PAPER 56
UNIVERSAL UNITY
56:0.1 GOD is unity. Deity is universally
co-ordinated. The universe of universes is one vast integrated mechanism which
is absolutely controlled by one infinite mind. The physical, intellectual, and
spiritual domains of universal creation are divinely correlated. The perfect
and imperfect are truly interrelated, and therefore may the finite
evolutionary creature ascend to Paradise in obedience to the Universal
Father's mandate: "Be you perfect, even as I am perfect."
56:0.2 The diverse levels of creation are all
unified in the plans and administration of the Architects of the Master
Universe. To the circumscribed minds of time-space mortals the universe may
present many problems and situations which apparently portray disharmony and
indicate absence of effective co-ordination; but those of us who are able to
observe wider stretches of universal phenomena, and who are more experienced
in this art of detecting the basic unity which underlies creative diversity
and of discovering the divine oneness which overspreads all this functioning
of plurality, better perceive the divine and single purpose exhibited in all
these manifold manifestations of universal creative energy.
1. PHYSICAL CO-ORDINATION
56:1.1 The physical or material creation is not
infinite, but it is perfectly co-ordinated. There are force, energy, and
power, but they are all one in origin. The seven superuniverses are seemingly
dual; the central universe, triune; but Paradise is of single constitution.
And Paradise is the actual source of all material universes -- past, present,
and future. But this cosmic derivation is an eternity event; at no
time -- past, present, or future -- does either space or the material
cosmos come forth from the nuclear Isle of Light. As the cosmic source,
Paradise functions prior to space and before time; hence would its derivations
seem to be orphaned in time and space did they not emerge through the
Unqualified Absolute, their ultimate repository in space and their revealer
and regulator in time.
56:1.2 The Unqualified Absolute upholds the physical
universe, while the Deity Absolute motivates the exquisite overcontrol of all
material reality; and both Absolutes are functionally unified by the Universal
Absolute. This cohesive correlation of the material universe is best
understood by all personalities -- material, morontia, absonite, or spiritual
-- by the observation of the gravity response of all bona fide material
reality to the gravity centering on nether Paradise.
56:1.3 Gravity unification is universal and
unvarying; pure-energy response is likewise universal and inescapable. Pure
energy (primordial force) and pure spirit are wholly preresponsive to gravity.
These primal forces, inhering in the Absolutes, are personally controlled by
the Universal Father; hence does all gravity center in the personal presence
of the Paradise Father of pure energy and pure spirit and in his supermaterial
abode.
56:1.4 Pure energy is the ancestor of all relative,
nonspirit functional realities, while pure spirit is the potential of the
divine and directive overcontrol of all basic energy systems. And these
realities, so diverse as manifested throughout space and as observed in the
motions of time, are both centered in the person of the Paradise Father. In
him they are one -- must be unified -- because God is one. The Father's
personality is absolutely unified.
56:1.5 In the infinite nature of God the Father
there could not possibly exist duality of reality, such as physical and
spiritual; but the instant we look aside from the infinite levels and absolute
reality of the personal values of the Paradise Father, we observe the
existence of these two realities and recognize that they are fully responsive
to his personal presence; in him all things consist.
56:1.6 The moment you depart from the unqualified
concept of the infinite personality of the Paradise Father, you must postulate
MIND as the inevitable technique of unifying the ever-widening divergence of
these dual universe manifestations of the original monothetic Creator
personality, the First Source and Center -- the I AM.
2. INTELLECTUAL UNITY
56:2.1 The Thought-Father realizes spirit expression
in the Word-Son and attains reality expansion through Paradise in the
far-flung material universes. The spiritual expressions of the Eternal Son are
correlated with the material levels of creation by the functions of the
Infinite Spirit, by whose spirit-responsive ministry of mind, and in whose
physical-directive acts of mind, the spiritual realities of Deity and the
material repercussions of Deity are correlated the one with the
other.
56:2.2 Mind is the functional endowment of the
Infinite Spirit, therefore infinite in potential and universal in bestowal.
