The Urantia Book
PAPER 160
RODAN OF ALEXANDRIA
160:0.1 ON SUNDAY morning, September 18, Andrew
announced that no work would be planned for the coming week. All
of the apostles, except Nathaniel and Thomas, went home to visit
their families or to sojourn with friends. This week Jesus enjoyed
a period of almost complete rest, but Nathaniel and Thomas were
very busy with their discussions with a certain Greek philosopher
from Alexandria named Rodan. This Greek had recently become a
disciple of Jesus through the teaching of one of Abner's
associates who had conducted a mission at Alexandria. Rodan was
now earnestly engaged in the task of harmonizing his philosophy of
life with Jesus' new religious teachings, and he had come to
Magadan hoping that the Master would talk these problems over with
him. He also desired to secure a firsthand and authoritative
version of the gospel from either Jesus or one of his apostles.
Though the Master declined to enter into such a conference with
Rodan, he did receive him graciously and immediately directed that
Nathaniel and Thomas should listen to all he had to say and tell
him about the gospel in return.
1. RODAN'S GREEK PHILOSOPHY
160:1.1 Early Monday morning, Rodan began a
series of ten addresses to Nathaniel, Thomas, and a group of some
two dozen believers who chanced to be at Magadan. These talks,
condensed, combined, and restated in modern phraseology, present
the following thoughts for consideration:
160:1.2 Human life consists in three great
drives -- urges, desires, and lures. Strong character, commanding
personality, is only acquired by converting the natural urge of
life into the social art of living, by transforming present
desires into those higher longings which are capable of lasting
attainment, while the commonplace lure of existence must be
transferred from one's conventional and established ideas to the
higher realms of unexplored ideas and undiscovered ideals.
160:1.3 The more complex civilization becomes,
the more difficult will become the art of living. The more rapid
the changes in social usage, the more complicated will become the
task of character development. Every ten generations mankind must
learn anew the art of living if progress is to continue. And if
man becomes so ingenious that he more rapidly adds to the
complexities of society, the art of living will need to be
remastered in less time, perhaps every single generation. If the
evolution of the art of living fails to keep pace with the
technique of existence, humanity will quickly revert to the simple
urge of living -- the attainment of the satisfaction of present
desires. Thus will humanity remain immature; society will fail in
growing up to full maturity
160:1.4 Social maturity is equivalent to the
degree to which man is willing to surrender the gratification of
mere transient and present desires for the entertainment of those
superior longings the striving for whose attainment affords the
more abundant satisfactions of progressive advancement toward
permanent goals. But the true badge of social maturity is the
willingness of a people to surrender the right to live peaceably
and contentedly under the ease-promoting standards of the lure of
established beliefs and conventional ideas for the disquieting and
energy-requiring lure of the pursuit of the unexplored
possibilities of the attainment of undiscovered goals of
idealistic spiritual realities.
160:1.5 Animals respond nobly to the urge of
life, but only man can attain the art of living, albeit the
majority of mankind only experience the animal urge to live.
Animals know only this blind and instinctive urge; man is capable
of transcending this urge to natural function. Man may elect to
live upon the high plane of intelligent art, even that of
celestial joy and spiritual ecstasy. Animals make no inquiry into
the purposes of life; therefore they never worry, neither do they
commit suicide. Suicide among men testifies that such beings have
emerged from the purely animal stage of existence, and to the
further fact that the exploratory efforts of such human beings
have failed to attain the artistic levels of mortal experience.
Animals know not the meaning of life; man not only possesses
capacity for the recognition of values and the comprehension of
meanings, but he also is conscious of the meaning of meanings --
he is self-conscious of insight.
160:1.6 When men dare to forsake a life of
natural craving for one of adventurous art and uncertain logic,
they must expect to suffer the consequent hazards of emotional
casualties -- conflicts, unhappiness, and uncertainties -- at
least until the time of their attainment of some degree of
intellectual and emotional maturity. Discouragement, worry, and
indolence are positive evidence of moral immaturity. Human society
is confronted with two problems: attainment of the maturity of the
individual and attainment of the maturity of the race. The mature
human being soon begins to look upon all other mortals with
feelings of tenderness and with emotions of tolerance. Mature men
view immature folks with the love and consideration that parents
bear their children.
