The Urantia Book
PAPER 12
THE UNIVERSE OF UNIVERSES
Presented by a Perfector of Wisdom acting by authority of the
Ancients of Days.
12:0.1 THE immensity of the far-flung creation
of the Universal Father is utterly beyond the grasp of finite
imagination; the enormousness of the master universe staggers
the concept of even my order of being. But the mortal mind can
be taught much about the plan and arrangement of the universes;
you can know something of their physical organization and
marvelous administration; you may learn much about the various
groups of intelligent beings who inhabit the seven
superuniverses of time and the central universe of eternity.
12:0.2 In principle, that is, in eternal
potential, we conceive of material creation as being infinite
because the Universal Father is actually infinite, but as we
study and observe the total material creation, we know that at
any given moment in time it is limited, although to your finite
minds it is comparatively limitless, virtually boundless.
12:0.3 We are convinced, from the study of
physical law and from the observation of the starry realms, that
the infinite Creator is not yet manifest in finality of cosmic
expression, that much of the cosmic potential of the Infinite is
still self-contained and unrevealed. To created beings the
master universe might appear to be almost infinite, but it is
far from finished; there are still physical limits to the
material creation, and the experiential revelation of the
eternal purpose is still in progress.
1. SPACE LEVELS OF THE MASTER UNIVERSE
12:1.1 The universe of universes is not an
infinite plane, a boundless cube, nor a limitless circle; it
certainly has dimensions. The laws of physical organization and
administration prove conclusively that the whole vast
aggregation of force-energy and matter-power functions
ultimately as a space unit, as an organized and co-ordinated
whole. The observable behavior of the material creation
constitutes evidence of a physical universe of definite limits.
The final proof of both a circular and delimited universe is
afforded by the, to us, well-known fact that all forms of basic
energy ever swing around the curved path of the space levels of
the master universe in obedience to the incessant and absolute
pull of Paradise gravity.
12:1.2 The successive space levels of the
master universe constitute the major divisions of pervaded space
-- total creation, organized and partially inhabited or yet to
be organized and inhabited. If the master universe were not a
series of elliptical space levels of lessened resistance to
motion, alternating with zones of relative quiescence, we
conceive that some of the cosmic energies would be observed to
shoot off on an infinite range, off on a straight-line path into
trackless space; but we never find force, energy, or matter thus
behaving; ever they whirl, always swinging onward in the tracks
of the great space circuits.
12:1.3 Proceeding outward from Paradise
through the horizontal extension of pervaded space, the master
universe is existent in six concentric ellipses, the space
levels encircling the central Isle:
1. The Central Universe -- Havona.
2. The Seven Superuniverses.
3. The First Outer Space Level.
4. The Second Outer Space Level.
5. The Third Outer Space Level.
6. The Fourth and Outermost Space
Level.
12:1.4 Havona, the central universe, is
not a time creation; it is an eternal existence. This
never-beginning, never-ending universe consists of one billion
spheres of sublime perfection and is surrounded by the enormous
dark gravity bodies. At the center of Havona is the stationary
and absolutely stabilized Isle of Paradise, surrounded by its
twenty-one satellites. Owing to the enormous encircling masses
of the dark gravity bodies about the fringe of the central
universe, the mass content of this central creation is far in
excess of the total known mass of all seven sectors of the grand
universe.
12:1.5 The Paradise-Havona System, the
eternal universe encircling the eternal Isle, constitutes the
perfect and eternal nucleus of the master universe; all seven of
the superuniverses and all regions of outer space revolve in
established orbits around the gigantic central aggregation of
the Paradise satellites and the Havona spheres.
12:1.6 The Seven Superuniverses are not
primary physical organizations; nowhere do their boundaries
divide a nebular family, neither do they cross a local universe,
a prime creative unit. Each superuniverse is simply a geographic
space clustering of approximately one seventh of the organized
and partially inhabited post-Havona creation, and each is about
equal in the number of local universes embraced and in the space
encompassed. Nebadon, your local universe, is one of the
newer creations in Orvonton, the seventh superuniverse.