The primal thought of the Universal Father eternalizes in dual expression: the
Isle of Paradise and his Deity equal, the spiritual and Eternal Son. Such
duality of eternal reality renders the mind God, the Infinite Spirit,
inevitable. Mind is the indispensable channel of communication between
spiritual and material realities. The material evolutionary creature can
conceive and comprehend the indwelling spirit only by the ministry of
mind.
56:2.3 This infinite and universal mind is
ministered in the universes of time and space as the cosmic mind; and though
extending from the primitive ministry of the adjutant spirits up to the
magnificent mind of the chief executive of a universe, even this cosmic mind
is adequately unified in the supervision of the Seven Master Spirits, who are
in turn co-ordinated with the Supreme Mind of time and space and perfectly
correlated with the all-embracing mind of the Infinite Spirit.
3. SPIRITUAL UNIFICATION
56:3.1 As the universal mind gravity is centered in
the Paradise personal presence of the Infinite Spirit, so does the universal
spirit gravity center in the Paradise personal presence of the Eternal Son.
The Universal Father is one, but to time-space he is revealed in the dual
phenomena of pure energy and pure spirit.
56:3.2 Paradise spirit realities are likewise one,
but in all time-space situations and relations this single spirit is revealed
in the dual phenomena of the spirit personalities and emanations of the
Eternal Son and the spirit personalities and influences of the Infinite Spirit
and associated creations; and there is yet a third -- pure-spirit
fragmentations -- the Father's bestowal of the Thought Adjusters and other
spirit entities which are prepersonal.
56:3.3 No matter on what level of universe
activities you may encounter spiritual phenomena or contact with spirit
beings, you may know that they are all derived from the God who is spirit by
the ministry of the Spirit Son and the Infinite Mind Spirit. And this
far-flung spirit functions as a phenomenon on the evolutionary worlds of time
as it is directed from the headquarters of the local universes. From these
capitals of the Creator Sons come the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Truth,
together with the ministry of the adjutant mind-spirits, to the lower and
evolving levels of material minds.
56:3.4 While mind is more unified on the level of
the Master Spirits in association with the Supreme Being and as the cosmic
mind in subordination to the Absolute Mind, the spirit ministry to the
evolving worlds is more directly unified in the personalities resident on the
headquarters of the local universes and in the persons of the presiding Divine
Ministers, who are in turn well-nigh perfectly correlated with the Paradise
gravity circuit of the Eternal Son, wherein occurs final unification of all
time-space spirit manifestations.
56:3.5 Perfected creature existence can be attained,
sustained, and eternalized by the fusion of self-conscious mind with a
fragment of the pre-Trinity spirit endowment of some one of the persons of the
Paradise Trinity. The mortal mind is the creation of the Sons and Daughters of
the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit and, when fused with the Thought
Adjuster from the Father, partakes of the threefold spirit endowment of the
evolutionary realms. But these three spirit expressions become perfectly
unified in the finaliters, even as they were in eternity so unified in the
Universal I AM ere he ever became the Universal Father of the Eternal Son and
the Infinite Spirit.
56:3.6 Spirit must always and ultimately become
threefold in expression and Trinity-unified in final realization. Spirit
originates from one source through a threefold expression; and in finality it
must and does attain its full realization in that divine unification which is
experienced in finding God -- oneness with divinity -- in eternity, and by
means of the ministry of the cosmic mind of the infinite expression of the
eternal word of the Father's universal thought.
4. PERSONALITY UNIFICATION
56:4.1 The Universal Father is a divinely unified
personality; hence will all his ascendant children who are carried to Paradise
by the rebound momentum of the Thought Adjusters, who went forth from Paradise
to indwell material mortals in obedience to the Father's mandate, likewise be
fully unified personalities ere they reach Havona.
56:4.2 Personality inherently reaches out to unify
all constituent realities. The infinite personality of the First Source and
Center, the Universal Father, unifies all seven constituent Absolutes of
Infinity; and the personality of mortal man, being an exclusive and direct
bestowal of the Universal Father, likewise possesses the potential of unifying
the constituent factors of the mortal creature. Such unifying creativity of
all creature personality is a birthmark of its high and exclusive source and
is further evidential of its unbroken contact with this same source through
the personality circuit, by means of which the personality of the creature
maintains direct and sustaining contact with the Father of all personality on
Paradise.
