PAPER 16
THE SEVEN MASTER SPIRITS
16:0.1 THE Seven Master Spirits of Paradise are the
primary personalities of the Infinite Spirit. In this sevenfold creative act
of self-duplication the Infinite Spirit exhausted the associative
possibilities mathematically inherent in the factual existence of the three
persons of Deity. Had it been possible to produce a larger number of Master
Spirits, they would have been created, but there are just seven associative
possibilities, and only seven, inherent in three Deities. And this explains
why the universe is operated in seven grand divisions, and why the number
seven is basically fundamental in its organization and
administration.
16:0.2 The Seven Master Spirits thus have their
origin in, and derive their individual characteristics from, the following
seven likenesses:
1. The Universal Father.
2. The Eternal Son.
3. The Infinite Spirit.
4. The Father and the Son.
5. The Father and the Spirit.
6. The Son and the Spirit.
7. The Father, Son, and Spirit.
16:0.3 We know very little about the action of the
Father and the Son in the creation of the Master Spirits. Apparently they were
brought into existence by the personal acts of the Infinite Spirit, but we
have been definitely instructed that both the Father and the Son participated
in their origin.
16:0.4 In spirit character and nature these Seven
Spirits of Paradise are as one, but in all other aspects of identity they are
very unlike, and the results of their functioning in the superuniverses are
such that the individual differences of each are unmistakably discernible. All
the afterplans of the seven segments of the grand universe -- and even the
correlative segments of outer space -- have been conditioned by the
other-than-spiritual diversity of these Seven Master Spirits of supreme and
ultimate supervision.
16:0.5 The Master Spirits have many functions, but
at the present time their particular domain is the central supervision of the
seven superuniverses. Each Master Spirit maintains an enormous force-focal
headquarters, which slowly circulates around the periphery of Paradise, always
maintaining a position opposite the superuniverse of immediate supervision and
at the Paradise focal point of its specialized power control and segmental
energy distribution. The radial boundary lines of any one of the
superuniverses do actually converge at the Paradise headquarters of the
supervising Master Spirit.
1. RELATION TO TRIUNE DEITY
16:1.1 The Conjoint Creator, the Infinite Spirit, is
necessary to the completion of the triune personalization of undivided Deity.
This threefold Deity personalization is inherently sevenfold in possibility of
individual and associative expression; hence the subsequent plan to create
universes inhabited by intelligent and potentially spiritual beings, duly
expressive of the Father, Son, and Spirit, made the personalization of the
Seven Master Spirits inescapable. We have come to speak of the threefold
personalization of Deity as the absolute inevitability, while we have
come to look upon the appearance of the Seven Master Spirits as the
subabsolute inevitability.
16:1.2 While the Seven Master Spirits are hardly
expressive of threefold Deity, they are the eternal portrayal of
sevenfold Deity, the active and associative functions of the three
ever-existent persons of Deity. By and in and through these Seven Spirits, the
Universal Father, the Eternal Son, or the Infinite Spirit, or any dual
association, is able to function as such. When the Father, the Son, and the
Spirit act together, they can and do function through Master Spirit Number
Seven, but not as the Trinity. The Master Spirits singly and collectively
represent any and all possible Deity functions, single and several, but not
collective, not the Trinity. Master Spirit Number Seven is personally
nonfunctional with regard to the Paradise Trinity, and that is just why he can
function personally for the Supreme Being.
16:1.3 But when the Seven Master Spirits vacate
their individual seats of personal power and superuniverse authority and
assemble about the Conjoint Actor in the triune presence of Paradise Deity,
then and there are they collectively representative of the functional power,
wisdom, and authority of undivided Deity -- the Trinity -- to and in the
evolving universes. Such a Paradise union of the primal sevenfold expression
of Deity does actually embrace, literally encompass, all of every attribute
and attitude of the three eternal Deities in Supremacy and in Ultimacy. To all
practical intents and purposes the Seven Master Spirits do, then and there,
encompass the functional domain of the Supreme-Ultimate to and in the master
universe.
16:1.4 As far as we can discern, these Seven Spirits
are associated with the divine activities of the three eternal persons of
Deity; we detect no evidence of direct association with the functioning
presences of the three eternal phases of the Absolute. When associated, the
Master Spirits represent the Paradise Deities in what may be roughly conceived
as the finite domain of action. It might embrace much that is ultimate but not
absolute.
