PAPER 48
THE MORONTIA LIFE
48:0.1 THE Gods cannot -- at least they do not --
transform a creature of gross animal nature into a perfected spirit by some
mysterious act of creative magic. When the Creators desire to produce perfect
beings, they do so by direct and original creation, but they never undertake
to convert animal-origin and material creatures into beings of perfection in a
single step.
48:0.2 The morontia life, extending as it does over
the various stages of the local universe career, is the only possible approach
whereby material mortals could attain the threshold of the spirit world. What
magic could death, the natural dissolution of the material body, hold that
such a simple step should instantly transform the mortal and material mind
into an immortal and perfected spirit? Such beliefs are but ignorant
superstitions and pleasing fables.
48:0.3 Always this morontia transition intervenes
between the mortal estate and the subsequent spirit status of surviving human
beings. This intermediate state of universe progress differs markedly in the
various local creations, but in intent and purpose they are all quite similar.
The arrangement of the mansion and higher morontia worlds in Nebadon is fairly
typical of the morontia transition regimes in this part of Orvonton.
1. MORONTIA MATERIALS
48:1.1 The morontia realms are the local universe
liaison spheres between the material and spiritual levels of creature
existence. This morontia life has been known on Urantia since the early days
of the Planetary Prince. From time to time this transition state has been
taught to mortals, and the concept, in distorted form, has found a place in
present-day religions.
48:1.2 The morontia spheres are the transition
phases of mortal ascension through the progression worlds of the local
universe. Only the seven worlds surrounding the finaliters' sphere of the
local systems are called mansion worlds, but all fifty-six of the system
transition abodes, in common with the higher spheres around the constellations
and the universe headquarters, are called morontia worlds. These creations
partake of the physical beauty and the morontia grandeur of the local universe
headquarters spheres.
48:1.3 All of these worlds are architectural
spheres, and they have just double the number of elements of the evolved
planets. Such made-to-order worlds not only abound in the heavy metals and
crystals, having one hundred physical elements, but likewise have exactly one
hundred forms of a unique energy organization called morontia material.
The Master Physical Controllers and the Morontia Power Supervisors are able so
to modify the revolutions of the primary units of matter and at the same time
so to transform these associations of energy as to create this new substance.
48:1.4 The early morontia life in the local systems
is very much like that of your present material world, becoming less physical
and more truly morontial on the constellation study worlds. And as you advance
to the Salvington spheres, you increasingly attain spiritual
levels.
48:1.5 The Morontia Power Supervisors are able to
effect a union of material and of spiritual energies, thereby organizing a
morontia form of materialization which is receptive to the superimposition of
a controlling spirit. When you traverse the morontia life of Nebadon, these
same patient and skillful Morontia Power Supervisors will successively provide
you with 570 morontia bodies, each one a phase of your progressive
transformation. From the time of leaving the material worlds until you are
constituted a first-stage spirit on Salvington, you will undergo just 570
separate and ascending morontia changes. Eight of these occur in the system,
seventy-one in the constellation, and 491 during the sojourn on the spheres of
Salvington.
48:1.6 In the days of the mortal flesh the divine
spirit indwells you, almost as a thing apart -- in reality an invasion of man
by the bestowed spirit of the Universal Father. But in the morontia life the
spirit will become a real part of your personality, and as you successively
pass through the 570 progressive transformations, you ascend from the material
to the spiritual estate of creature life.
48:1.7 Paul learned of the existence of the morontia
worlds and of the reality of morontia materials, for he wrote, "They have in
heaven a better and more enduring substance." And these morontia materials are
real, literal, even as in "the city which has foundations, whose builder and
maker is God." And each of these marvelous spheres is "a better country, that
is, a heavenly one."
2. MORONTIA POWER SUPERVISORS
48:2.1 These unique beings are exclusively concerned
with the supervision of those activities which represent a working combination
of spiritual and physical or semimaterial energies. They are exclusively
devoted to the ministry of morontia progression. Not that they so much
minister to mortals during the transition experience, but they rather make
possible the transition environment for the progressing morontia creatures.
They are the channels of morontia power which sustain and energize the
morontia phases of the transition worlds.
48:2.2 Morontia Power Supervisors are the offspring
of a local universe Mother Spirit. They are fairly standard in design though
differing slightly in nature in the various local creations. They are created
for their specific function and require no training before entering upon their
responsibilities.
48:2.3 The creation of the first Morontia Power
Supervisors is simultaneous with the arrival of the first mortal survivor on
the shores of some one of the first mansion worlds in a local universe. They
are created in groups of one thousand, classified as follows:
1. Circuit Regulators . . . 400
2. System Co-ordinators . . 200
3. Planetary Custodians . . 100
4. Combined Controllers . . 100
5. Liaison Stabilizers. . . 100
6. Selective Assorters. . . .50
7. Associate Registrars . . .50
48:2.4 The power supervisors always serve in their
native universe. They are directed exclusively by the joint spirit activity of
the Universe Son and the Universe Spirit but are otherwise a wholly
self-governing group. They maintain headquarters on each of the first mansion
worlds of the local systems, where they work in close association with both
the physical controllers and the seraphim but function in a world of their own
as regards energy manifestation and spirit application.
48:2.5 They also sometimes work in connection with
supermaterial phenomena on the evolutionary worlds as ministers of temporary
assignment. But they rarely serve on the inhabited planets; neither do they
work on the higher training worlds of the superuniverse, being chiefly devoted
to the transition regime of morontia progression in a local universe.
48:2.6 1. Circuit Regulators. These are the
unique beings who co-ordinate physical and spiritual energy and regulate its
flow into the segregated channels of the morontia spheres, and these circuits
are exclusively planetary, limited to a single world. The morontia circuits
are distinct from, and supplementary to, both physical and spiritual circuits
on the transition worlds, and it requires millions of these regulators to
energize even a system of mansion worlds like that of Satania.