56:4.3 Notwithstanding that God is manifest from the
domains of the Sevenfold up through supremacy and ultimacy to God the
Absolute, the personality circuit, centering on Paradise and in the person of
God the Father, provides for the complete and perfect unification of all these
diverse expressions of divine personality so far as concerns all creature
personalities on all levels of intelligent existence and in all the realms of
the perfect, perfected, and perfecting universes.
56:4.4 While God is to and in the universes all that
we have portrayed, nevertheless, to you and to all other God-knowing creatures
he is one, your Father and their Father. To personality God cannot be plural.
God is Father to each of his creatures, and it is literally impossible for any
child to have more than one father.
56:4.5 Philosophically, cosmically, and with
reference to differential levels and locations of manifestation, you may and
perforce must conceive of the functioning of plural Deities and postulate the
existence of plural Trinities; but in the worshipful experience of the
personal contact of every worshiping personality throughout the master
universe, God is one; and that unified and personal Deity is our Paradise
parent, God the Father, the bestower, conservator, and Father of all
personalities from mortal man on the inhabited worlds to the Eternal Son on
the central Isle of Light.
5. DEITY UNITY
56:5.1 The oneness, the indivisibility, of Paradise
Deity is existential and absolute. There are three eternal personalizations of
Deity -- the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit -- but
in the Paradise Trinity they are actually one Deity, undivided and
indivisible.
56:5.2 From the original Paradise-Havona level of
existential reality, two subabsolute levels have differentiated, and thereon
have the Father, Son, and Spirit engaged in the creation of numerous personal
associates and subordinates. And while it is inappropriate in this connection
to undertake the consideration of absonite deity unification on transcendental
levels of ultimacy, it is feasible to look at some features of the unifying
function of the various Deity personalizations in whom divinity is
functionally manifest to the diverse sectors of creation and to the different
orders of intelligent beings.
56:5.3 The present functioning of divinity in the
superuniverses is actively manifest in the operations of the Supreme Creators
-- the local universe Creator Sons and Spirits, the superuniverse Ancients of
Days, and the Seven Master Spirits of Paradise. These beings constitute the
first three levels of God the Sevenfold leading inward to the Universal
Father, and this entire domain of God the Sevenfold is co-ordinating on the
first level of experiential deity in the evolving Supreme Being.
56:5.4 On Paradise and in the central universe,
Deity unity is a fact of existence. Throughout the evolving universes of time
and space, Deity unity is an achievement.
6. UNIFICATION OF EVOLUTIONARY DEITY
56:6.1 When the three eternal persons of Deity
function as undivided Deity in the Paradise Trinity, they achieve perfect
unity; likewise, when they create, either associatively or severally, their
Paradise progeny exhibit the characteristic unity of divinity. And this
divinity of purpose manifested by the Supreme Creators and Rulers of the
time-space domains eventuates in the unifying power potential of the
sovereignty of experiential supremacy which, in the presence of the impersonal
energy unity of the universe, constitutes a reality tension that can be
resolved only through adequate unification with the experiential personality
realities of experiential Deity.
56:6.2 The personality realities of the Supreme
Being come forth from the Paradise Deities and on the pilot world of the outer
Havona circuit unify with the power prerogatives of the Almighty Supreme
coming up from the Creator divinities of the grand universe. God the Supreme
as a person existed in Havona before the creation of the seven superuniverses,
but he functioned only on spiritual levels. The evolution of the Almighty
power of Supremacy by diverse divinity synthesis in the evolving universes
eventuated in a new power presence of Deity which co-ordinated with the
spiritual person of the Supreme in Havona by means of the Supreme Mind, which
concomitantly translated from the potential resident in the infinite mind of
the Infinite Spirit to the active functional mind of the Supreme Being.