2. RELATION TO THE INFINITE SPIRIT
16:2.1 Just as the Eternal and Original Son is
revealed through the persons of the constantly increasing number of divine
Sons, so is the Infinite and Divine Spirit revealed through the channels of
the Seven Master Spirits and their associated spirit groups. At the center of
centers the Infinite Spirit is approachable, but not all who attain Paradise
are immediately able to discern his personality and differentiated presence;
but all who attain the central universe can and do immediately commune with
one of the Seven Master Spirits, the one presiding over the superuniverse from
which the newly arrived space pilgrim hails.
16:2.2 To the universe of universes the Paradise
Father speaks only through his Son, while he and the Son conjointly act only
through the Infinite Spirit. Outside of Paradise and Havona the Infinite
Spirit speaks only by the voices of the Seven Master Spirits.
16:2.3 The Infinite Spirit exerts an influence of
personal presence within the confines of the Paradise-Havona system;
elsewhere his personal spirit presence is exerted by and through one of the
Seven Master Spirits. Therefore is the superuniverse spirit presence of the
Third Source and Center on any world or in any individual conditioned by the
unique nature of the supervisory Master Spirit of that segment of creation.
Conversely, the combined lines of spirit force and intelligence pass inward to
the Third Person of Deity by way of the Seven Master Spirits.
16:2.4 The Seven Master Spirits are collectively
endowed with the supreme-ultimate attributes of the Third Source and Center.
While each one individually partakes of this endowment, only collectively do
they disclose the attributes of omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. No
one of them can so function universally; as individuals and in the exercise of
these powers of supremacy and ultimacy each is personally limited to the
superuniverse of immediate supervision.
16:2.5 All of everything which has been told you
concerning the divinity and personality of the Conjoint Actor applies equally
and fully to the Seven Master Spirits, who so effectively distribute the
Infinite Spirit to the seven segments of the grand universe in accordance with
their divine endowment and in the manner of their differing and individually
unique natures. It would therefore be proper to apply to the collective group
of seven any or all of the names of the Infinite Spirit. Collectively they are
one with the Conjoint Creator on all subabsolute levels.
3. IDENTITY AND DIVERSITY OF THE MASTER SPIRITS
16:3.1 The Seven Master Spirits are indescribable
beings, but they are distinctly and definitely personal. They have names, but
we elect to introduce them by number. As primary personalizations of the
Infinite Spirit, they are akin, but as primary expressions of the seven
possible associations of triune Deity, they are essentially diverse in nature,
and this diversity of nature determines their differential of superuniverse
conduct. These Seven Master Spirits may be described as follows:
16:3.2 Master Spirit Number One. In a special
manner this Spirit is the direct representation of the Paradise Father. He is
a peculiar and efficient manifestation of the power, love, and wisdom of the
Universal Father. He is the close associate and supernal adviser of the chief
of Mystery Monitors, that being who presides over the College of Personalized
Adjusters on Divinington. In all associations of the Seven Master Spirits, it
is always Master Spirit Number One who speaks for the Universal
Father.
16:3.3 This Spirit presides over the first
superuniverse and, while unfailingly exhibiting the divine nature of a primary
personalization of the Infinite Spirit, seems more especially to resemble the
Universal Father in character. He is always in personal liaison with the seven
Reflective Spirits at the headquarters of the first superuniverse.
16:3.4 Master Spirit Number Two. This Spirit
adequately portrays the matchless nature and charming character of the Eternal
Son, the first-born of all creation. He is always in close association with
all orders of the Sons of God whenever they may happen to be in the
residential universe as individuals or in joyous conclave. In all the
assemblies of the Seven Master Spirits he always speaks for, and in behalf of,
the Eternal Son.
16:3.5 This Spirit directs the destinies of
superuniverse number two and rules this vast domain much as would the Eternal
Son. He is always in liaison with the seven Reflective Spirits situated at the
capital of the second superuniverse.
16:3.6 Master Spirit Number Three. This
Spirit personality especially resembles the Infinite Spirit, and he directs
the movements and work of many of the high personalities of the Infinite
Spirit. He presides over their assemblies and is closely associated with all
personalities who take exclusive origin in the Third Source and Center. When
the Seven Master Spirits are in council, it is Master Spirit Number Three who
always speaks for the Infinite Spirit.
16:3.7 This Spirit is in charge of superuniverse
number three, and he administers the affairs of this segment much as would the
Infinite Spirit. He is always in liaison with the Reflective Spirits at the
headquarters of the third superuniverse.