160:1.7 Successful living is nothing more or
less than the art of the mastery of dependable techniques for
solving common problems. The first step in the solution of any
problem is to locate the difficulty, to isolate the problem, and
frankly to recognize its nature and gravity. The great mistake is
that, when life problems excite our profound fears, we refuse to
recognize them. Likewise, when the acknowledgment of our
difficulties entails the reduction of our long-cherished conceit,
the admission of envy, or the abandonment of deep-seated
prejudices, the average person prefers to cling to the old
illusions of safety and to the long-cherished false feelings of
security. Only a brave person is willing honestly to admit, and
fearlessly to face, what a sincere and logical mind discovers.
160:1.8 The wise and effective solution of any
problem demands that the mind shall be free from bias, passion,
and all other purely personal prejudices which might interfere
with the disinterested survey of the actual factors that go to
make up the problem presenting itself for solution. The solution
of life problems requires courage and sincerity. Only honest and
brave individuals are able to follow valiantly through the
perplexing and confusing maze of living to where the logic of a
fearless mind may lead. And this emancipation of the mind and soul
can never be effected without the driving power of an intelligent
enthusiasm which borders on religious zeal. It requires the lure
of a great ideal to drive man on in the pursuit of a goal which is
beset with difficult material problems and manifold intellectual
hazards.
160:1.9 Even though you are effectively armed to
meet the difficult situations of life, you can hardly expect
success unless you are equipped with that wisdom of mind and charm
of personality which enable you to win the hearty support and
co-operation of your fellows. You cannot hope for a large measure
of success in either secular or religious work unless you can
learn how to persuade your fellows, to prevail with men. You
simply must have tact and tolerance.
160:1.10 But the greatest of all methods of
problem solving I have learned from Jesus, your Master. I refer to
that which he so consistently practices, and which he has so
faithfully taught you, the isolation of worshipful meditation. In
this habit of Jesus' going off so frequently by himself to commune
with the Father in heaven is to be found the technique, not only
of gathering strength and wisdom for the ordinary conflicts of
living, but also of appropriating the energy for the solution of
the higher problems of a moral and spiritual nature. But even
correct methods of solving problems will not compensate for
inherent defects of personality or atone for the absence of the
hunger and thirst for true righteousness.
160:1.11 I am deeply impressed with the custom
of Jesus in going apart by himself to engage in these seasons of
solitary survey of the problems of living; to seek for new stores
of wisdom and energy for meeting the manifold demands of social
service; to quicken and deepen the supreme purpose of living by
actually subjecting the total personality to the consciousness of
contacting with divinity; to grasp for possession of new and
better methods of adjusting oneself to the ever-changing
situations of living existence; to effect those vital
reconstructions and readjustments of one's personal attitudes
which are so essential to enhanced insight into everything worth
while and real; and to do all of this with an eye single to the
glory of God -- to breathe in sincerity your Master's favorite
prayer, "Not my will, but yours, be done."
160:1.12 This worshipful practice of your Master
brings that relaxation which renews the mind; that illumination
which inspires the soul; that courage which enables one bravely to
face one's problems; that self-understanding which obliterates
debilitating fear; and that consciousness of union with divinity
which equips man with the assurance that enables him to dare to be
Godlike. The relaxation of worship, or spiritual communion as
practiced by the Master, relieves tension, removes conflicts, and
mightily augments the total resources of the personality. And all
this philosophy, plus the gospel of the kingdom, constitutes the
new religion as I understand it.
160:1.13 Prejudice blinds the soul to the
recognition of truth, and prejudice can be removed only by the
sincere devotion of the soul to the adoration of a cause that is
all-embracing and all-inclusive of one's fellow men. Prejudice is
inseparably linked to selfishness. Prejudice can be eliminated
only by the abandonment of self-seeking and by substituting
therefor the quest of the satisfaction of the service of a cause
that is not only greater than self, but one that is even greater
than all humanity -- the search for God, the attainment of
divinity. The evidence of maturity of personality consists in the
transformation of human desire so that it constantly seeks for the
realization of those values which are highest and most divinely
real.
160:1.14 In a continually changing world, in the
midst of an evolving social order, it is impossible to maintain
settled and established goals of destiny. Stability of personality
can be experienced only by those who have discovered and embraced
the living God as the eternal goal of infinite attainment. And
thus to transfer one's goal from time to eternity, from earth to
Paradise, from the human to the divine, requires that man shall
become regenerated, converted, be born again; that he shall become
the re-created child of the divine spirit; that he shall gain
entrance into the brotherhood of the kingdom of heaven. All
philosophies and religions which fall short of these ideals are
immature. The philosophy which I teach, linked with the gospel
which you preach, represents the new religion of maturity, the
ideal of all future generations. And this is true because our
ideal is final, infallible, eternal, universal, absolute, and
infinite.
