truth…. (1111:8) 101:6.4

…the revelation of truth on Urantia has all too often been mixed up with the statements of partial and transient cosmologies…. (1119:2) 102:1.3

…Truth remains unchanged from generation to generation, but the associated teachings about the physical world vary from day to day and from year to year…. (1119:2) 102:1.3

…Knowledge is an eternal quest; always are you learning, but never are you able to arrive at the full knowledge of absolute truth…. (1120:1) 102:2.4

…God is the first truth and the last fact; therefore does all truth take origin in him, while all facts exist relative to him…. (1125:1) 102:6.6

…Intelligent men should cease to reason like children and should attempt to use the consistent logic of adulthood, logic which tolerates the concept of truth alongside the observation of fact…. (1125:4) 102:6.9

…The higher any scientist progresses in his chosen science, the more will he abandon the theories of materialistic fact in favor of the cosmic truth of the dominance of the Supreme Mind…. (1125:5) 102:6.10

…Of God, the most inescapable of all presences, the most real of all facts, the most living of all truths, the most loving of all friends, and the most divine of all values, we have the right to be the most certain of all universe experiences…. (1127:4) 102:7.10

…Never, then, can either science or religion, in and of themselves, standing alone, hope to gain an adequate understanding of universal truths and relationships without the guidance of human philosophy and the illumination of divine revelation…. (1135:7) 103:6.5

…Without the insight of mota, mortal man cannot discern goodness, love, and truth in the phenomena of the material world…. (1137:3) 103:6.13

…Metaphysics has proved a failure; mota, man cannot perceive. Revelation is the only technique which can compensate for the absence of the truth sensitivity of mota in a material world…. (1136:3) 103:6.8

…The truth–an understanding of cosmic relationships, universe facts, and spiritual values–can best be had through the ministry of the Spirit of Truth and can best be criticized by revelation…. (1138:6) 103:7.8

…The pursuit of knowledge constitutes science; the search for wisdom is philosophy; the love for God is religion; the hunger for truth is a revelation…. (1122:8) 102:3.12

…Faith most willingly carries reason along as far as reason can go and then goes on with wisdom to the full philosophic limit; and then it dares to launch out upon the limitless and never-ending universe journey in the sole company of TRUTH…. (1141:5) 103:9.7

…No matter how remote from Paradise, how deep in space, a material survival personality may take origin, God the Sevenfold will be found there present and engaged in the loving and merciful ministry of truth, beauty, and goodness to such an incomplete, struggling, and evolutionary creature…. (1164:2) 106:1.3

.

Up next, a bit of Jesus’ Truth teachings.

..

Richard E Warren
GeneParticipant
Apr 15, 2016, 1:42 PM
Thanks Bonita, your very gracious

i did go back to the May 29 post and re-read, more than once. Acting out the truth that I crave to experience is indeed something that may very well be an obsession with me, and it is no easy task.

reading through Zumion outpouring and the responses got me going back there as well.

there is only so much book learning I can take, doing something with it is why it was revealed to us IMHO.
BonitaParticipant
Apr 15, 2016, 2:36 PM

Gene wrote:

there is only so much book learning I can take, doing something with it is why it was revealed to us IMHO.

Yeah. I get what you’re saying. But it’s not about doing any old thing. Doing things that make you feel good, or what you feel is good, might not be what they intended when writing it. Doing anything worthwhile (with true meaning and value) has to originate from the inner life. But I agree, you don’t need to study TUB to have a robust inner life, that’s for sure. I find that study helps me in both my inner and outer life. It works for me. It helps me think deeply, reflect, ask the universe questions and look for answers. Recognizing the reality of answers is entirely a personal experience, and acting them out is the only way to verify their reality. It’s all about the elliptic symmetry of reality. At least that’s how it is in my world.

p1220:1 111:4.2 Meanings are derived from a combination of recognition and understanding. Meanings are nonexistent in a wholly sensory or material world. Meanings and values are only perceived in the inner or supermaterial spheres of human experience.
AngelaParticipant
Apr 16, 2016, 5:55 AM
Thanks for this interesting list, Rick. Your first extract really resonates with me.

Rick Warren wrote:

One memorable line in the UB suggests to truly know a thing, being or concept, then origin, history and destiny must be considered.

The finite mind can never know a thing, being or concept. Even with revelation “reality totality” cannot be grasped. In their delivery TUB has to subject “reality totality” to “profound distortion”. ^105:0.3 ^(1152.3)

This is really humbling. But on the other hand, why would we want to. It is enough to grasp one idea, ideal and its meaning at a time and hope we get it right.

^19:1.6 ^(215.3) Even in the study of man’s biologic evolution on Urantia, there are grave objections to the exclusive historic approach to his present-day status and his current problems. The true perspective of any reality problem — human or divine, terrestrial or cosmic — can be had only by the full and unprejudiced study and correlation of three phases of universe reality: origin, history, and destiny. The proper understanding of these three experiential realities affords the basis for a wise estimate of the current status.

The more closely man approaches God through love, the greater the reality — actuality — of that man. 117:4.14 (1285.3)
Richard E WarrenParticipant
Apr 16, 2016, 11:07 AM

Angela wrote:

Thanks for this interesting list, Rick. Your first extract really resonates with me.

Rick Warren wrote:

One memorable line in the UB suggests to truly know a thing, being or concept, then origin, history and destiny must be considered.

The finite mind can never know a thing, being or concept. Even with revelation “reality totality” cannot be grasped. In their delivery TUB has to subject “reality totality” to “profound distortion”. ^105:0.3 ^(1152.3) This is really humbling. But on the other hand, why would we want to. It is enough to grasp one idea, ideal and its meaning at a time and hope we get it right.

^19:1.6 ^(215.3) Even in the study of man’s biologic evolution on Urantia, there are grave objections to the exclusive historic approach to his present-day status and his current problems. The true perspective of any reality problem — human or divine, terrestrial or cosmic — can be had only by the full and unprejudiced study and correlation of three phases of universe reality: origin, history, and destiny. The proper understanding of these three experiential realities affords the basis for a wise estimate of the current status.

You’re welcome Angela, thanks for the enlightening reply. Evidently distortion comes with the (time/space) territory. We can only have approximations of truth by pasteing ideas, ideals and meanings together, creating a values collage that reflects some measure of truth.

We know Truth’s origin–God. We know some of its history, at least here on Urantia, but we know so little of its destination. It begs the questions: Is God’s truth the same as Michael’s bestowed Spirit of Truth? Do they at some point combine, and later culminate in the Supreme Being, that living repository of all time/space value experience? If truth is a person, can we, as a planet, eventually feel, even return, truth’s full embrace? And how could that ever come about on our confused planet?

.

Richard E Warren

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