16:3.8 Master Spirit Number Four. Partaking
of the combined natures of the Father and the Son, this Master Spirit is the
determining influence regarding Father-Son policies and procedures in the
councils of the Seven Master Spirits. This Spirit is the chief director and
adviser of those ascendant beings who have attained the Infinite Spirit and
thus have become candidates for seeing the Son and the Father. He fosters that
enormous group of personalities taking origin in the Father and the Son. When
it becomes necessary to represent the Father and the Son in the association of
the Seven Master Spirits, it is always Master Spirit Number Four who
speaks.
16:3.9 This Spirit fosters the fourth segment of the
grand universe in accordance with his peculiar association of the attributes
of the Universal Father and the Eternal Son. He is always in personal liaison
with the Reflective Spirits of the headquarters of the fourth superuniverse.
16:3.10 Master Spirit Number Five. This
divine personality who exquisitely blends the character of the Universal
Father and the Infinite Spirit is the adviser of that enormous group of beings
known as the power directors, power centers, and physical controllers. This
Spirit also fosters all personalities taking origin in the Father and the
Conjoint Actor. In the councils of the Seven Master Spirits, when the
Father-Spirit attitude is in question, it is always Master Spirit Number Five
who speaks.
16:3.11 This Spirit directs the welfare of the fifth
superuniverse in such a way as to suggest the combined action of the Universal
Father and the Infinite Spirit. He is always in liaison with the Reflective
Spirits at the headquarters of the fifth superuniverse.
16:3.12 Master Spirit Number Six. This divine
being seems to portray the combined character of the Eternal Son and the
Infinite Spirit. Whenever the creatures jointly created by the Son and the
Spirit forgather in the central universe, it is this Master Spirit who is
their adviser; and whenever, in the councils of the Seven Master Spirits, it
becomes necessary to speak conjointly for the Eternal Son and the Infinite
Spirit, it is Master Spirit Number Six who responds.
16:3.13 This Spirit directs the affairs of the sixth
superuniverse much as would the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit. He is
always in liaison with the Reflective Spirits at the headquarters of the sixth
superuniverse.
16:3.14 Master Spirit Number Seven. The
presiding Spirit of the seventh superuniverse is a uniquely equal portrayal of
the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit. The Seventh
Spirit, the fostering adviser of all triune-origin beings, is also the adviser
and director of all the ascending pilgrims of Havona, those lowly beings who
have attained the courts of glory through the combined ministry of the Father,
the Son, and the Spirit.
16:3.15 The Seventh Master Spirit is not organically
representative of the Paradise Trinity; but it is a known fact that his
personal and spiritual nature is the Conjoint Actor's portraiture in equal
proportions of the three infinite persons whose Deity union is the Paradise
Trinity, and whose function as such is the source of the personal and
spiritual nature of God the Supreme. Hence the Seventh Master Spirit discloses
a personal and organic relationship to the spirit person of the evolving
Supreme. Therefore in the Master Spirit councils on high, when it becomes
necessary to cast the ballot for the combined personal attitude of the Father,
Son, and Spirit or to depict the spiritual attitude of the Supreme Being, it
is Master Spirit Number Seven who functions. He thus inherently becomes the
presiding head of the Paradise council of the Seven Master Spirits.
16:3.16 No one of the Seven Spirits is organically
representative of the Paradise Trinity, but when they unite as sevenfold
Deity, this union in a deity sense -- not in a personal sense -- equivalates
to a functional level associable with Trinity functions. In this sense the
"Sevenfold Spirit" is functionally associable with the Paradise Trinity. It is
also in this sense that Master Spirit Number Seven sometimes speaks in
confirmation of Trinity attitudes or, rather, acts as spokesman for the
attitude of the Sevenfold-Spirit-union regarding the attitude of the
Threefold-Deity-union, the attitude of the Paradise Trinity.
16:3.17 The multiple functions of the Seventh Master
Spirit thus range from a combined portraiture of the personal natures
of the Father, Son, and Spirit, through a representation of the personal
attitude of God the Supreme, to a disclosure of the deity attitude
of the Paradise Trinity. And in certain respects this presiding Spirit is
similarly expressive of the attitudes of the Ultimate and of the
Supreme-Ultimate.
16:3.18 It is Master Spirit Number Seven who, in his
multiple capacities, personally sponsors the progress of the ascension
candidates from the worlds of time in their attempts to achieve comprehension
of the undivided Deity of Supremacy. Such comprehension involves a grasp of
the existential sovereignty of the Trinity of Supremacy so co-ordinated with a
concept of the growing experiential sovereignty of the Supreme Being as to
constitute the creature grasp of the unity of Supremacy. Creature realization
of these three factors equals Havona comprehension of Trinity reality and
endows the pilgrims of time with the ability eventually to penetrate the
Trinity, to discover the three infinite persons of Deity.