12:1.7 The Grand Universe is the
present organized and inhabited creation. It consists of the
seven superuniverses, with an aggregate evolutionary potential
of around seven trillion inhabited planets, not to mention the
eternal spheres of the central creation. But this tentative
estimate takes no account of architectural administrative
spheres, neither does it include the outlying groups of
unorganized universes. The present ragged edge of the grand
universe, its uneven and unfinished periphery, together with the
tremendously unsettled condition of the whole astronomical plot,
suggests to our star students that even the seven superuniverses
are, as yet, uncompleted. As we move from within, from the
divine center outward in any one direction, we do, eventually,
come to the outer limits of the organized and inhabited
creation; we come to the outer limits of the grand universe. And
it is near this outer border, in a far-off corner of such a
magnificent creation, that your local universe has its eventful
existence.
12:1.8 The Outer Space Levels. Far out
in space, at an enormous distance from the seven inhabited
superuniverses, there are assembling vast and unbelievably
stupendous circuits of force and materializing energies. Between
the energy circuits of the seven superuniverses and this
gigantic outer belt of force activity, there is a space zone of
comparative quiet, which varies in width but averages about four
hundred thousand light-years. These space zones are free from
star dust -- cosmic fog. Our students of these phenomena are in
doubt as to the exact status of the space-forces existing in
this zone of relative quiet which encircles the seven
superuniverses. But about one-half million light-years beyond
the periphery of the present grand universe we observe the
beginnings of a zone of an unbelievable energy action which
increases in volume and intensity for over twenty-five million
light-years. These tremendous wheels of energizing forces are
situated in the first outer space level, a continuous belt of
cosmic activity encircling the whole of the known, organized,
and inhabited creation.
12:1.9 Still greater activities are taking
place beyond these regions, for the Uversa physicists have
detected early evidence of force manifestations more than fifty
million light-years beyond the outermost ranges of the phenomena
in the first outer space level. These activities undoubtedly
presage the organization of the material creations of the second
outer space level of the master universe.
12:1.10 The central universe is the creation
of eternity; the seven superuniverses are the creations of time;
the four outer space levels are undoubtedly destined to
eventuate-evolve the ultimacy of creation. And there are those
who maintain that the Infinite can never attain full expression
short of infinity; and therefore do they postulate an additional
and unrevealed creation beyond the fourth and outermost space
level, a possible ever-expanding, never-ending universe of
infinity. In theory we do not know how to limit either the
infinity of the Creator or the potential infinity of creation,
but as it exists and is administered, we regard the master
universe as having limitations, as being definitely delimited
and bounded on its outer margins by open space.
2. THE DOMAINS OF THE
UNQUALIFIED ABSOLUTE
12:2.1 When Urantia astronomers peer through
their increasingly powerful telescopes into the mysterious
stretches of outer space and there behold the amazing evolution
of almost countless physical universes, they should realize that
they are gazing upon the mighty outworking of the unsearchable
plans of the Architects of the Master Universe. True, we do
possess evidences which are suggestive of the presence of
certain Paradise personality influences here and there
throughout the vast energy manifestations now characteristic of
these outer regions, but from the larger viewpoint the space
regions extending beyond the outer borders of the seven
superuniverses are generally recognized as constituting the
domains of the Unqualified Absolute.
12:2.2 Although the unaided human eye can see
only two or three nebulae outside the borders of the
superuniverse of Orvonton, your telescopes literally reveal
millions upon millions of these physical universes in process of
formation. Most of the starry realms visually exposed to the
search of your present-day telescopes are in Orvonton, but with
photographic technique the larger telescopes penetrate far
beyond the borders of the grand universe into the domains of
outer space, where untold universes are in process of
organization. And there are yet other millions of universes
beyond the range of your present instruments.