48:2.7 Circuit regulators initiate those changes in
material energies which render them subject to the control and regulation of
their associates. These beings are morontia power generators as well as
circuit regulators. Much as a dynamo apparently generates electricity out of
the atmosphere, so do these living morontia dynamos seem to transform the
everywhere energies of space into those materials which the morontia
supervisors weave into the bodies and life activities of the ascending
mortals.
48:2.8 2. System Co-ordinators. Since each
morontia world has a separate order of morontia energy, it is exceedingly
difficult for humans to visualize these spheres. But on each successive
transition sphere, mortals will find the plant life and everything else
pertaining to the morontia existence progressively modified to correspond with
the advancing spiritization of the ascending survivor. And since the energy
system of each world is thus individualized, these co-ordinators operate to
harmonize and blend such differing power systems into a working unit for the
associated spheres of any particular group.
48:2.9 Ascending mortals gradually progress from the
physical to the spiritual as they advance from one morontia world to another;
hence the necessity for providing an ascending scale of morontia spheres and
an ascending scale of morontia forms.
48:2.10 When mansion world ascenders pass from one
sphere to another, they are delivered by the transport seraphim to the
receivers of the system co-ordinators on the advanced world. Here in those
unique temples at the center of the seventy radiating wings wherein are the
chambers of transition similar to the resurrection halls on the initial world
of reception for earth-origin mortals, the necessary changes in creature form
are skillfully effected by the system co-ordinators. These early morontia-form
changes require about seven days of standard time for their accomplishment.
48:2.11 3. Planetary Custodians. Each
morontia world, from the mansion spheres up to the universe headquarters, is
in the custody -- as regards morontia affairs -- of seventy guardians. They
constitute the local planetary council of supreme morontia authority. This
council grants material for morontia forms to all ascending creatures who land
on the spheres and authorizes those changes in creature form which make it
possible for an ascender to proceed to the succeeding sphere. After the
mansion worlds have been traversed, you will translate from one phase of
morontia life to another without having to surrender consciousness.
Unconsciousness attends only the earlier metamorphoses and the later
transitions from one universe to another and from Havona to Paradise.
48:2.12 4. Combined Controllers. One of these
highly mechanical beings is always stationed at the center of each
administrative unit of a morontia world. A combined controller is sensitive
to, and functional with, physical, spiritual, and morontial energies; and with
this being there are always associated two system co-ordinators, four circuit
regulators, one planetary custodian, one liaison stabilizer, and either an
associate registrar or a selective assorter.
48:2.13 5. Liaison Stabilizers. These are the
regulators of the morontia energy in association with the physical and spirit
forces of the realm. They make possible the conversion of morontia energy into
morontia material. The whole morontia organization of existence is dependent
on the stabilizers. They slow down the energy revolutions to that point where
physicalization can occur. But I have no terms with which I can compare or
illustrate the ministry of such beings. It is quite beyond human imagination.
48:2.14 6. Selective Assorters. As you
progress from one class or phase of a morontia world to another, you must be
re-keyed or advance-tuned, and it is the task of the selective assorters to
keep you in progressive synchrony with the morontia life.
48:2.15 While the basic morontia forms of life and
matter are identical from the first mansion world to the last universe
transition sphere, there is a functional progression which gradually extends
from the material to the spiritual. Your adaptation to this basically uniform
but successively advancing and spiritizing creation is effected by this
selective re-keying. Such an adjustment in the mechanism of personality is
tantamount to a new creation, notwithstanding that you retain the same
morontia form.
48:2.16 You may repeatedly subject yourself to the
test of these examiners, and as soon as you register adequate spiritual
achievement, they will gladly certify you for advanced standing. These
progressive changes result in altered reactions to the morontia environment,
such as modifications in food requirements and numerous other personal
practices.
48:2.17 The selective assorters are also of great
service in the grouping of morontia personalities for purposes of study,
teaching, and other projects. They naturally indicate those who will best
function in temporary association.
48:2.18 7. Associate Registrars. The morontia
world has its own recorders, who serve in association with the spirit
recorders in the supervision and custody of the records and other data
indigenous to the morontia creations. The morontia records are available to
all orders of personalities.
48:2.19 All morontia transition realms are
accessible alike to material and spirit beings. As morontia progressors you
will remain in full contact with the material world and with material
personalities, while you will increasingly discern and fraternize with spirit
beings; and by the time of departure from the morontia regime, you will have
seen all orders of spirits with the exception of a few of the higher types,
such as Solitary Messengers.
3. MORONTIA COMPANIONS
48:3.1 These hosts of the mansion and morontia
worlds are the offspring of a local universe Mother Spirit. They are created
from age to age in groups of one hundred thousand, and in Nebadon there are at
present over seventy billion of these unique beings.
48:3.2 Morontia Companions are trained for service
by the Melchizedeks on a special planet near Salvington; they do not pass
through the central Melchizedek schools. In service they range from the lowest
mansion worlds of the systems to the highest study spheres of Salvington, but
they are seldom encountered on the inhabited worlds. They serve under the
general supervision of the Sons of God and under the immediate direction of
the Melchizedeks.
48:3.3 The Morontia Companions maintain ten thousand
headquarters in a local universe -- on each of the first mansion worlds of the
local systems. They are almost wholly a self-governing order and are, in
general, an intelligent and loyal group of beings; but every now and then, in
connection with certain unfortunate celestial upheavals, they have been known
to go astray. Thousands of these useful creatures were lost during the times
of the Lucifer rebellion in Satania. Your local system now has its full quota
of these beings, the loss of the Lucifer rebellion having only recently been
made up.
48:3.4 There are two distinct types of Morontia
Companions; one type is aggressive, the other retiring, but otherwise they are
equal in status. They are not sex creatures, but they manifest a touchingly
beautiful affection for one another. And while they are hardly companionate in
the material (human) sense, they are very close of kin to the human races in
the order of creature existence. The midway creatures of the worlds are your
nearest of kin; then come the morontia cherubim, and after them the Morontia
Companions.