16:3.19 The inability of the Havona pilgrims fully
to find God the Supreme is compensated by the Seventh Master Spirit, whose
triune nature in such a peculiar manner is revelatory of the spirit person of
the Supreme. During the present universe age of the noncontactability of the
person of the Supreme, Master Spirit Number Seven functions in the place of
the God of ascendant creatures in the matter of personal relationships. He is
the one high spirit being that all ascenders are certain to recognize and
somewhat comprehend when they reach the centers of glory.
16:3.20 This Master Spirit is always in liaison with
the Reflective Spirits of Uversa, the headquarters of the seventh
superuniverse, our own segment of creation. His administration of Orvonton
discloses the marvelous symmetry of the co-ordinate blending of the divine
natures of Father, Son, and Spirit.
4. ATTRIBUTES AND FUNCTIONS OF THE MASTER SPIRITS
16:4.1 The Seven Master Spirits are the full
representation of the Infinite Spirit to the evolutionary universes. They
represent the Third Source and Center in the relationships of energy, mind,
and spirit. While they function as the co-ordinating heads of the universal
administrative control of the Conjoint Actor, do not forget that they have
their origin in the creative acts of the Paradise Deities. It is literally
true that these Seven Spirits are the personalized physical power, cosmic
mind, and spiritual presence of the triune Deity, "the Seven Spirits of God
sent forth to all the universe."
16:4.2 The Master Spirits are unique in that they
function on all universe levels of reality excepting the absolute. They are,
therefore, efficient and perfect supervisors of all phases of administrative
affairs on all levels of superuniverse activities. It is difficult for the
mortal mind to understand very much about the Master Spirits because their
work is so highly specialized yet all-embracing, so exceptionally material and
at the same time so exquisitely spiritual. These versatile creators of the
cosmic mind are the ancestors of the Universe Power Directors and are,
themselves, supreme directors of the vast and far-flung spirit-creature
creation.
16:4.3 The Seven Master Spirits are the creators of
the Universe Power Directors and their associates, entities who are
indispensable to the organization, control, and regulation of the physical
energies of the grand universe. And these same Master Spirits very materially
assist the Creator Sons in the work of shaping and organizing the local
universes.
16:4.4 We are unable to trace any personal
connection between the cosmic-energy work of the Master Spirits and the force
functions of the Unqualified Absolute. The energy manifestations under the
jurisdiction of the Master Spirits are all directed from the periphery of
Paradise; they do not appear to be in any direct manner associated with the
force phenomena identified with the nether surface of Paradise.
16:4.5 Unquestionably, when we encounter the
functional activities of the various Morontia Power Supervisors, we are face
to face with certain of the unrevealed activities of the Master Spirits. Who,
aside from these ancestors of both physical controllers and spirit ministers,
could have contrived so to combine and associate material and spiritual
energies as to produce a hitherto nonexistent phase of universe reality --
morontia substance and morontia mind?
16:4.6 Much of the reality of the spiritual worlds
is of the morontia order, a phase of universe reality wholly unknown on
Urantia. The goal of personality existence is spiritual, but the morontia
creations always intervene, bridging the gulf between the material realms of
mortal origin and the superuniverse spheres of advancing spiritual status. It
is in this realm that the Master Spirits make their great contribution to the
plan of man's Paradise ascension.
16:4.7 The Seven Master Spirits have personal
representatives who function throughout the grand universe; but since a large
majority of these subordinate beings are not directly concerned with the
ascendant scheme of mortal progression in the path of Paradise perfection,
little or nothing has been revealed about them. Much, very much, of the
activity of the Seven Master Spirits remains hidden from human understanding
because in no way does it directly pertain to your problem of Paradise ascent.
16:4.8 It is highly probable, though we cannot offer
definite proof, that the Master Spirit of Orvonton exerts a decided influence
in the following spheres of activity:
16:4.9 1. The life-initiation procedures of the
local universe Life Carriers.
16:4.10 2. The life activations of the adjutant
mind-spirits bestowed upon the worlds by a local universe Creative
Spirit.
16:4.11 3. The fluctuations in energy manifestations
exhibited by the linear-gravity-responding units of organized
matter.
16:4.12 4. The behavior of emergent energy when
fully liberated from the grasp of the Unqualified Absolute, thus becoming
responsive to the direct influence of linear gravity and to the manipulations
of the Universe Power Directors and their associates.
16:4.13 5. The bestowal of the ministry spirit of a
local universe Creative Spirit, known on Urantia as the Holy
Spirit.