12:2.3 In the not-distant future, new
telescopes will reveal to the wondering gaze of Urantian
astronomers no less than 375 million new galaxies in the remote
stretches of outer space. At the same time these more powerful
telescopes will disclose that many island universes formerly
believed to be in outer space are really a part of the galactic
system of Orvonton. The seven superuniverses are still growing;
the periphery of each is gradually expanding; new nebulae are
constantly being stabilized and organized; and some of the
nebulae which Urantian astronomers regard as extragalactic are
actually on the fringe of Orvonton and are traveling along with
us.
12:2.4 The Uversa star students observe that
the grand universe is surrounded by the ancestors of a series of
starry and planetary clusters which completely encircle the
present inhabited creation as concentric rings of outer
universes upon universes. The physicists of Uversa calculate
that the energy and matter of these outer and uncharted regions
already equal many times the total material mass and energy
charge embraced in all seven superuniverses. We are informed
that the metamorphosis of cosmic force in these outer space
levels is a function of the Paradise force organizers. We also
know that these forces are ancestral to those physical energies
which at present activate the grand universe. The Orvonton power
directors, however, have nothing to do with these far-distant
realms, neither are the energy movements therein discernibly
connected with the power circuits of the organized and inhabited
creations.
12:2.5 We know very little of the significance
of these tremendous phenomena of outer space. A greater creation
of the future is in process of formation. We can observe its
immensity, we can discern its extent and sense its majestic
dimensions, but otherwise we know little more about these realms
than do the astronomers of Urantia. As far as we know, no
material beings on the order of humans, no angels or other
spirit creatures, exist in this outer ring of nebulae, suns, and
planets. This distant domain is beyond the jurisdiction and
administration of the superuniverse governments.
12:2.6 Throughout Orvonton it is believed that
a new type of creation is in process, an order of universes
destined to become the scene of the future activities of the
assembling Corps of the Finality; and if our conjectures are
correct, then the endless future may hold for all of you the
same enthralling spectacles that the endless past has held for
your seniors and predecessors.
3. UNIVERSAL GRAVITY
12:3.1 All forms of force-energy -- material,
mindal, or spiritual -- are alike subject to those grasps, those
universal presences, which we call gravity. Personality also is
responsive to gravity -- to the Father's exclusive circuit; but
though this circuit is exclusive to the Father, he is not
excluded from the other circuits; the Universal Father is
infinite and acts over all four absolute-gravity circuits
in the master universe:
1. The Personality Gravity of the
Universal Father.
2. The Spirit Gravity of the Eternal
Son.
3. The Mind Gravity of the Conjoint
Actor.
4. The Cosmic Gravity of the Isle of
Paradise.
12:3.2 These four circuits are not related to
the nether Paradise force center; they are neither force,
energy, nor power circuits. They are absolute presence
circuits and like God are independent of time and space.
12:3.3 In this connection it is interesting to
record certain observations made on Uversa during recent
millenniums by the corps of gravity researchers. This expert
group of workers has arrived at the following conclusions
regarding the different gravity systems of the master universe:
12:3.4 1. Physical Gravity. Having
formulated an estimate of the summation of the entire
physical-gravity capacity of the grand universe, they have
laboriously effected a comparison of this finding with the
estimated total of absolute gravity presence now operative.
These calculations indicate that the total gravity action on the
grand universe is a very small part of the estimated gravity
pull of Paradise, computed on the basis of the gravity response
of basic physical units of universe matter. These investigators
reach the amazing conclusion that the central universe and the
surrounding seven superuniverses are at the present time making
use of only about five per cent of the active functioning of the
Paradise absolute-gravity grasp. In other words: At the present
moment about ninety-five per cent of the active cosmic-gravity
action of the Isle of Paradise, computed on this totality
theory, is engaged in controlling material systems beyond the
borders of the present organized universes. These calculations
all refer to absolute gravity; linear gravity is an interactive
phenomenon which can be computed only by knowing the actual
Paradise gravity.