48:3.5 These companions are touchingly affectionate
and charmingly social beings. They possess distinct personalities, and when
you meet them on the mansion worlds, after learning to recognize them as a
class, you will soon discern their individuality. Mortals all resemble one
another; at the same time each of you possesses a distinct and recognizable
personality.
48:3.6 Something of an idea of the nature of the
work of these Morontia Companions may be derived from the following
classification of their activities in a local system:
48:3.7 1. Pilgrim Guardians are not assigned
to specific duties in their association with the morontia progressors. These
companions are responsible for the whole of the morontia career and are
therefore the co-ordinators of the work of all other morontia and transition
ministers.
48:3.8 2. Pilgrim Receivers and Free
Associators. These are the social companions of the new arrivals on the
mansion worlds. One of them will certainly be on hand to welcome you when you
awaken on the initial mansion world from the first transit sleep of time, when
you experience the resurrection from the death of the flesh into the morontia
life. And from the time you are thus formally welcomed on awakening to that
day when you leave the local universe as a first-stage spirit, these Morontia
Companions are ever with you.
48:3.9 Companions are not assigned permanently to
individuals. An ascending mortal on one of the mansion or higher worlds might
have a different companion on each of several successive occasions and again
might go for long periods without one. It would all depend on the requirements
and also on the supply of companions available.
48:3.10 3. Hosts to Celestial Visitors. These
gracious creatures are dedicated to the entertainment of the superhuman groups
of student visitors and other celestials who may chance to sojourn on the
transition worlds. You will have ample opportunity to visit within any realm
you have experientially attained. Student visitors are allowed on all
inhabited planets, even those in isolation.
48:3.11 4. Co-ordinators and Liaison
Directors. These companions are dedicated to the facilitation of morontia
intercourse and to the prevention of confusion. They are the instructors of
social conduct and morontia progress, sponsoring classes and other group
activities among the ascending mortals. They maintain extensive areas wherein
they assemble their pupils and from time to time make requisition on the
celestial artisans and the reversion directors for the embellishment of their
programs. As you progress, you will come in intimate contact with these
companions, and you will grow exceedingly fond of both groups. It is a matter
of chance as to whether you will be associated with an aggressive or a
retiring type of companion.
48:3.12 5. Interpreters and Translators.
During the early mansonia career you will have frequent recourse to the
interpreters and the translators. They know and speak all the tongues of a
local universe; they are the linguists of the realms.
48:3.13 You will not acquire new languages
automatically; you will learn a language over there much as you do down here,
and these brilliant beings will be your language teachers. The first study on
the mansion worlds will be the tongue of Satania and then the language of
Nebadon. And while you are mastering these new tongues, the Morontia
Companions will be your efficient interpreters and patient translators. You
will never encounter a visitor on any of these worlds but that some one of the
Morontia Companions will be able to officiate as interpreter.
48:3.14 6. Excursion and Reversion
Supervisors. These companions will accompany you on the longer trips to
the headquarters sphere and to the surrounding worlds of transition culture.
They plan, conduct, and supervise all such individual and group tours about
the system worlds of training and culture.
48:3.15 7. Area and Building Custodians. Even
the material and morontia structures increase in perfection and grandeur as
you advance in the mansonia career. As individuals and as groups you are
permitted to make certain changes in the abodes assigned as headquarters for
your sojourn on the different mansion worlds. Many of the activities of these
spheres take place in the open enclosures of the variously designated circles,
squares, and triangles. The majority of the mansion world structures are
roofless, being enclosures of magnificent construction and exquisite
embellishment. The climatic and other physical conditions prevailing on the
architectural worlds make roofs wholly unnecessary.
48:3.16 These custodians of the transition phases of
ascendant life are supreme in the management of morontia affairs. They were
created for this work, and pending the factualization of the Supreme Being,
always will they remain Morontia Companions; never do they perform other
duties.
48:3.17 As systems and universes are settled in
light and life, the mansion worlds increasingly cease to function as
transition spheres of morontia training. More and more the finaliters
institute their new training regime, which appears to be designed to translate
the cosmic consciousness from the present level of the grand universe to that
of the future outer universes. The Morontia Companions are destined to
function increasingly in association with the finaliters and in numerous other
realms not at present revealed on Urantia.
48:3.18 You can forecast that these beings are
probably going to contribute much to your enjoyment of the mansion worlds,
whether your sojourn is to be long or short. And you will continue to enjoy
them all the way up to Salvington. They are not, technically, essential to any
part of your survival experience. You could reach Salvington without them, but
you would greatly miss them. They are the personality luxury of your ascending
career in the local universe.
4. THE REVERSION DIRECTORS
48:4.1 Joyful mirth and the smile-equivalent are as
universal as music. There is a morontial and a spiritual equivalent of mirth
and laughter. The ascendant life is about equally divided between work and
play -- freedom from assignment.
48:4.2 Celestial relaxation and superhuman humor are
quite different from their human analogues, but we all actually indulge in a
form of both; and they really accomplish for us, in our state, just about what
ideal humor is able to do for you on Urantia. The Morontia Companions are
skillful play sponsors, and they are most ably supported by the reversion
directors.
48:4.3 You would probably best understand the work
of the reversion directors if they were likened to the higher types of
humorists on Urantia, though that would be an exceedingly crude and somewhat
unfortunate way in which to try to convey an idea of the function of these
directors of change and relaxation, these ministers of the exalted humor of
the morontia and spirit realms.
48:4.4 In discussing spirit humor, first let me tell
you what it is not. Spirit jest is never tinged with the accentuation of the
misfortunes of the weak and erring. Neither is it ever blasphemous of the
righteousness and glory of divinity. Our humor embraces three general levels
of appreciation:
48:4.5 1. Reminiscent jests. Quips growing
out of the memories of past episodes in one's experience of combat, struggle,
and sometimes fearfulness, and ofttimes foolish and childish anxiety. To us,
this phase of humor derives from the deep-seated and abiding ability to draw
upon the past for memory material with which pleasantly to flavor and
otherwise lighten the heavy loads of the present.