16:4.14 6. The subsequent bestowal of the spirit of
the bestowal Sons, on Urantia called the Comforter or the Spirit of
Truth.
16:4.15 7. The reflectivity mechanism of the local
universes and the superuniverse. Many features connected with this
extraordinary phenomenon can hardly be reasonably explained or rationally
understood without postulating the activity of the Master Spirits in
association with the Conjoint Actor and the Supreme Being.
16:4.16 Notwithstanding our failure adequately to
comprehend the manifold workings of the Seven Master Spirits, we are confident
there are two realms in the vast range of universe activities with which they
have nothing whatever to do: the bestowal and ministry of the Thought
Adjusters and the inscrutable functions of the Unqualified
Absolute.
5. RELATION TO CREATURES
16:5.1 Each segment of the grand universe, each
individual universe and world, enjoys the benefits of the united counsel and
wisdom of all Seven Master Spirits but receives the personal touch and tinge
of only one. And the personal nature of each Master Spirit entirely pervades
and uniquely conditions his superuniverse.
16:5.2 Through this personal influence of the Seven
Master Spirits every creature of every order of intelligent beings, outside of
Paradise and Havona, must bear the characteristic stamp of individuality
indicative of the ancestral nature of some one of these Seven Paradise
Spirits. As concerns the seven superuniverses, each native creature, man or
angel, will forever bear this badge of natal identification.
16:5.3 The Seven Master Spirits do not directly
invade the material minds of the individual creatures on the evolutionary
worlds of space. The mortals of Urantia do not experience the personal
presence of the mind-spirit influence of the Master Spirit of Orvonton. If
this Master Spirit does attain any sort of contact with the individual mortal
mind during the earlier evolutionary ages of an inhabited world, it must occur
through the ministry of the local universe Creative Spirit, the consort and
associate of the Creator Son of God who presides over the destinies of each
local creation. But this very Creative Mother Spirit is, in nature and
character, quite like the Master Spirit of Orvonton.
16:5.4 The physical stamp of a Master Spirit is a
part of man's material origin. The entire morontia career is lived under the
continuing influence of this same Master Spirit. It is hardly strange that the
subsequent spirit career of such an ascending mortal never fully eradicates
the characteristic stamp of this same supervising Spirit. The impress of a
Master Spirit is basic to the very existence of every pre-Havona stage of
mortal ascension.
16:5.5 The distinctive personality trends exhibited
in the life experience of evolutionary mortals, which are characteristic in
each superuniverse, and which are directly expressive of the nature of the
dominating Master Spirit, are never fully effaced, not even after such
ascenders are subjected to the long training and unifying discipline
encountered on the one billion educational spheres of Havona. Even the
subsequent intense Paradise culture does not suffice to eradicate the earmarks
of superuniverse origin. Throughout all eternity an ascendant mortal will
exhibit traits indicative of the presiding Spirit of his superuniverse of
nativity. Even in the Corps of the Finality, when it is desired to arrive at
or to portray a complete Trinity relationship to the evolutionary
creation, always a group of seven finaliters is assembled, one from each
superuniverse.
6. THE COSMIC MIND
16:6.1 The Master Spirits are the sevenfold source
of the cosmic mind, the intellectual potential of the grand universe. This
cosmic mind is a subabsolute manifestation of the mind of the Third Source and
Center and, in certain ways, is functionally related to the mind of the
evolving Supreme Being.
16:6.2 On a world like Urantia we do not encounter
the direct influence of the Seven Master Spirits in the affairs of the human
races. You live under the immediate influence of the Creative Spirit of
Nebadon. Nevertheless these same Master Spirits dominate the basic reactions
of all creature mind because they are the actual sources of the intellectual
and spiritual potentials which have been specialized in the local universes
for function in the lives of those individuals who inhabit the evolutionary
worlds of time and space.
16:6.3 The fact of the cosmic mind explains the
kinship of various types of human and superhuman minds. Not only are kindred
spirits attracted to each other, but kindred minds are also very fraternal and
inclined towards co-operation the one with the other. Human minds are
sometimes observed to be running in channels of astonishing similarity and
inexplicable agreement.
16:6.4 There exists in all personality associations
of the cosmic mind a quality which might be denominated the "reality
response." It is this universal cosmic endowment of will creatures which saves
them from becoming helpless victims of the implied a priori assumptions of
science, philosophy, and religion. This reality sensitivity of the cosmic mind
responds to certain phases of reality just as energy-material responds to
gravity. It would be still more correct to say that these supermaterial
realities so respond to the mind of the cosmos.