56:6.3 The material-minded creatures of the
evolutionary worlds of the seven superuniverses can comprehend Deity unity
only as it is evolving in this power-personality synthesis of the Supreme
Being. On any level of existence God cannot exceed the conceptual capacity of
the beings who live on such a level. Mortal man must, through the recognition
of truth, the appreciation of beauty, and the worship of goodness, evolve the
recognition of a God of love and then progress through ascending deity levels
to the comprehension of the Supreme. Deity, having been thus grasped as
unified in power, can then be personalized in spirit to creature understanding
and attainment.
56:6.4 While ascending mortals achieve power
comprehension of the Almighty on the capitals of the superuniverses and
personality comprehension of the Supreme on the outer circuits of Havona, they
do not actually find the Supreme Being as they are destined to find the
Paradise Deities. Even the finaliters, sixth-stage spirits, have not found the
Supreme Being, nor are they likely to until they have achieved
seventh-stage-spirit status, and until the Supreme has become actually
functional in the activities of the future outer universes.
56:6.5 But when ascenders find the Universal Father
as the seventh level of God the Sevenfold, they have attained the personality
of the First Person of all deity levels of personal relationships with
universe creatures.
7. UNIVERSAL EVOLUTIONARY REPERCUSSIONS
56:7.1 The steady progress of evolution in the
time-space universes is accompanied by ever-enlarging revelations of Deity to
all intelligent creatures. The attainment of the height of evolutionary
progress on a world, in a system, constellation, universe, superuniverse, or
in the grand universe signalizes corresponding enlargements of deity function
to and in these progressive units of creation. And every such local
enhancement of divinity realization is accompanied by certain well-defined
repercussions of enlarged deity manifestation to all other sectors of
creation. Extending outward from Paradise, each new domain of realized and
attained evolution constitutes a new and enlarged revelation of experiential
Deity to the universe of universes.
56:7.2 As the components of a local universe are
progressively settled in light and life, God the Sevenfold is increasingly
made manifest. Time-space evolution begins on a planet with the first
expression of God the Sevenfold -- the Creator Son-Creative Spirit association
-- in control. With the settling of a system in light, this Son-Spirit liaison
attains the fullness of function; and when an entire constellation is thus
settled, the second phase of God the Sevenfold becomes more active throughout
such a realm. The completed administrative evolution of a local universe is
attended by new and more direct ministrations of the superuniverse Master
Spirits; and at this point there also begins that ever-expanding revelation
and realization of God the Supreme which culminates in the ascender's
comprehension of the Supreme Being while passing through the worlds of the
sixth Havona circuit.
56:7.3 The Universal Father, the Eternal Son, and
the Infinite Spirit are existential deity manifestations to intelligent
creatures and are not, therefore, similarly expanded in personality relations
with the mind and spirit creatures of all creation.
56:7.4 It should be noted that ascending mortals may
experience the impersonal presence of successive levels of Deity long before
they become sufficiently spiritual and adequately educated to attain
experiential personal recognition of, and contact with, these Deities as
personal beings.
56:7.5 Each new evolutionary attainment within a
sector of creation, as well as every new invasion of space by divinity
manifestations, is attended by simultaneous expansions of Deity
functional-revelation within the then existing and previously organized units
of all creation. This new invasion of the administrative work of the universes
and their component units may not always appear to be executed exactly in
accordance with the technique herewith outlined because it is the practice to
send forth advance groups of administrators to prepare the way for the
subsequent and successive eras of new administrative overcontrol. Even God the
Ultimate foreshadows his transcendental overcontrol of the universes during
the later stages of a local universe settled in light and life.
56:7.6 It is a fact that, as the creations of time
and space are progressively settled in evolutionary status, there is observed
a new and fuller functioning of God the Supreme concomitant with a
corresponding withdrawing of the first three manifestations of God the
Sevenfold. If and when the grand universe becomes settled in light and life,
what then will be the future function of the Creator-Creative manifestations
of God the Sevenfold if God the Supreme assumes direct control of these
creations of time and space? Are these organizers and pioneers of the
time-space universes to be liberated for similar activities in outer space? We
do not know, but we speculate much concerning these and related matters.