48:4.6 2. Current humor. The senselessness of
much that so often causes us serious concern, the joy at discovering the
unimportance of much of our serious personal anxiety. We are most appreciative
of this phase of humor when we are best able to discount the anxieties of the
present in favor of the certainties of the future.
48:4.7 3. Prophetic joy. It will perhaps be
difficult for mortals to envisage this phase of humor, but we do get a
peculiar satisfaction out of the assurance "that all things work together for
good" -- for spirits and morontians as well as for mortals. This aspect of
celestial humor grows out of our faith in the loving overcare of our superiors
and in the divine stability of our Supreme Directors.
48:4.8 But the reversion directors of the realms are
not concerned exclusively with depicting the high humor of the various orders
of intelligent beings; they are also occupied with the leadership of
diversion, spiritual recreation and morontia entertainment. And in this
connection they have the hearty co-operation of the celestial
artisans.
48:4.9 The reversion directors themselves are not a
created group; they are a recruited corps embracing beings ranging from the
Havona natives down through the messenger hosts of space and the ministering
spirits of time to the morontia progressors from the evolutionary worlds. All
are volunteers, giving themselves to the work of assisting their fellows in
the achievement of thought change and mind rest, for such attitudes are most
helpful in recuperating depleted energies.
48:4.10 When partially exhausted by the efforts of
attainment, and while awaiting the reception of new energy charges, there is
agreeable pleasure in living over again the enactments of other days and ages.
The early experiences of the race or the order are restful to
reminisce. And that is exactly why these artists are called reversion
directors -- they assist in reverting the memory to a former state of
development or to a less experienced status of being.
48:4.11 All beings enjoy this sort of reversion
except those who are inherent Creators, hence automatic self-rejuvenators, and
certain highly specialized types of creatures, such as the power centers and
the physical controllers, who are always and eternally thoroughly businesslike
in all their reactions. These periodic releases from the tension of functional
duty are a regular part of life on all worlds throughout the universe of
universes but not on the Isle of Paradise. Beings indigenous to the central
abode are incapable of depletion and are not, therefore, subject to
re-energizing. And with such beings of eternal Paradise perfection there can
be no such reversion to evolutionary experiences.
48:4.12 Most of us have come up through lower stages
of existence or through progressive levels of our orders, and it is refreshing
and in a measure amusing to look back upon certain episodes of our early
experience. There is a restfulness in the contemplation of that which is old
to one's order, and which lingers as a memory possession of the mind. The
future signifies struggle and advancement; it bespeaks work, effort, and
achievement; but the past savors of things already mastered and achieved;
contemplation of the past permits of relaxation and such a carefree review as
to provoke spirit mirth and a morontia state of mind verging on
merriment.
48:4.13 Even mortal humor becomes most hearty when
it depicts episodes affecting those just a little beneath one's present
developmental state, or when it portrays one's supposed superiors falling
victim to the experiences which are commonly associated with supposed
inferiors. You of Urantia have allowed much that is at once vulgar and unkind
to become confused with your humor, but on the whole, you are to be
congratulated on a comparatively keen sense of humor. Some of your races have
a rich vein of it and are greatly helped in their earthly careers thereby.
Apparently you received much in the way of humor from your Adamic inheritance,
much more than was secured of either music or art.
48:4.14 All Satania, during times of play, those
times when its inhabitants refreshingly resurrect the memories of a lower
stage of existence, is edified by the pleasant humor of a corps of reversion
directors from Urantia. The sense of celestial humor we have with us always,
even when engaged in the most difficult of assignments. It helps to avoid an
overdevelopment of the notion of one's self-importance. But we do not give
rein to it freely, as you might say, "have fun," except when we are in recess
from the serious assignments of our respective orders.
48:4.15 When we are tempted to magnify our
self-importance, if we stop to contemplate the infinity of the greatness and
grandeur of our Makers, our own self-glorification becomes sublimely
ridiculous, even verging on the humorous. One of the functions of humor is to
help all of us take ourselves less seriously. Humor is the divine antidote
for exaltation of ego.
48:4.16 The need for the relaxation and diversion of
humor is greatest in those orders of ascendant beings who are subjected to
sustained stress in their upward struggles. The two extremes of life have
little need for humorous diversions. Primitive men have no capacity therefor,
and beings of Paradise perfection have no need thereof. The hosts of Havona
are naturally a joyous and exhilarating assemblage of supremely happy
personalities. On Paradise the quality of worship obviates the necessity for
reversion activities. But among those who start their careers far below the
goal of Paradise perfection, there is a large place for the ministry of the
reversion directors.
48:4.17 The higher the mortal species, the greater
the stress and the greater the capacity for humor as well as the necessity for
it. In the spirit world the opposite is true: The higher we ascend, the less
the need for the diversions of reversion experiences. But proceeding down the
scale of spirit life from Paradise to the seraphic hosts, there is an
increasing need for the mission of mirth and the ministry of merriment. Those
beings who most need the refreshment of periodic reversion to the intellectual
status of previous experiences are the higher types of the human species, the
morontians, angels, and the Material Sons, together with all similar types of
personality.
48:4.18 Humor should function as an automatic safety
valve to prevent the building up of excessive pressures due to the monotony of
sustained and serious self-contemplation in association with the intense
struggle for developmental progress and noble achievement. Humor also
functions to lessen the shock of the unexpected impact of fact or of truth,
rigid unyielding fact and flexible ever-living truth. The mortal personality,
never sure as to which will next be encountered, through humor swiftly grasps
-- sees the point and achieves insight -- the unexpected nature of the
situation be it fact or be it truth.