16:6.5 The cosmic mind unfailingly responds
(recognizes response) on three levels of universe reality. These responses are
self-evident to clear-reasoning and deep-thinking minds. These levels of
reality are:
16:6.6 1. Causation -- the reality domain of
the physical senses, the scientific realms of logical uniformity, the
differentiation of the factual and the nonfactual, reflective conclusions
based on cosmic response. This is the mathematical form of the cosmic
discrimination.
16:6.7 2. Duty -- the reality domain of
morals in the philosophic realm, the arena of reason, the recognition of
relative right and wrong. This is the judicial form of the cosmic
discrimination.
16:6.8 3. Worship -- the spiritual domain of
the reality of religious experience, the personal realization of divine
fellowship, the recognition of spirit values, the assurance of eternal
survival, the ascent from the status of servants of God to the joy and liberty
of the sons of God. This is the highest insight of the cosmic mind, the
reverential and worshipful form of the cosmic discrimination.
16:6.9 These scientific, moral, and spiritual
insights, these cosmic responses, are innate in the cosmic mind, which endows
all will creatures. The experience of living never fails to develop these
three cosmic intuitions; they are constitutive in the self-consciousness of
reflective thinking. But it is sad to record that so few persons on Urantia
take delight in cultivating these qualities of courageous and independent
cosmic thinking.
16:6.10 In the local universe mind bestowals, these
three insights of the cosmic mind constitute the a priori assumptions which
make it possible for man to function as a rational and self-conscious
personality in the realms of science, philosophy, and religion. Stated
otherwise, the recognition of the reality of these three manifestations
of the Infinite is by a cosmic technique of self-revelation. Matter-energy is
recognized by the mathematical logic of the senses; mind-reason intuitively
knows its moral duty; spirit-faith (worship) is the religion of the reality of
spiritual experience. These three basic factors in reflective thinking may be
unified and co-ordinated in personality development, or they may become
disproportionate and virtually unrelated in their respective functions. But
when they become unified, they produce a strong character consisting in the
correlation of a factual science, a moral philosophy, and a genuine religious
experience. And it is these three cosmic intuitions that give objective
validity, reality, to man's experience in and with things, meanings, and
values.
16:6.11 It is the purpose of education to develop
and sharpen these innate endowments of the human mind; of civilization to
express them; of life experience to realize them; of religion to ennoble them;
and of personality to unify them.
7. MORALS, VIRTUE, AND PERSONALITY
16:7.1 Intelligence alone cannot explain the moral
nature. Morality, virtue, is indigenous to human personality. Moral intuition,
the realization of duty, is a component of human mind endowment and is
associated with the other inalienables of human nature: scientific curiosity
and spiritual insight. Man's mentality far transcends that of his animal
cousins, but it is his moral and religious natures that especially distinguish
him from the animal world.
16:7.2 The selective response of an animal is
limited to the motor level of behavior. The supposed insight of the higher
animals is on a motor level and usually appears only after the experience of
motor trial and error. Man is able to exercise scientific, moral, and
spiritual insight prior to all exploration or experimentation.
16:7.3 Only a personality can know what it is doing
before it does it; only personalities possess insight in advance of
experience. A personality can look before it leaps and can therefore learn
from looking as well as from leaping. A nonpersonal animal ordinarily learns
only by leaping.
16:7.4 As a result of experience an animal becomes
able to examine the different ways of attaining a goal and to select an
approach based on accumulated experience. But a personality can also examine
the goal itself and pass judgment on its worth-whileness, its value.
Intelligence alone can discriminate as to the best means of attaining
indiscriminate ends, but a moral being possesses an insight which enables him
to discriminate between ends as well as between means. And a moral being in
choosing virtue is nonetheless intelligent. He knows what he is doing, why he
is doing it, where he is going, and how he will get there.
16:7.5 When man fails to discriminate the ends of
his mortal striving, he finds himself functioning on the animal level of
existence. He has failed to avail himself of the superior advantages of that
material acumen, moral discrimination, and spiritual insight which are an
integral part of his cosmic-mind endowment as a personal being.
16:7.6 Virtue is righteousness -- conformity with
the cosmos. To name virtues is not to define them, but to live them is to know
them. Virtue is not mere knowledge nor yet wisdom but rather the reality of
progressive experience in the attainment of ascending levels of cosmic
achievement. In the day-by-day life of mortal man, virtue is realized by the
consistent choosing of good rather than evil, and such choosing ability is
evidence of the possession of a moral nature.