12:3.5 2. Spiritual Gravity. By the
same technique of comparative estimation and calculation these
researchers have explored the present reaction capacity of
spirit gravity and, with the co-operation of Solitary Messengers
and other spirit personalities, have arrived at the summation of
the active spirit gravity of the Second Source and Center. And
it is most instructive to note that they find about the same
value for the actual and functional presence of spirit gravity
in the grand universe that they postulate for the present total
of active spirit gravity. In other words: At the present time
practically the entire spirit gravity of the Eternal Son,
computed on this theory of totality, is observable as
functioning in the grand universe. If these findings are
dependable, we may conclude that the universes now evolving in
outer space are at the present time wholly nonspiritual. And if
this is true, it would satisfactorily explain why spirit-endowed
beings are in possession of little or no information about these
vast energy manifestations aside from knowing the fact of their
physical existence.
12:3.6 3. Mind Gravity. By these same
principles of comparative computation these experts have
attacked the problem of mind-gravity presence and response. The
mind unit of estimation was arrived at by averaging three
material and three spiritual types of mentality, although the
type of mind found in the power directors and their associates
proved to be a disturbing factor in the effort to arrive at a
basic unit for mind-gravity estimation. There was little to
impede the estimation of the present capacity of the Third
Source and Center for mind-gravity function in accordance with
this theory of totality. Although the findings in this instance
are not so conclusive as in the estimates of physical and spirit
gravity, they are, comparatively considered, very instructive,
even intriguing. These investigators deduce that about
eighty-five per cent of the mind-gravity response to the
intellectual drawing of the Conjoint Actor takes origin in the
existing grand universe. This would suggest the possibility that
mind activities are involved in connection with the observable
physical activities now in progress throughout the realms of
outer space. While this estimate is probably far from accurate,
it accords, in principle, with our belief that intelligent force
organizers are at present directing universe evolution in the
space levels beyond the present outer limits of the grand
universe. Whatever the nature of this postulated intelligence,
it is apparently not spirit-gravity responsive.
12:3.7 But all these computations are at best
estimates based on assumed laws. We think they are fairly
reliable. Even if a few spirit beings were located in outer
space, their collective presence would not markedly influence
calculations involving such enormous measurements.
12:3.8
Personality Gravity is noncomputable. We recognize the
circuit, but we cannot measure either qualitative or
quantitative realities responsive thereto.
4. SPACE AND MOTION
12:4.1 All units of cosmic energy are in
primary revolution, are engaged in the execution of their
mission, while swinging around the universal orbit. The
universes of space and their component systems and worlds are
all revolving spheres, moving along the endless circuits of the
master universe space levels. Absolutely nothing is stationary
in all the master universe except the very center of Havona, the
eternal Isle of Paradise, the center of gravity.
12:4.2 The Unqualified Absolute is
functionally limited to space, but we are not so sure about the
relation of this Absolute to motion. Is motion inherent therein?
We do not know. We know that motion is not inherent in space;
even the motions of space are not innate. But we are not
so sure about the relation of the Unqualified to motion. Who, or
what, is really responsible for the gigantic activities of
force-energy transmutations now in progress out beyond the
borders of the present seven superuniverses? Concerning the
origin of motion we have the following opinions:
12:4.3 1. We think the Conjoint Actor
initiates motion in space.
12:4.4 2. If the Conjoint Actor produces the
motions of space, we cannot prove it.
12:4.5 3. The Universal Absolute does not
originate initial motion but does equalize and control all of
the tensions originated by motion.
12:4.6 In outer space the force organizers are
apparently responsible for the production of the gigantic
universe wheels which are now in process of stellar evolution,
but their ability so to function must have been made possible by
some modification of the space presence of the Unqualified
Absolute.