160:1.15 My philosophy gave me the urge to
search for the realities of true attainment, the goal of maturity.
But my urge was impotent; my search lacked driving power; my quest
suffered from the absence of certainty of directionization. And
these deficiencies have been abundantly supplied by this new
gospel of Jesus, with its enhancement of insights, elevation of
ideals, and settledness of goals. Without doubts and misgivings I
can now wholeheartedly enter upon the eternal venture.
2. THE ART OF LIVING
160:2.1 There are just two ways in which mortals
may live together: the material or animal way and the spiritual or
human way. By the use of signals and sounds animals are able to
communicate with each other in a limited way. But such forms of
communication do not convey meanings, values, or ideas. The one
distinction between man and the animal is that man can communicate
with his fellows by means of symbols which most certainly
designate and identify meanings, values, ideas, and even ideals.
160:2.2 Since animals cannot communicate ideas
to each other, they cannot develop personality. Man develops
personality because he can thus communicate with his fellows
concerning both ideas and ideals.
160:2.3 It is this ability to communicate and
share meanings that constitutes human culture and enables man,
through social associations, to build civilizations. Knowledge and
wisdom become cumulative because of man's ability to communicate
these possessions to succeeding generations. And thereby arise the
cultural activities of the race: art, science, religion, and
philosophy.
160:2.4 Symbolic communication between human
beings predetermines the bringing into existence of social groups.
The most effective of all social groups is the family, more
particularly the two parents. Personal affection is the
spiritual bond which holds together these material associations.
Such an effective relationship is also possible between two
persons of the same sex, as is so abundantly illustrated in the
devotions of genuine friendships.
160:2.5 These associations of friendship and
mutual affection are socializing and ennobling because they
encourage and facilitate the following essential factors of the
higher levels of the art of living:
160:2.6 1. Mutual self-expression and
self-understanding. Many noble human impulses die because
there is no one to hear their expression. Truly, it is not good
for man to be alone. Some degree of recognition and a certain
amount of appreciation are essential to the development of human
character. Without the genuine love of a home, no child can
achieve the full development of normal character. Character is
something more than mere mind and morals. Of all social relations
calculated to develop character, the most effective and ideal is
the affectionate and understanding friendship of man and woman in
the mutual embrace of intelligent wedlock. Marriage, with its
manifold relations, is best designed to draw forth those precious
impulses and those higher motives which are indispensable to the
development of a strong character. I do not hesitate thus to
glorify family life, for your Master has wisely chosen the
father-child relationship as the very cornerstone of this new
gospel of the kingdom. And such a matchless community of
relationship, man and woman in the fond embrace of the highest
ideals of time, is so valuable and satisfying an experience that
it is worth any price, any sacrifice, requisite for its
possession.
160:2.7 2. Union of souls -- the mobilization
of wisdom. Every human being sooner or later acquires a
certain concept of this world and a certain vision of the next.
Now it is possible, through personality association, to unite
these views of temporal existence and eternal prospects. Thus does
the mind of one augment its spiritual values by gaining much of
the insight of the other. In this way men enrich the soul by
pooling their respective spiritual possessions. Likewise, in this
same way, man is enabled to avoid that ever-present tendency to
fall victim to distortion of vision, prejudice of viewpoint, and
narrowness of judgment. Fear, envy, and conceit can be prevented
only by intimate contact with other minds. I call your attention
to the fact that the Master never sends you out alone to labor for
the extension of the kingdom; he always sends you out two and two.
And since wisdom is superknowledge, it follows that, in the union
of wisdom, the social group, small or large, mutually shares all
knowledge.
160:2.8 3. The enthusiasm for living.
Isolation tends to exhaust the energy charge of the soul.
Association with one's fellows is essential to the renewal of the
zest for life and is indispensable to the maintenance of the
courage to fight those battles consequent upon the ascent to the
higher levels of human living. Friendship enhances the joys and
glorifies the triumphs of life. Loving and intimate human
associations tend to rob suffering of its sorrow and hardship of
much of its bitterness. The presence of a friend enhances all
beauty and exalts every goodness. By intelligent symbols man is
able to quicken and enlarge the appreciative capacities of his
friends. One of the crowning glories of human friendship is this
power and possibility of the mutual stimulation of the
imagination. Great spiritual power is inherent in the
consciousness of wholehearted devotion to a common cause, mutual
loyalty to a cosmic Deity.