48:4.19 While the humor of Urantia is exceedingly
crude and most inartistic, it does serve a valuable purpose both as a health
insurance and as a liberator of emotional pressure, thus preventing injurious
nervous tension and overserious self-contemplation. Humor and play --
relaxation -- are never reactions of progressive exertion; always are they the
echoes of a backward glance, a reminiscence of the past. Even on Urantia and
as you now are, you always find it rejuvenating when for a short time you can
suspend the exertions of the newer and higher intellectual efforts and revert
to the more simple engagements of your ancestors.
48:4.20 The principles of Urantian play life are
philosophically sound and continue to apply on up through your ascending life,
through the circuits of Havona to the eternal shores of Paradise. As ascendant
beings you are in possession of personal memories of all former and lower
existences, and without such identity memories of the past there would be no
basis for the humor of the present, either mortal laughter or morontia mirth.
It is this recalling of past experiences that provides the basis for present
diversion and amusement. And so you will enjoy the celestial equivalents of
your earthly humor all the way up through your long morontia, and then
increasingly spiritual, careers. And that part of God (the Adjuster) which
becomes an eternal part of the personality of an ascendant mortal contributes
the overtones of divinity to the joyous expressions, even spiritual laughter,
of the ascending creatures of time and space.
5. THE MANSION WORLD TEACHERS
48:5.1 The Mansion World Teachers are a corps of
deserted but glorified cherubim and sanobim. When a pilgrim of time advances
from a trial world of space to the mansion and associated worlds of morontia
training, he is accompanied by his personal or group seraphim, the guardian of
destiny. In the worlds of mortal existence the seraphim is ably assisted by
cherubim and sanobim; but when her mortal ward is delivered from the bonds of
the flesh and starts out on the ascendant career, when the postmaterial or
morontia life begins, the attending seraphim has no further need of the
ministrations of her former lieutenants, the cherubim and sanobim.
48:5.2 These deserted assistants of the ministering
seraphim are often summoned to universe headquarters, where they pass into the
intimate embrace of the Universe Mother Spirit and then go forth to the system
training spheres as Mansion World Teachers. These teachers often visit the
material worlds and function from the lowest mansion worlds on up to the
highest of the educational spheres connected with the universe headquarters.
Upon their own motion they may return to their former associative work with
the ministering seraphim.
48:5.3 There are billions upon billions of these
teachers in Satania, and their numbers constantly increase because, in the
majority of instances, when a seraphim proceeds inward with an Adjuster-fused
mortal, both a cherubim and a sanobim are left behind.
48:5.4 Mansion World Teachers, like most of the
other instructors, are commissioned by the Melchizedeks. They are generally
supervised by the Morontia Companions, but as individuals and as teachers they
are supervised by the acting heads of the schools or spheres wherein they may
be functioning as instructors.
48:5.5 These advanced cherubim usually work in pairs
as they did when attached to the seraphim. They are by nature very near the
morontia type of existence, and they are inherently sympathetic teachers of
the ascending mortals and most efficiently conduct the program of the mansion
world and morontia educational system.
48:5.6 In the schools of the morontia life these
teachers engage in individual, group, class, and mass teaching. On the mansion
worlds such schools are organized in three general groups of one hundred
divisions each: the schools of thinking, the schools of feeling, and the
schools of doing. When you reach the constellation, there are added the
schools of ethics, the schools of administration, and the schools of social
adjustment. On the universe headquarters worlds you will enter the schools of
philosophy, divinity, and pure spirituality.
48:5.7 Those things which you might have learned on
earth, but which you failed to learn, must be acquired under the tutelage of
these faithful and patient teachers. There are no royal roads, short cuts, or
easy paths to Paradise. Irrespective of the individual variations of the
route, you master the lessons of one sphere before you proceed to another; at
least this is true after you once leave the world of your nativity.
48:5.8 One of the purposes of the morontia career is
to effect the permanent eradication from the mortal survivors of such animal
vestigial traits as procrastination, equivocation, insincerity, problem
avoidance, unfairness, and ease seeking. The mansonia life early teaches the
young morontia pupils that postponement is in no sense avoidance. After the
life in the flesh, time is no longer available as a technique of dodging
situations or of circumventing disagreeable obligations.
48:5.9 Beginning service on the lowest of the
tarrying spheres, the Mansion World Teachers advance, with experience, through
the educational spheres of the system and the constellation to the training
worlds of Salvington. They are subjected to no special discipline either
before or after their embrace by the Universe Mother Spirit. They have already
been trained for their work while serving as seraphic associates on the worlds
native to their pupils of mansion world sojourn. They have had actual
experience with these advancing mortals on the inhabited worlds. They are
practical and sympathetic teachers, wise and understanding instructors, able
and efficient guides. They are entirely familiar with the ascendant plans and
thoroughly experienced in the initial phases of the progression
career.
48:5.10 Many of the older of these teachers, those
who have long served on the worlds of the Salvington circuit, are re-embraced
by the Universe Mother Spirit, and from this second embrace these cherubim and
sanobim emerge with the status of seraphim.
6. MORONTIA WORLD SERAPHIM -- TRANSITION MINISTERS
48:6.1 While all orders of angels, from the
planetary helpers to the supreme seraphim, minister on the morontia worlds,
the transition ministers are more exclusively assigned to these activities.
These angels are of the sixth order of seraphic servers, and their ministry is
devoted to facilitating the transit of material and mortal creatures from the
temporal life in the flesh on into the early stages of morontia existence on
the seven mansion worlds.
48:6.2 You should understand that the morontia life
of an ascending mortal is really initiated on the inhabited worlds at the
conception of the soul, at that moment when the creature mind of moral status
is indwelt by the spirit Adjuster. And from that moment on, the mortal soul
has potential capacity for supermortal function, even for recognition on the
higher levels of the morontia spheres of the local universe.