56:7.7 As the frontiers of experiential Deity are
extended out into the domains of the Unqualified Absolute, we envision the
activity of God the Sevenfold during the earlier evolutionary epochs of these
creations of the future. We are not all in agreement respecting the future
status of the Ancients of Days and the superuniverse Master Spirits. Neither
do we know whether or not the Supreme Being will therein function as in the
seven superuniverses. But we all conjecture that the Michaels, the Creator
Sons, are destined to function in these outer universes. Some hold that the
future ages will witness some closer form of union between the associated
Creator Sons and Divine Ministers; it is even possible that such a creator
union might eventuate in some new expression of associate-creator identity of
an ultimate nature. But we really know nothing about these possibilities of
the unrevealed future.
56:7.8 We do know, however, that in the universes of
time and space, God the Sevenfold provides a progressive approach to the
Universal Father, and that this evolutionary approach is experientially
unified in God the Supreme. We might conjecture that such a plan must prevail
in the outer universes; on the other hand the new orders of beings that may
sometime inhabit these universes may be able to approach Deity on ultimate
levels and by absonite techniques. In short, we have not the slightest concept
of what technique of deity approach may become operative in the future
universes of outer space.
56:7.9 Nevertheless, we deem that the perfected
superuniverses will in some way become a part of the Paradise-ascension
careers of those beings who may inhabit these outer creations. It is quite
possible that in that future age we may witness outer-spacers approaching
Havona through the seven superuniverses, administered by God the Supreme with
or without the collaboration of the Seven Master Spirits.
8. THE SUPREME UNIFIER
56:8.1 The Supreme Being has a threefold function in
the experience of mortal man: First, he is the unifier of time-space divinity,
God the Sevenfold; second, he is the maximum of Deity which finite creatures
can actually comprehend; third, he is mortal man's only avenue of approach to
the transcendental experience of consorting with absonite mind, eternal
spirit, and Paradise personality.
56:8.2 Ascendant finaliters, having been born in the
local universes, nurtured in the superuniverses, and trained in the central
universe, embrace in their personal experiences the full potential of the
comprehension of the time-space divinity of God the Sevenfold unifying in the
Supreme. Finaliters serve successively in superuniverses other than those of
nativity, thereby superimposing experience upon experience until the fullness
of the sevenfold diversity of possible creature experience has been
encompassed. Through the ministry of the indwelling Adjusters the finaliters
are enabled to find the Universal Father, but it is by these techniques
of experience that such finaliters come really to know the Supreme
Being, and they are destined to the service and the revelation of this
Supreme Deity in and to the future universes of outer space.
56:8.3 Bear in mind, all that God the Father and his
Paradise Sons do for us, we in turn and in spirit have the opportunity to do
for and in the emerging Supreme Being. The experience of love, joy, and
service in the universe is mutual. God the Father does not need that his sons
should return to him all that he bestows upon them, but they do (or may) in
turn bestow all of this upon their fellows and upon the evolving Supreme
Being.
56:8.4 All creational phenomena are reflective of
antecedent creator-spirit activities. Said Jesus, and it is literally true,
"The Son does only those things which he sees the Father do." In time you
mortals may begin the revelation of the Supreme to your fellows, and
increasingly may you augment this revelation as you ascend Paradiseward. In
eternity you may be permitted to make increasing revelations of this God of
evolutionary creatures on supreme levels -- even ultimate -- as seventh-stage
finaliters.
9. UNIVERSAL ABSOLUTE UNITY
56:9.1 The Unqualified Absolute and the Deity
Absolute are unified in the Universal Absolute. The Absolutes are co-ordinated
in the Ultimate, conditioned in the Supreme, and time-space modified in God
the Sevenfold. On subinfinite levels there are three Absolutes, but in
infinity they appear to be one. On Paradise there are three
personalizations of Deity, but in the Trinity they are one.
56:9.2 The major philosophic proposition of the
master universe is this: Did the Absolute (the three Absolutes as one in
infinity) exist before the Trinity? and is the Absolute ancestral to the
Trinity? or is the Trinity antecedent to the Absolute?