160:2.9 4. The enhanced defense against all
evil. Personality association and mutual affection is an
efficient insurance against evil. Difficulties, sorrow,
disappointment, and defeat are more painful and disheartening when
borne alone. Association does not transmute evil into
righteousness, but it does aid in greatly lessening the sting.
Said your Master, "Happy are they who mourn" -- if a friend is at
hand to comfort. There is positive strength in the knowledge that
you live for the welfare of others, and that these others likewise
live for your welfare and advancement. Man languishes in
isolation. Human beings unfailingly become discouraged when they
view only the transitory transactions of time. The present, when
divorced from the past and the future, becomes exasperatingly
trivial. Only a glimpse of the circle of eternity can inspire man
to do his best and can challenge the best in him to do its utmost.
And when man is thus at his best, he lives most unselfishly for
the good of others, his fellow sojourners in time and eternity.
160:2.10 I repeat, such inspiring and ennobling
association finds its ideal possibilities in the human marriage
relation. True, much is attained out of marriage, and many, many
marriages utterly fail to produce these moral and spiritual
fruits. Too many times marriage is entered by those who seek other
values which are lower than these superior accompaniments of human
maturity. Ideal marriage must be founded on something more stable
than the fluctuations of sentiment and the fickleness of mere sex
attraction; it must be based on genuine and mutual personal
devotion. And thus, if you can build up such trustworthy and
effective small units of human association, when these are
assembled in the aggregate, the world will behold a great and
glorified social structure, the civilization of mortal maturity.
Such a race might begin to realize something of your Master's
ideal of "peace on earth and good will among men." While such a
society would not be perfect or entirely free from evil, it would
at least approach the stabilization of maturity.
3. THE LURES OF MATURITY
160:3.1 The effort toward maturity necessitates
work, and work requires energy. Whence the power to accomplish all
this? The physical things can be taken for granted, but the Master
has well said, "Man cannot live by bread alone." Granted the
possession of a normal body and reasonably good health, we must
next look for those lures which will act as a stimulus to call
forth man's slumbering spiritual forces. Jesus has taught us that
God lives in man; then how can we induce man to release these
soul-bound powers of divinity and infinity? How shall we induce
men to let go of God that he may spring forth to the refreshment
of our own souls while in transit outward and then to serve the
purpose of enlightening, uplifting, and blessing countless other
souls? How best can I awaken these latent powers for good which
lie dormant in your souls? One thing I am sure of: Emotional
excitement is not the ideal spiritual stimulus. Excitement does
not augment energy; it rather exhausts the powers of both mind and
body. Whence then comes the energy to do these great things? Look
to your Master. Even now he is out in the hills taking in power
while we are here giving out energy. The secret of all this
problem is wrapped up in spiritual communion, in worship. From the
human standpoint it is a question of combined meditation and
relaxation. Meditation makes the contact of mind with spirit;
relaxation determines the capacity for spiritual receptivity. And
this interchange of strength for weakness, courage for fear, the
will of God for the mind of self, constitutes worship. At least,
that is the way the philosopher views it.
160:3.2 When these experiences are frequently
repeated, they crystallize into habits, strength-giving and
worshipful habits, and such habits eventually formulate themselves
into a spiritual character, and such a character is finally
recognized by one's fellows as a mature personality. These
practices are difficult and time-consuming at first, but when they
become habitual, they are at once restful and time-saving. The
more complex society becomes, and the more the lures of
civilization multiply, the more urgent will become the necessity
for God-knowing individuals to form such protective habitual
practices designed to conserve and augment their spiritual
energies.
160:3.3 Another requirement for the attainment
of maturity is the co-operative adjustment of social groups to an
ever-changing environment. The immature individual arouses the
antagonisms of his fellows; the mature man wins the hearty
co-operation of his associates, thereby many times multiplying the
fruits of his life efforts.
160:3.4 My philosophy tells me that there are
times when I must fight, if need be, for the defense of my concept
of righteousness, but I doubt not that the Master, with a more
mature type of personality, would easily and gracefully gain an
equal victory by his superior and winsome technique of tact and
tolerance. All too often, when we battle for the right, it turns
out that both the victor and the vanquished have sustained defeat.