48:6.3 You will not, however, be conscious of the
ministry of the transition seraphim until you attain the mansion worlds, where
they labor untiringly for the advancement of their mortal pupils, being
assigned for service in the following seven divisions:
48:6.4 1. Seraphic Evangels. The moment you
consciousize on the mansion worlds, you are classified as evolving spirits in
the records of the system. True, you are not yet spirits in reality, but you
are no longer mortal or material beings; you have embarked upon the prespirit
career and have been duly admitted to the morontia life.
48:6.5 On the mansion worlds the seraphic evangels
will help you to choose wisely among the optional routes to Edentia,
Salvington, Uversa, and Havona. If there are a number of equally advisable
routes, these will be put before you, and you will be permitted to select the
one that most appeals to you. These seraphim then make recommendations to the
four and twenty advisers on Jerusem concerning that course which would be most
advantageous for each ascending soul.
48:6.6 You are not given unrestricted choice as to
your future course; but you may choose within the limits of that which the
transition ministers and their superiors wisely determine to be most suitable
for your future spirit attainment. The spirit world is governed on the
principle of respecting your freewill choice provided the course you may
choose is not detrimental to you or injurious to your fellows.
48:6.7 These seraphic evangels are dedicated to the
proclamation of the gospel of eternal progression, the triumph of perfection
attainment. On the mansion worlds they proclaim the great law of the
conservation and dominance of goodness: No act of good is ever wholly lost; it
may be long thwarted but never wholly annulled, and it is eternally potent in
proportion to the divinity of its motivation.
48:6.8 Even on Urantia they counsel the human
teachers of truth and righteousness to adhere to the preaching of "the
goodness of God, which leads to repentance," to proclaim "the love of God,
which casts out all fear." Even so have these truths been declared on your
world:
The Gods are my caretakers; I shall not stray;
Side by side they lead me in the beautiful paths
and glorious refreshing of life everlasting.
I shall not, in this Divine Presence, want for
food nor thirst for water.
Though I go down into the valley of uncertainty or
ascend up into the worlds of doubt
Though I move in loneliness or with the fellows of
my kind,
Though I triumph in the choirs of light or falter
in the solitary places of the spheres,
Your good spirit shall minister to me, and your
glorious angel will comfort me.
Though I descend into the depths of darkness and
death itself,
I shall not doubt you nor fear you,
For I know that in the fullness of time and the
glory of your name
You will raise me up to sit with you on the
battlements on high.
48:6.9 That is the story whispered in the night
season to the shepherd boy. He could not retain it word for word, but to the
best of his memory he gave it much as it is recorded today.
48:6.10 These seraphim are also the evangels of the
gospel of perfection attainment for the whole system as well as for the
individual ascender. Even now in the young system of Satania their teachings
and plans encompass provisions for the future ages when the mansion worlds
will no longer serve the mortal ascenders as steppingstones to the spheres on
high.
48:6.11 2. Racial Interpreters. All races of
mortal beings are not alike. True, there is a planetary pattern running
through the physical, mental, and spiritual natures and tendencies of the
various races of a given world; but there are also distinct racial types, and
very definite social tendencies characterize the offspring of these different
basic types of human beings. On the worlds of time the seraphic racial
interpreters further the efforts of the race commissioners to harmonize the
varied viewpoints of the races, and they continue to function on the mansion
worlds, where these same differences tend to persist in a measure. On a
confused planet, such as Urantia, these brilliant beings have hardly had a
fair opportunity to function, but they are the skillful sociologists and the
wise ethnic advisers of the first heaven.
48:6.12 You should consider the statement about
"heaven" and the "heaven of heavens." The heaven conceived by most of your
prophets was the first of the mansion worlds of the local system. When the
apostle spoke of being "caught up to the third heaven," he referred to that
experience in which his Adjuster was detached during sleep and in this unusual
state made a projection to the third of the seven mansion worlds. Some of your
wise men saw the vision of the greater heaven, "the heaven of heavens," of
which the sevenfold mansion world experience was but the first; the second
being Jerusem; the third, Edentia and its satellites; the fourth, Salvington
and the surrounding educational spheres; the fifth, Uversa; the sixth, Havona;
and the seventh, Paradise.
48:6.13 3. Mind Planners. These seraphim are
devoted to the effective grouping of morontia beings and to organizing their
teamwork on the mansion worlds. They are the psychologists of the first
heaven. The majority of this particular division of seraphic ministers have
had previous experience as guardian angels to the children of time, but their
wards, for some reason, failed to personalize on the mansion worlds or else
survived by the technique of Spirit fusion.
48:6.14 It is the task of the mind planners to study
the nature, experience, and status of the Adjuster souls in transit through
the mansion worlds and to facilitate their grouping for assignment and
advancement. But these mind planners do not scheme, manipulate, or otherwise
take advantage of the ignorance or other limitations of mansion world
students. They are wholly fair and eminently just. They respect your newborn
morontia will; they regard you as independent volitional beings, and they seek
to encourage your speedy development and advancement. Here you are face to
face with true friends and understanding counselors, angels who are really
able to help you "to see yourself as others see you" and "to know yourself as
angels know you."
48:6.15 Even on Urantia, these seraphim teach the
everlasting truth: If your own mind does not serve you well, you can exchange
it for the mind of Jesus of Nazareth, who always serves you well.
48:6.16 4. Morontia Counselors. These
ministers receive their name because they are assigned to teach, direct, and
counsel the surviving mortals from the worlds of human origin, souls in
transit to the higher schools of the system headquarters. They are the
teachers of those who seek insight into the experiential unity of divergent
life levels, those who are attempting the integration of meanings and the
unification of values. This is the function of philosophy in mortal life, of
mota on the morontia spheres.
48:6.17 Mota is more than a superior philosophy; it
is to philosophy as two eyes are to one; it has a stereoscopic effect on
meanings and values. Material man sees the universe, as it were, with but one
eye -- flat. Mansion world students achieve cosmic perspective -- depth -- by
superimposing the perceptions of the morontia life upon the perceptions of the
physical life. And they are enabled to bring these material and morontial
viewpoints into true focus largely through the untiring ministry of their
seraphic counselors, who so patiently teach the mansion world students and the
morontia progressors. Many of the teaching counselors of the supreme order of
seraphim began their careers as advisers of the newly liberated souls of the
mortals of time.