56:9.3 Is the Unqualified Absolute a force presence
independent of the Trinity? Does the presence of the Deity Absolute connote
the unlimited function of the Trinity? and is the Universal Absolute the final
function of the Trinity, even a Trinity of Trinities?
56:9.4 On first thought, a concept of the Absolute
as ancestor to all things -- even the Trinity -- seems to afford transitory
satisfaction of consistency gratification and philosophic unification, but any
such conclusion is invalidated by the actuality of the eternity of the
Paradise Trinity. We are taught, and we believe, that the Universal Father and
his Trinity associates are eternal in nature and existence. There is, then,
but one consistent philosophic conclusion, and that is: The Absolute is, to
all universe intelligences, the impersonal and co-ordinate reaction of the
Trinity (of Trinities) to all basic and primary space situations,
intrauniversal and extrauniversal. To all personality intelligences of the
grand universe the Paradise Trinity forever stands in finality, eternity,
supremacy, and ultimacy and, for all practical purposes of personal
comprehension and creature realization, as absolute.
56:9.5 As creature minds may view this problem, they
are led to the final postulate of the Universal I AM as the primal cause and
the unqualified source of both the Trinity and the Absolute. When, therefore,
we crave to entertain a personal concept of the Absolute, we revert to our
ideas and ideals of the Paradise Father. When we desire to facilitate
comprehension or to augment consciousness of this otherwise impersonal
Absolute, we revert to the fact that the Universal Father is the existential
Father of absolute personality; the Eternal Son is the Absolute Person, though
not, in the experiential sense, the personalization of the Absolute. And then
we go on to envisage the experiential Trinities as culminating in the
experiential personalization of the Deity Absolute, while conceiving the
Universal Absolute as constituting the universe and the extrauniverse
phenomena of the manifest presence of the impersonal activities of the unified
and co-ordinated Deity associations of supremacy, ultimacy, and infinity --
the Trinity of Trinities.
56:9.6 God the Father is discernible on all levels
from the finite to the infinite, and though his creatures from Paradise to the
evolutionary worlds have variously perceived him, only the Eternal Son and the
Infinite Spirit know him as an infinity.
56:9.7 Spiritual personality is absolute only on
Paradise, and the concept of the Absolute is unqualified only in infinity.
Deity presence is absolute only on Paradise, and the revelation of God must
always be partial, relative, and progressive until his power becomes
experientially infinite in the space potency of the Unqualified Absolute,
while his personality manifestation becomes experientially infinite in the
manifest presence of the Deity Absolute, and while these two potentials of
infinity become reality-unified in the Universal Absolute.
56:9.8 But beyond subinfinite levels the three
Absolutes are one, and thereby is infinity Deity-realized regardless of
whether any other order of existence ever self-realizes consciousness of
infinity.
56:9.9 Existential status in eternity implies
existential self-consciousness of infinity, even though another eternity may
be required to experience self-realization of the experiential potentialities
inherent in an infinity eternity -- an eternal infinity.
56:9.10 And God the Father is the personal source of
all manifestations of Deity and reality to all intelligent creatures and
spirit beings throughout all the universe of universes. As personalities, now
or in the successive universe experiences of the eternal future, no matter if
you achieve the attainment of God the Sevenfold, comprehend God the Supreme,
find God the Ultimate, or attempt to grasp the concept of God the Absolute,
you will discover to your eternal satisfaction that in the consummation of
each adventure you have, on new experiential levels, rediscovered the eternal
God -- the Paradise Father of all universe personalities.
56:9.11 The Universal Father is the explanation of
universal unity as it must be supremely, even ultimately, realized in the
postultimate unity of absolute values and meanings -- unqualified
Reality.
56:9.12 The Master Force Organizers go out into
space and mobilize its energies to become gravity responsive to the Paradise
pull of the Universal Father; and subsequently there come the Creator Sons,
who organize these gravity-responding forces into inhabited universes and
therein evolve intelligent creatures who receive unto themselves the spirit of
the Paradise Father and subsequently ascend to the Father to become like him
in all possible divinity attributes.