I heard the Master say only yesterday that the "wise man, when
seeking entrance through the locked door, would not destroy the
door but rather would seek for the key wherewith to unlock it."
Too often we engage in a fight merely to convince ourselves that
we are not afraid.
160:3.5 This new gospel of the kingdom renders a
great service to the art of living in that it supplies a new and
richer incentive for higher living. It presents a new and exalted
goal of destiny, a supreme life purpose. And these new concepts of
the eternal and divine goal of existence are in themselves
transcendent stimuli, calling forth the reaction of the very best
that is resident in man's higher nature. On every mountaintop of
intellectual thought are to be found relaxation for the mind,
strength for the soul, and communion for the spirit. From such
vantage points of high living, man is able to transcend the
material irritations of the lower levels of thinking -- worry,
jealousy, envy, revenge, and the pride of immature personality.
These high-climbing souls deliver themselves from a multitude of
the crosscurrent conflicts of the trifles of living, thus becoming
free to attain consciousness of the higher currents of spirit
concept and celestial communication. But the life purpose must be
jealously guarded from the temptation to seek for easy and
transient attainment; likewise must it be so fostered as to become
immune to the disastrous threats of fanaticism.
4. THE BALANCE OF MATURITY
160:4.1 While you have an eye single to the
attainment of eternal realities, you must also make provision for
the necessities of temporal living. While the spirit is our goal,
the flesh is a fact. Occasionally the necessities of living may
fall into our hands by accident, but in general, we must
intelligently work for them. The two major problems of life are:
making a temporal living and the achievement of eternal survival.
And even the problem of making a living requires religion for its
ideal solution. These are both highly personal problems. True
religion, in fact, does not function apart from the individual.
160:4.2 The essentials of the temporal life, as
I see them, are:
1. Good physical health.
2. Clear and clean thinking.
3. Ability and skill.
4. Wealth -- the goods of life.
5. Ability to withstand defeat.
6. Culture -- education and wisdom.
160:4.3 Even the physical problems of bodily
health and efficiency are best solved when they are viewed from
the religious standpoint of our Master's teaching: That the body
and mind of man are the dwelling place of the gift of the Gods,
the spirit of God becoming the spirit of man. The mind of man thus
becomes the mediator between material things and spiritual
realities.
160:4.4 It requires intelligence to secure one's
share of the desirable things of life. It is wholly erroneous to
suppose that faithfulness in doing one's daily work will insure
the rewards of wealth. Barring the occasional and accidental
acquirement of wealth, the material rewards of the temporal life
are found to flow in certain well-organized channels, and only
those who have access to these channels may expect to be well
rewarded for their temporal efforts. Poverty must ever be the lot
of all men who seek for wealth in isolated and individual
channels. Wise planning, therefore, becomes the one thing
essential to worldly prosperity. Success requires not only
devotion to one's work but also that one should function as a part
of some one of the channels of material wealth. If you are unwise,
you can bestow a devoted life upon your generation without
material reward; if you are an accidental beneficiary of the flow
of wealth, you may roll in luxury even though you have done
nothing worth while for your fellow men.
160:4.5 Ability is that which you inherit, while
skill is what you acquire. Life is not real to one who cannot do
some one thing well, expertly. Skill is one of the real sources of
the satisfaction of living. Ability implies the gift of foresight,
farseeing vision. Be not deceived by the tempting rewards of
dishonest achievement; be willing to toil for the later returns
inherent in honest endeavor. The wise man is able to distinguish
between means and ends; otherwise, sometimes overplanning for the
future defeats its own high purpose. As a pleasure seeker you
should aim always to be a producer as well as a consumer.
160:4.6 Train your memory to hold in sacred
trust the strength-giving and worth-while episodes of life, which
you can recall at will for your pleasure and edification. Thus
build up for yourself and in yourself reserve galleries of beauty,
goodness, and artistic grandeur. But the noblest of all memories
are the treasured recollections of the great moments of a superb
friendship. And all of these memory treasures radiate their most
precious and exalting influences under the releasing touch of
spiritual worship.
160:4.7 But life will become a burden of
existence unless you learn how to fail gracefully. There is an art
in defeat which noble souls always acquire; you must know how to
lose cheerfully; you must be fearless of disappointment. Never
hesitate to admit failure. Make no attempt to hide failure under
deceptive smiles and beaming optimism. It sounds well always to
claim success, but the end results are appalling. Such a technique
leads directly to the creation of a world of unreality and to the
inevitable crash of ultimate disillusionment.