48:6.18 5. Technicians. These are the
seraphim who help new ascenders adjust themselves to the new and comparatively
strange environment of the morontia spheres. Life on the transition worlds
entails real contact with the energies and materials of both the physical and
morontia levels and to a certain extent with spiritual realities. Ascenders
must acclimatize to every new morontia level, and in all of this they are
greatly helped by the seraphic technicians. These seraphim act as liaisons
with the Morontia Power Supervisors and with the Master Physical Controllers
and function extensively as instructors of the ascending pilgrims concerning
the nature of those energies which are utilized on the transition spheres.
They serve as emergency space traversers and perform numerous other regular
and special duties.
48:6.19 6. Recorder-Teachers. These seraphim
are the recorders of the borderland transactions of the spiritual and the
physical, of the relationships of men and angels, of the morontia transactions
of the lower universe realms. They also serve as instructors regarding the
efficient and effective techniques of fact recording. There is an artistry in
the intelligent assembly and co-ordination of related data, and this art is
heightened in collaboration with the celestial artisans, and even the
ascending mortals become thus affiliated with the recording
seraphim.
48:6.20 The recorders of all the seraphic orders
devote a certain amount of time to the education and training of the morontia
progressors. These angelic custodians of the facts of time are the ideal
instructors of all fact seekers. Before leaving Jerusem, you will become quite
familiar with the history of Satania and its 619 inhabited worlds, and much of
this story will be imparted by the seraphic recorders.
48:6.21 These angels are all in the chain of
recorders extending from the lowest to the highest custodians of the facts of
time and the truths of eternity. Some day they will teach you to seek truth as
well as fact, to expand your soul as well as your mind. Even now you should
learn to water the garden of your heart as well as to seek for the dry sands
of knowledge. Forms are valueless when lessons are learned. No chick may be
had without the shell, and no shell is of any worth after the chick is
hatched. But sometimes error is so great that its rectification by revelation
would be fatal to those slowly emerging truths which are essential to its
experiential overthrow. When children have their ideals, do not dislodge them;
let them grow. And while you are learning to think as men, you should also be
learning to pray as children.
48:6.22 Law is life itself and not the rules of its
conduct. Evil is a transgression of law, not a violation of the rules of
conduct pertaining to life, which is the law. Falsehood is not a matter
of narration technique but something premeditated as a perversion of truth.
The creation of new pictures out of old facts, the restatement of parental
life in the lives of offspring -- these are the artistic triumphs of truth.
The shadow of a hair's turning, premeditated for an untrue purpose, the
slightest twisting or perversion of that which is principle -- these
constitute falseness. But the fetish of factualized truth, fossilized truth,
the iron band of so-called unchanging truth, holds one blindly in a closed
circle of cold fact. One can be technically right as to fact and everlastingly
wrong in the truth.
48:6.23 7. Ministering Reserves. A large
corps of all orders of the transition seraphim is held on the first mansion
world. Next to the destiny guardians, these transition ministers draw the
nearest to humans of all orders of seraphim, and many of your leisure moments
will be spent with them. Angels take delight in service and, when unassigned,
often minister as volunteers. The soul of many an ascending mortal has for the
first time been kindled by the divine fire of the will-to-service through
personal friendship with the volunteer servers of the seraphic reserves.
48:6.24 From them you will learn to let pressure
develop stability and certainty; to be faithful and earnest and, withal,
cheerful; to accept challenges without complaint and to face difficulties and
uncertainties without fear. They will ask: If you fail, will you rise
indomitably to try anew? If you succeed, will you maintain a well-balanced
poise -- a stabilized and spiritualized attitude -- throughout every effort in
the long struggle to break the fetters of material inertia, to attain the
freedom of spirit existence?
48:6.25 Even as mortals, so have these angels been
father to many disappointments, and they will point out that sometimes your
most disappointing disappointments have become your greatest blessings.
Sometimes the planting of a seed necessitates its death, the death of your
fondest hopes, before it can be reborn to bear the fruits of new life and new
opportunity. And from them you will learn to suffer less through sorrow and
disappointment, first, by making fewer personal plans concerning other
personalities, and then, by accepting your lot when you have faithfully
performed your duty.
48:6.26 You will learn that you increase your
burdens and decrease the likelihood of success by taking yourself too
seriously. Nothing can take precedence over the work of your status sphere --
this world or the next. Very important is the work of preparation for the next
higher sphere, but nothing equals the importance of the work of the world in
which you are actually living. But though the work is important, the
self is not. When you feel important, you lose energy to the wear and
tear of ego dignity so that there is little energy left to do the work.
Self-importance, not work-importance, exhausts immature creatures; it is the
self element that exhausts, not the effort to achieve. You can do important
work if you do not become self-important; you can do several things as easily
as one if you leave yourself out. Variety is restful; monotony is what wears
and exhausts. Day after day is alike -- just life or the alternative of death.
7. MORONTIA MOTA
48:7.1 The lower planes of morontia mota join
directly with the higher levels of human philosophy. On the first mansion
world it is the practice to teach the less advanced students by the parallel
technique; that is, in one column are presented the more simple concepts of
mota meanings, and in the opposite column citation is made of analogous
statements of mortal philosophy.
48:7.2 Not long since, while executing an assignment
on the first mansion world of Satania, I had occasion to observe this method
of teaching; and though I may not undertake to present the mota content of the
lesson, I am permitted to record the twenty-eight statements of human
philosophy which this morontia instructor was utilizing as illustrative
material designed to assist these new mansion world sojourners in their early
efforts to grasp the significance and meaning of mota. These illustrations of
human philosophy were:
48:7.3 1. A display of specialized skill does not
signify possession of spiritual capacity. Cleverness is not a substitute for
true character.