12:4.7 Space is, from the human viewpoint,
nothing -- negative; it exists only as related to something
positive and nonspatial. Space is, however, real. It contains
and conditions motion. It even moves. Space motions may be
roughly classified as follows:
12:4.8 1. Primary motion -- space respiration,
the motion of space itself.
12:4.9 2. Secondary motion -- the alternate
directional swings of the successive space levels.
12:4.10 3. Relative motions -- relative in the
sense that they are not evaluated with Paradise as a base point.
Primary and secondary motions are absolute, motion in relation
to unmoving Paradise.
12:4.11 4. Compensatory or correlating
movement designed to co-ordinate all other motions.
12:4.12 The present relationship of your sun
and its associated planets, while disclosing many relative and
absolute motions in space, tends to convey the impression to
astronomic observers that you are comparatively stationary in
space, and that the surrounding starry clusters and streams are
engaged in outward flight at ever-increasing velocities as your
calculations proceed outward in space. But such is not the case.
You fail to recognize the present outward and uniform expansion
of the physical creations of all pervaded space. Your own local
creation (Nebadon) participates in this movement of universal
outward expansion. The entire seven superuniverses participate
in the two-billion-year cycles of space respiration along with
the outer regions of the master universe.
12:4.13 When the universes expand and
contract, the material masses in pervaded space alternately move
against and with the pull of Paradise gravity. The work that is
done in moving the material energy mass of creation is space
work but not power-energy work.
12:4.14 Although your spectroscopic
estimations of astronomic velocities are fairly reliable when
applied to the starry realms belonging to your superuniverse and
its associate superuniverses, such reckonings with reference to
the realms of outer space are wholly unreliable. Spectral lines
are displaced from the normal towards the violet by an
approaching star; likewise these lines are displaced towards the
red by a receding star. Many influences interpose to make it
appear that the recessional velocity of the external universes
increases at the rate of more than one hundred miles a second
for every million light-years increase in distance. By this
method of reckoning, subsequent to the perfection of more
powerful telescopes, it will appear that these far-distant
systems are in flight from this part of the universe at the
unbelievable rate of more than thirty thousand miles a second.
But this apparent speed of recession is not real; it results
from numerous factors of error embracing angles of observation
and other time-space distortions.
12:4.15 But the greatest of all such
distortions arises because the vast universes of outer space in
the realms next to the domains of the seven superuniverses, seem
to be revolving in a direction opposite to that of the grand
universe. That is, these myriads of nebulae and their
accompanying suns and spheres are at the present time revolving
clockwise about the central creation. The seven superuniverses
revolve about Paradise in a counterclockwise direction. It
appears that the second outer universe of galaxies, like the
seven superuniverses, revolves counterclockwise about Paradise.
And the astronomic observers of Uversa think they detect
evidence of revolutionary movements in a third outer belt of
far-distant space which are beginning to exhibit directional
tendencies of a clockwise nature.
12:4.16 It is probable that these alternate
directions of successive space processions of the universes have
something to do with the intramaster universe gravity technique
of the Universal Absolute, which consists of a co-ordination of
forces and an equalization of space tensions. Motion as well as
space is a complement or equilibrant of gravity.
5. SPACE AND TIME
12:5.1 Like space, time is a bestowal of
Paradise, but not in the same sense, only indirectly. Time comes
by virtue of motion and because mind is inherently aware of
sequentiality. From a practical viewpoint, motion is essential
to time, but there is no universal time unit based on motion
except in so far as the Paradise-Havona standard day is
arbitrarily so recognized. The totality of space respiration
destroys its local value as a time source.
12:5.2 Space is not infinite, even though it
takes origin from Paradise; not absolute, for it is pervaded by
the Unqualified Absolute. We do not know the absolute limits of
space, but we do know that the absolute of time is eternity.