56:9.13 The ceaseless and expanding march of the
Paradise creative forces through space seems to presage the ever-extending
domain of the gravity grasp of the Universal Father and the never-ending
multiplication of varied types of intelligent creatures who are able to love
God and be loved by him, and who, by thus becoming God-knowing, may choose to
be like him, may elect to attain Paradise and find God.
56:9.14 The universe of universes is altogether
unified. God is one in power and personality. There is co-ordination of all
levels of energy and all phases of personality. Philosophically and
experientially, in concept and in reality, all things and beings center in the
Paradise Father. God is all and in all, and no things or beings exist without
him.
10. TRUTH, BEAUTY, AND GOODNESS
56:10.1 As the worlds settled in life and light
progress from the initial stage to the seventh epoch, they successively grasp
for the realization of the reality of God the Sevenfold, ranging from the
adoration of the Creator Son to the worship of his Paradise Father. Throughout
the continuing seventh stage of such a world's history the ever-progressing
mortals grow in the knowledge of God the Supreme, while they vaguely discern
the reality of the overshadowing ministry of God the Ultimate.
56:10.2 Throughout this glorious age the chief
pursuit of the ever-advancing mortals is the quest for a better understanding
and a fuller realization of the comprehensible elements of Deity -- truth,
beauty, and goodness. This represents man's effort to discern God in mind,
matter, and spirit. And as the mortal pursues this quest, he finds himself
increasingly absorbed in the experiential study of philosophy, cosmology, and
divinity.
56:10.3 Philosophy you somewhat grasp, and divinity
you comprehend in worship, social service, and personal spiritual experience,
but the pursuit of beauty -- cosmology -- you all too often limit to the study
of man's crude artistic endeavors. Beauty, art, is largely a matter of the
unification of contrasts. Variety is essential to the concept of beauty. The
supreme beauty, the height of finite art, is the drama of the unification of
the vastness of the cosmic extremes of Creator and creature. Man finding God
and God finding man -- the creature becoming perfect as is the Creator -- that
is the supernal achievement of the supremely beautiful, the attainment of the
apex of cosmic art.
56:10.4 Hence materialism, atheism, is the
maximation of ugliness, the climax of the finite antithesis of the beautiful.
Highest beauty consists in the panorama of the unification of the variations
which have been born of pre-existent harmonious reality.
56:10.5 The attainment of cosmologic levels of
thought includes:
56:10.6 1. Curiosity. Hunger for harmony and
thirst for beauty. Persistent attempts to discover new levels of harmonious
cosmic relationships.
56:10.7 2. Aesthetic appreciation. Love of
the beautiful and ever-advancing appreciation of the artistic touch of all
creative manifestations on all levels of reality.
56:10.8 3. Ethic sensitivity. Through the
realization of truth the appreciation of beauty leads to the sense of the
eternal fitness of those things which impinge upon the recognition of divine
goodness in Deity relations with all beings; and thus even cosmology leads to
the pursuit of divine reality values -- to God-consciousness.
56:10.9 The worlds settled in light and life are so
fully concerned with the comprehension of truth, beauty, and goodness because
these quality values embrace the revelation of Deity to the realms of time and
space. The meanings of eternal truth make a combined appeal to the
intellectual and spiritual natures of mortal man. Universal beauty embraces
the harmonious relations and rhythms of the cosmic creation; this is more
distinctly the intellectual appeal and leads towards unified and synchronous
comprehension of the material universe. Divine goodness represents the
revelation of infinite values to the finite mind, therein to be perceived and
elevated to the very threshold of the spiritual level of human
comprehension.
56:10.10 Truth is the basis of science and
philosophy, presenting the intellectual foundation of religion. Beauty
sponsors art, music, and the meaningful rhythms of all human experience.
Goodness embraces the sense of ethics, morality, and religion -- experiential
perfection-hunger.
56:10.11 The existence of beauty implies the
presence of appreciative creature mind just as certainly as the fact of
progressive evolution indicates the dominance of the Supreme Mind. Beauty is
the intellectual recognition of the harmonious time-space synthesis of the
far-flung diversification of phenomenal reality, all of which stems from
pre-existent and eternal oneness.