160:4.8 Success may generate courage and promote
confidence, but wisdom comes only from the experiences of
adjustment to the results of one's failures. Men who prefer
optimistic illusions to reality can never become wise. Only those
who face facts and adjust them to ideals can achieve wisdom.
Wisdom embraces both the fact and the ideal and therefore saves
its devotees from both of those barren extremes of philosophy --
the man whose idealism excludes facts and the materialist who is
devoid of spiritual outlook. Those timid souls who can only keep
up the struggle of life by the aid of continuous false illusions
of success are doomed to suffer failure and experience defeat as
they ultimately awaken from the dream world of their own
imaginations.
160:4.9 And it is in this business of facing
failure and adjusting to defeat that the far-reaching vision of
religion exerts its supreme influence. Failure is simply an
educational episode -- a cultural experiment in the acquirement of
wisdom -- in the experience of the God-seeking man who has
embarked on the eternal adventure of the exploration of a
universe. To such men defeat is but a new tool for the achievement
of higher levels of universe reality.
160:4.10 The career of a God-seeking man may
prove to be a great success in the light of eternity, even though
the whole temporal-life enterprise may appear as an overwhelming
failure, provided each life failure yielded the culture of wisdom
and spirit achievement. Do not make the mistake of confusing
knowledge, culture, and wisdom. They are related in life, but they
represent vastly differing spirit values; wisdom ever dominates
knowledge and always glorifies culture.
5. THE RELIGION OF THE IDEAL
160:5.1 You have told me that your Master
regards genuine human religion as the individual's experience with
spiritual realities. I have regarded religion as man's experience
of reacting to something which he regards as being worthy of the
homage and devotion of all mankind. In this sense, religion
symbolizes our supreme devotion to that which represents our
highest concept of the ideals of reality and the farthest reach of
our minds toward eternal possibilities of spiritual attainment.
160:5.2 When men react to religion in the
tribal, national, or racial sense, it is because they look upon
those without their group as not being truly human. We always look
upon the object of our religious loyalty as being worthy of the
reverence of all men. Religion can never be a matter of mere
intellectual belief or philosophic reasoning; religion is always
and forever a mode of reacting to the situations of life; it is a
species of conduct. Religion embraces thinking, feeling, and
acting reverently toward some reality which we deem worthy of
universal adoration.
160:5.3 If something has become a religion in
your experience, it is self-evident that you already have become
an active evangel of that religion since you deem the supreme
concept of your religion as being worthy of the worship of all
mankind, all universe intelligences. If you are not a positive and
missionary evangel of your religion, you are self-deceived in that
what you call a religion is only a traditional belief or a mere
system of intellectual philosophy. If your religion is a spiritual
experience, your object of worship must be the universal spirit
reality and ideal of all your spiritualized concepts. All
religions based on fear, emotion, tradition, and philosophy I term
the intellectual religions, while those based on true spirit
experience I would term the true religions. The object of
religious devotion may be material or spiritual, true or false,
real or unreal, human or divine. Religions can therefore be either
good or evil.
160:5.4 Morality and religion are not
necessarily the same. A system of morals, by grasping an object of
worship, may become a religion. A religion, by losing its
universal appeal to loyalty and supreme devotion, may evolve into
a system of philosophy or a code of morals. This thing, being,
state, or order of existence, or possibility of attainment which
constitutes the supreme ideal of religious loyalty, and which is
the recipient of the religious devotion of those who worship, is
God. Regardless of the name applied to this ideal of spirit
reality, it is God.
160:5.5 The social characteristics of a true
religion consist in the fact that it invariably seeks to convert
the individual and to transform the world. Religion implies the
existence of undiscovered ideals which far transcend the known
standards of ethics and morality embodied in even the highest
social usages of the most mature institutions of civilization.
Religion reaches out for undiscovered ideals, unexplored
realities, superhuman values, divine wisdom, and true spirit
attainment. True religion does all of this; all other beliefs are
not worthy of the name. You cannot have a genuine spiritual
religion without the supreme and supernal ideal of an eternal God.
A religion without this God is an invention of man, a human
institution of lifeless intellectual beliefs and meaningless
emotional ceremonies. A religion might claim as the object of its
devotion a great ideal. But such ideals of unreality are not
attainable; such a concept is illusionary. The only ideals
susceptible of human attainment are the divine realities of the
infinite values resident in the spiritual fact of the eternal God.