16:7.7 Man's choosing between good and evil is
influenced, not only by the keenness of his moral nature, but also by such
influences as ignorance, immaturity, and delusion. A sense of proportion is
also concerned in the exercise of virtue because evil may be perpetrated when
the lesser is chosen in the place of the greater as a result of distortion or
deception. The art of relative estimation or comparative measurement enters
into the practice of the virtues of the moral realm.
16:7.8 Man's moral nature would be impotent without
the art of measurement, the discrimination embodied in his ability to
scrutinize meanings. Likewise would moral choosing be futile without that
cosmic insight which yields the consciousness of spiritual values. From the
standpoint of intelligence, man ascends to the level of a moral being because
he is endowed with personality.
16:7.9 Morality can never be advanced by law or by
force. It is a personal and freewill matter and must be disseminated by the
contagion of the contact of morally fragrant persons with those who are less
morally responsive, but who are also in some measure desirous of doing the
Father's will.
16:7.10 Moral acts are those human performances
which are characterized by the highest intelligence, directed by selective
discrimination in the choice of superior ends as well as in the selection of
moral means to attain these ends. Such conduct is virtuous. Supreme virtue,
then, is wholeheartedly to choose to do the will of the Father in heaven.
8. URANTIA PERSONALITY
16:8.1 The Universal Father bestows personality upon
numerous orders of beings as they function on diverse levels of universe
actuality. Urantia human beings are endowed with personality of the
finite-mortal type, functioning on the level of the ascending sons of
God.
16:8.2 Though we can hardly undertake to define
personality, we may attempt to narrate our understanding of the known factors
which go to make up the ensemble of material, mental, and spiritual energies
whose interassociation constitutes the mechanism wherein and whereon and
wherewith the Universal Father causes his bestowed personality to
function.
16:8.3 Personality is a unique endowment of original
nature whose existence is independent of, and antecedent to, the bestowal of
the Thought Adjuster. Nevertheless, the presence of the Adjuster does augment
the qualitative manifestation of personality. Thought Adjusters, when they
come forth from the Father, are identical in nature, but personality is
diverse, original, and exclusive; and the manifestation of personality is
further conditioned and qualified by the nature and qualities of the
associated energies of a material, mindal, and spiritual nature which
constitute the organismal vehicle for personality manifestation.
16:8.4 Personalities may be similar, but they are
never the same. Persons of a given series, type, order, or pattern may and do
resemble one another, but they are never identical. Personality is that
feature of an individual which we know, and which enables us to
identify such a being at some future time regardless of the nature and extent
of changes in form, mind, or spirit status. Personality is that part of any
individual which enables us to recognize and positively identify that person
as the one we have previously known, no matter how much he may have changed
because of the modification of the vehicle of expression and manifestation of
his personality.
16:8.5 Creature personality is distinguished by two
self-manifesting and characteristic phenomena of mortal reactive behavior:
self-consciousness and associated relative free will.
16:8.6 Self-consciousness consists in intellectual
awareness of personality actuality; it includes the ability to recognize the
reality of other personalities. It indicates capacity for individualized
experience in and with cosmic realities, equivalating to the attainment of
identity status in the personality relationships of the universe.
Self-consciousness connotes recognition of the actuality of mind ministration
and the realization of relative independence of creative and determinative
free will.
16:8.7 The relative free will which characterizes
the self-consciousness of human personality is involved in:
1. Moral decision, highest wisdom.
2. Spiritual choice, truth discernment.
3. Unselfish love, brotherhood service.
4. Purposeful co-operation, group loyalty.
5. Cosmic insight, the grasp of universe meanings.
6. Personality dedication, wholehearted devotion
to doing the Father's will.
7. Worship, the sincere pursuit of divine values
and the wholehearted love of the divine Value-Giver.
16:8.8 The Urantia type of human personality may be
viewed as functioning in a physical mechanism consisting of the planetary
modification of the Nebadon type of organism belonging to the electrochemical
order of life activation and endowed with the Nebadon order of the Orvonton
series of the cosmic mind of parental reproductive pattern. The bestowal of
the divine gift of personality upon such a mind-endowed mortal mechanism
confers the dignity of cosmic citizenship and enables such a mortal creature
forthwith to become reactive to the constitutive recognition of the three
basic mind realities of the cosmos:
1. The mathematical or logical recognition of the
uniformity of physical causation.
2. The reasoned recognition of the obligation of
moral conduct.
3. The faith-grasp of the fellowship worship of
Deity, associated with the loving service of humanity.