56:10.12 Goodness is the mental recognition of the
relative values of the diverse levels of divine perfection. The recognition of
goodness implies a mind of moral status, a personal mind with ability to
discriminate between good and evil. But the possession of goodness, greatness,
is the measure of real divinity attainment.
56:10.13 The recognition of true relations
implies a mind competent to discriminate between truth and error. The bestowal
Spirit of Truth which invests the human minds of Urantia is unerringly
responsive to truth -- the living spirit relationship of all things and all
beings as they are co-ordinated in the eternal ascent Godward.
56:10.14 Every impulse of every electron, thought,
or spirit is an acting unit in the whole universe. Only sin is isolated and
evil gravity resisting on the mental and spiritual levels. The universe is a
whole; no thing or being exists or lives in isolation. Self-realization is
potentially evil if it is antisocial. It is literally true: "No man lives by
himself." Cosmic socialization constitutes the highest form of personality
unification. Said Jesus: "He who would be greatest among you, let him become
server of all."
56:10.15 Even truth, beauty, and goodness -- man's
intellectual approach to the universe of mind, matter, and spirit -- must be
combined into one unified concept of a divine and supreme ideal. As
mortal personality unifies the human experience with matter, mind, and spirit,
so does this divine and supreme ideal become power-unified in Supremacy and
then personalized as a God of fatherly love.
56:10.16 All insight into the relations of the parts
to any given whole requires an understanding grasp of the relation of all
parts to that whole; and in the universe this means the relation of created
parts to the Creative Whole. Deity thus becomes the transcendental, even the
infinite, goal of universal and eternal attainment.
56:10.17 Universal beauty is the recognition of the
reflection of the Isle of Paradise in the material creation, while eternal
truth is the special ministry of the Paradise Sons who not only bestow
themselves upon the mortal races but even pour out their Spirit of Truth upon
all peoples. Divine goodness is more fully shown forth in the loving ministry
of the manifold personalities of the Infinite Spirit. But love, the sum total
of these three qualities, is man's perception of God as his spirit
Father.
56:10.18 Physical matter is the time-space shadow of
the Paradise energy-shining of the absolute Deities. Truth meanings are the
mortal-intellect repercussions of the eternal word of Deity -- the time-space
comprehension of supreme concepts. The goodness values of divinity are the
merciful ministries of the spirit personalities of the Universal, the Eternal,
and the Infinite to the time-space finite creatures of the evolutionary
spheres.
56:10.19 These meaningful reality values of divinity
are blended in the Father's relation with each personal creature as divine
love. They are co-ordinated in the Son and his Sons as divine mercy. They
manifest their qualities through the Spirit and his spirit children as divine
ministry, the portrayal of loving mercy to the children of time. These three
divinities are primarily manifested by the Supreme Being as power-personality
synthesis. They are variously shown forth by God the Sevenfold in seven
differing associations of divine meanings and values on seven ascending
levels.
56:10.20 To finite man truth, beauty, and goodness
embrace the full revelation of divinity reality. As this love-comprehension of
Deity finds spiritual expression in the lives of God-knowing mortals, there
are yielded the fruits of divinity: intellectual peace, social progress, moral
satisfaction, spiritual joy, and cosmic wisdom. The advanced mortals on a
world in the seventh stage of light and life have learned that love is the
greatest thing in the universe -- and they know that God is love.
56:10.21 Love is the desire to do good to
others.
56:10.22 Presented
by a Mighty Messenger visiting on Urantia, by request of the Nebadon
Revelatory Corps and in collaboration with a certain Melchizedek, the
vicegerent Planetary Prince of Urantia.
* * * * *
56:10.23 This paper on Universal Unity is the
twenty-fifth of a series of presentations by various authors, having been
sponsored as a group by a commission of Nebadon personalities numbering twelve
and acting under the direction of Mantutia Melchizedek. We indited these
narratives and put them in the English language, by a technique authorized by
our superiors, in the year 1934 of Urantia time.