48:7.4 2. Few persons live up to the faith which
they really have. Unreasoned fear is a master intellectual fraud practiced
upon the evolving mortal soul.
48:7.5 3. Inherent capacities cannot be exceeded; a
pint can never hold a quart. The spirit concept cannot be mechanically forced
into the material memory mold.
48:7.6 4. Few mortals ever dare to draw anything
like the sum of personality credits established by the combined ministries of
nature and grace. The majority of impoverished souls are truly rich, but they
refuse to believe it.
48:7.7 5. Difficulties may challenge mediocrity and
defeat the fearful, but they only stimulate the true children of the Most
Highs.
48:7.8 6. To enjoy privilege without abuse, to have
liberty without license, to possess power and steadfastly refuse to use it for
self-aggrandizement -- these are the marks of high civilization.
48:7.9 7. Blind and unforeseen accidents do not
occur in the cosmos. Neither do the celestial beings assist the lower being
who refuses to act upon his light of truth.
48:7.10 8. Effort does not always produce joy, but
there is no happiness without intelligent effort.
48:7.11 9. Action achieves strength; moderation
eventuates in charm.
48:7.12 10. Righteousness strikes the harmony chords
of truth, and the melody vibrates throughout the cosmos, even to the
recognition of the Infinite.
48:7.13 11. The weak indulge in resolutions, but the
strong act. Life is but a day's work -- do it well. The act is ours; the
consequences God's.
48:7.14 12. The greatest affliction of the cosmos is
never to have been afflicted. Mortals only learn wisdom by experiencing
tribulation.
48:7.15 13. Stars are best discerned from the lonely
isolation of experiential depths, not from the illuminated and ecstatic
mountain tops.
48:7.16 14. Whet the appetites of your associates
for truth; give advice only when it is asked for.
48:7.17 15. Affectation is the ridiculous effort of
the ignorant to appear wise, the attempt of the barren soul to appear
rich.
48:7.18 16. You cannot perceive spiritual truth
until you feelingly experience it, and many truths are not really felt except
in adversity.
48:7.19 17. Ambition is dangerous until it is fully
socialized. You have not truly acquired any virtue until your acts make you
worthy of it.
48:7.20 18. Impatience is a spirit poison; anger is
like a stone hurled into a hornet's nest.
48:7.21 19. Anxiety must be abandoned. The
disappointments hardest to bear are those which never come.
48:7.22 20. Only a poet can discern poetry in the
commonplace prose of routine existence.
48:7.23 21. The high mission of any art is, by its
illusions, to foreshadow a higher universe reality, to crystallize the
emotions of time into the thought of eternity.
48:7.24 22. The evolving soul is not made divine by
what it does, but by what it strives to do.
48:7.25 23. Death added nothing to the intellectual
possession or to the spiritual endowment, but it did add to the experiential
status the consciousness of survival.
48:7.26 24. The destiny of eternity is determined
moment by moment by the achievements of the day by day living. The acts of
today are the destiny of tomorrow.
48:7.27 25. Greatness lies not so much in possessing
strength as in making a wise and divine use of such strength.
48:7.28 26. Knowledge is possessed only by sharing;
it is safeguarded by wisdom and socialized by love.
48:7.29 27. Progress demands development of
individuality; mediocrity seeks perpetuation in standardization.
48:7.30 28. The argumentative defense of any
proposition is inversely proportional to the truth contained.
48:7.31 Such is the work of the beginners on the
first mansion world while the more advanced pupils on the later worlds are
mastering the higher levels of cosmic insight and morontia mota.
8. THE MORONTIA PROGRESSORS
48:8.1 From the time of graduation from the mansion
worlds to the attainment of spirit status in the superuniverse career,
ascending mortals are denominated morontia progressors. Your passage through
this wonderful borderland life will be an unforgettable experience, a charming
memory. It is the evolutionary portal to spirit life and the eventual
attainment of creature perfection by which ascenders achieve the goal of time
-- the finding of God on Paradise.
48:8.2 There is a definite and divine purpose in all
this morontia and subsequent spirit scheme of mortal progression, this
elaborate universe training school for ascending creatures. It is the design
of the Creators to afford the creatures of time a graduated opportunity to
master the details of the operation and administration of the grand universe,
and this long course of training is best carried forward by having the
surviving mortal climb up gradually and by actual participation in every step
of the ascent.
48:8.3 The mortal-survival plan has a practical and
serviceable objective; you are not the recipients of all this divine labor and
painstaking training only that you may survive just to enjoy endless bliss and
eternal ease. There is a goal of transcendent service concealed beyond the
horizon of the present universe age. If the Gods designed merely to take you
on one long and eternal joy excursion, they certainly would not so largely
turn the whole universe into one vast and intricate practical training school,
requisition a substantial part of the celestial creation as teachers and
instructors, and then spend ages upon ages piloting you, one by one, through
this gigantic universe school of experiential training. The furtherance of the
scheme of mortal progression seems to be one of the chief businesses of the
present organized universe, and the majority of innumerable orders of created
intelligences are either directly or indirectly engaged in advancing some
phase of this progressive perfection plan.
48:8.4 In traversing the ascending scale of living
existence from mortal man to the Deity embrace, you actually live the very
life of every possible phase and stage of perfected creature existence within
the limits of the present universe age. From mortal man to Paradise finaliter
embraces all that now can be -- encompasses everything presently possible to
the living orders of intelligent, perfected finite creature beings. If the
future destiny of the Paradise finaliters is service in new universes now in
the making, it is assured that in this new and future creation there will be
no created orders of experiential beings whose lives will be wholly different
from those which mortal finaliters have lived on some world as a part of their
ascending training, as one of the stages of their agelong progress from animal
to angel and from angel to spirit and from spirit to God.
48:8.5 Presented by
an Archangel of Nebadon.