160:5.6 The word God, the idea of God as
contrasted with the ideal of God, can become a part of any
religion, no matter how puerile or false that religion may chance
to be. And this idea of God can become anything which those who
entertain it may choose to make it. The lower religions shape
their ideas of God to meet the natural state of the human heart;
the higher religions demand that the human heart shall be changed
to meet the demands of the ideals of true religion.
160:5.7 The religion of Jesus transcends all our
former concepts of the idea of worship in that he not only
portrays his Father as the ideal of infinite reality but
positively declares that this divine source of values and the
eternal center of the universe is truly and personally attainable
by every mortal creature who chooses to enter the kingdom of
heaven on earth, thereby acknowledging the acceptance of sonship
with God and brotherhood with man. That, I submit, is the highest
concept of religion the world has ever known, and I pronounce that
there can never be a higher since this gospel embraces the
infinity of realities, the divinity of values, and the eternity of
universal attainments. Such a concept constitutes the achievement
of the experience of the idealism of the supreme and the ultimate.
160:5.8 I am not only intrigued by the
consummate ideals of this religion of your Master, but I am
mightily moved to profess my belief in his announcement that these
ideals of spirit realities are attainable; that you and I can
enter upon this long and eternal adventure with his assurance of
the certainty of our ultimate arrival at the portals of Paradise.
My brethren, I am a believer, I have embarked; I am on my way with
you in this eternal venture. The Master says he came from the
Father, and that he will show us the way. I am fully persuaded he
speaks the truth. I am finally convinced that there are no
attainable ideals of reality or values of perfection apart from
the eternal and Universal Father.
160:5.9 I come, then, to worship, not merely the
God of existences, but the God of the possibility of all future
existences. Therefore must your devotion to a supreme ideal, if
that ideal is real, be devotion to this God of past, present, and
future universes of things and beings. And there is no other God,
for there cannot possibly be any other God. All other gods are
figments of the imagination, illusions of mortal mind, distortions
of false logic, and the self-deceptive idols of those who create
them. Yes, you can have a religion without this God, but it does
not mean anything. And if you seek to substitute the word God for
the reality of this ideal of the living God, you have only deluded
yourself by putting an idea in the place of an ideal, a divine
reality. Such beliefs are merely religions of wishful fancy.
160:5.10 I see in the teachings of Jesus,
religion at its best. This gospel enables us to seek for the true
God and to find him. But are we willing to pay the price of this
entrance into the kingdom of heaven? Are we willing to be born
again? to be remade? Are we willing to be subject to this terrible
and testing process of self-destruction and soul reconstruction?
Has not the Master said: "Whoso would save his life must lose it.
Think not that I have come to bring peace but rather a soul
struggle"? True, after we pay the price of dedication to the
Father's will, we do experience great peace provided we continue
to walk in these spiritual paths of consecrated living.
160:5.11 Now are we truly forsaking the lures of
the known order of existence while we unreservedly dedicate our
quest to the lures of the unknown and unexplored order of the
existence of a future life of adventure in the spirit worlds of
the higher idealism of divine reality. And we seek for those
symbols of meaning wherewith to convey to our fellow men these
concepts of the reality of the idealism of the religion of Jesus,
and we will not cease to pray for that day when all mankind shall
be thrilled by the communal vision of this supreme truth. Just
now, our focalized concept of the Father, as held in our hearts,
is that God is spirit; as conveyed to our fellows, that God is
love.
160:5.12 The religion of Jesus demands living
and spiritual experience. Other religions may consist in
traditional beliefs, emotional feelings, philosophic
consciousness, and all of that, but the teaching of the Master
requires the attainment of actual levels of real spirit
progression.
160:5.13 The consciousness of the impulse to be
like God is not true religion. The feelings of the emotion to
worship God are not true religion. The knowledge of the conviction
to forsake self and serve God is not true religion. The wisdom of
the reasoning that this religion is the best of all is not
religion as a personal and spiritual experience. True religion has
reference to destiny and reality of attainment as well as to the
reality and idealism of that which is wholeheartedly
faith-accepted. And all of this must be made personal to us by the
revelation of the Spirit of Truth.
160:5.14 And thus ended the dissertations of the
Greek philosopher, one of the greatest of his race, who had become
a believer in the gospel of Jesus.
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