16:8.9 The full function of such a personality
endowment is the beginning realization of Deity kinship. Such a selfhood,
indwelt by a prepersonal fragment of God the Father, is in truth and in fact a
spiritual son of God. Such a creature not only discloses capacity for the
reception of the gift of the divine presence but also exhibits reactive
response to the personality-gravity circuit of the Paradise Father of all
personalities.
9. REALITY OF HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS
16:9.1 The cosmic-mind-endowed, Adjuster-indwelt,
personal creature possesses innate recognition-realization of energy reality,
mind reality, and spirit reality. The will creature is thus equipped to
discern the fact, the law, and the love of God. Aside from these three
inalienables of human consciousness, all human experience is really subjective
except that intuitive realization of validity attaches to the
unification of these three universe reality responses of cosmic
recognition.
16:9.2 The God-discerning mortal is able to sense
the unification value of these three cosmic qualities in the evolution of the
surviving soul, man's supreme undertaking in the physical tabernacle where the
moral mind collaborates with the indwelling divine spirit to dualize the
immortal soul. From its earliest inception the soul is real; it has
cosmic survival qualities.
16:9.3 If mortal man fails to survive natural death,
the real spiritual values of his human experience survive as a part of the
continuing experience of the Thought Adjuster. The personality values of such
a nonsurvivor persist as a factor in the personality of the actualizing
Supreme Being. Such persisting qualities of personality are deprived of
identity but not of experiential values accumulated during the mortal life in
the flesh. The survival of identity is dependent on the survival of the
immortal soul of morontia status and increasingly divine value. Personality
identity survives in and by the survival of the soul.
16:9.4 Human self-consciousness implies the
recognition of the reality of selves other than the conscious self and further
implies that such awareness is mutual; that the self is known as it knows.
This is shown in a purely human manner in man's social life. But you cannot
become so absolutely certain of a fellow being's reality as you can of the
reality of the presence of God that lives within you. The social consciousness
is not inalienable like the God-consciousness; it is a cultural development
and is dependent on knowledge, symbols, and the contributions of the
constitutive endowments of man -- science, morality, and religion. And these
cosmic gifts, socialized, constitute civilization.
16:9.5 Civilizations are unstable because they are
not cosmic; they are not innate in the individuals of the races. They must be
nurtured by the combined contributions of the constitutive factors of man --
science, morality, and religion. Civilizations come and go, but science,
morality, and religion always survive the crash.
16:9.6 Jesus not only revealed God to man, but he
also made a new revelation of man to himself and to other men. In the life of
Jesus you see man at his best. Man thus becomes so beautifully real because
Jesus had so much of God in his life, and the realization (recognition) of God
is inalienable and constitutive in all men.
16:9.7 Unselfishness, aside from parental instinct,
is not altogether natural; other persons are not naturally loved or socially
served. It requires the enlightenment of reason, morality, and the urge of
religion, God-knowingness, to generate an unselfish and altruistic social
order. Man's own personality awareness, self-consciousness, is also directly
dependent on this very fact of innate other-awareness, this innate ability to
recognize and grasp the reality of other personality, ranging from the human
to the divine.
16:9.8 Unselfish social consciousness must be, at
bottom, a religious consciousness; that is, if it is objective; otherwise it
is a purely subjective philosophic abstraction and therefore devoid of love.
Only a God-knowing individual can love another person as he loves
himself.
16:9.9 Self-consciousness is in essence a communal
consciousness: God and man, Father and son, Creator and creature. In human
self-consciousness four universe-reality realizations are latent and
inherent:
1. The quest for knowledge, the logic of science.
2. The quest for moral values, the sense of duty.
3. The quest for spiritual values, the religious
experience.
4. The quest for personality values, the ability
to recognize the reality of God as a personality and the concurrent
realization of our fraternal relationship with fellow personalities.
16:9.10 You become conscious of man as your creature
brother because you are already conscious of God as your Creator Father.
Fatherhood is the relationship out of which we reason ourselves into the
recognition of brotherhood. And Fatherhood becomes, or may become, a universe
reality to all moral creatures because the Father has himself bestowed
personality upon all such beings and has encircuited them within the grasp of
the universal personality circuit. We worship God, first, because he is, then,
because he is in us, and last, because we are in him.
16:9.11 Is it strange that the cosmic mind should be
self-consciously aware of its own source, the infinite mind of the Infinite
Spirit, and at the same time conscious of the physical reality of the
far-flung universes, the spiritual reality of the Eternal Son, and the
personality reality of the Universal Father?
16:9.12 Sponsored
by a Universal Censor from Uversa.