12:5.3 Time and space are inseparable only in
the time-space creations, the seven superuniverses. Nontemporal
space (space without time) theoretically exists, but the only
truly nontemporal place is Paradise area. Nonspatial time
(time without space) exists in mind of the Paradise level of
function.
12:5.4 The relatively motionless midspace
zones impinging on Paradise and separating pervaded from
unpervaded space are the transition zones from time to eternity,
hence the necessity of Paradise pilgrims becoming unconscious
during this transit when it is to culminate in Paradise
citizenship. Time-conscious visitors can go to Paradise
without thus sleeping, but they remain creatures of time.
12:5.5 Relationships to time do not exist
without motion in space, but consciousness of time does.
Sequentiality can consciousize time even in the absence of
motion. Man's mind is less time-bound than space-bound because
of the inherent nature of mind. Even during the days of the
earth life in the flesh, though man's mind is rigidly
space-bound, the creative human imagination is comparatively
time free. But time itself is not genetically a quality of mind.
12:5.6 There are three different levels of
time cognizance:
12:5.7 1. Mind-perceived time -- consciousness
of sequence, motion, and a sense of duration.
12:5.8 2. Spirit-perceived time -- insight
into motion Godward and the awareness of the motion of ascent to
levels of increasing divinity.
12:5.9 3. Personality creates a unique
time sense out of insight into Reality plus a consciousness of
presence and an awareness of duration.
12:5.10 Unspiritual animals know only the past
and live in the present. Spirit-indwelt man has powers of
prevision (insight); he may visualize the future. Only
forward-looking and progressive attitudes are personally real.
Static ethics and traditional morality are just slightly
superanimal. Nor is stoicism a high order of self-realization.
Ethics and morals become truly human when they are dynamic and
progressive, alive with universe reality.
12:5.11 The human personality is not merely a
concomitant of time-and-space events; the human personality can
also act as the cosmic cause of such events.
6. UNIVERSAL OVERCONTROL
12:6.1 The universe is nonstatic. Stability is
not the result of inertia but rather the product of balanced
energies, co-operative minds, co-ordinated morontias, spirit
overcontrol, and personality unification. Stability is wholly
and always proportional to divinity.
12:6.2 In the physical control of the master
universe the Universal Father exercises priority and primacy
through the Isle of Paradise; God is absolute in the spiritual
administration of the cosmos in the person of the Eternal Son.
Concerning the domains of mind, the Father and the Son function
co-ordinately in the Conjoint Actor.
12:6.3 The Third Source and Center assists in
the maintenance of the equilibrium and co-ordination of the
combined physical and spiritual energies and organizations by
the absoluteness of his grasp of the cosmic mind and by the
exercise of his inherent and universal physical- and
spiritual-gravity complements. Whenever and wherever there
occurs a liaison between the material and the spiritual, such a
mind phenomenon is an act of the Infinite Spirit. Mind alone can
interassociate the physical forces and energies of the material
level with the spiritual powers and beings of the spirit level.
12:6.4 In all your contemplation of universal
phenomena, make certain that you take into consideration the
interrelation of physical, intellectual, and spiritual energies,
and that due allowance is made for the unexpected phenomena
attendant upon their unification by personality and for the
unpredictable phenomena resulting from the actions and reactions
of experiential Deity and the Absolutes.
12:6.5 The universe is highly predictable only
in the quantitative or gravity-measurement sense; even the
primal physical forces are not responsive to linear gravity, nor
are the higher mind meanings and true spirit values of ultimate
universe realities. Qualitatively, the universe is not highly
predictable as regards new associations of forces, either
physical, mindal, or spiritual, although many such combinations
of energies or forces become partially predictable when
subjected to critical observation. When matter, mind, and spirit
are unified by creature personality, we are unable fully to
predict the decisions of such a freewill being.
12:6.6 All phases of primordial force, nascent
spirit, and other nonpersonal ultimates appear to react in
accordance with certain relatively stable but unknown laws and
are characterized by a latitude of performance and an elasticity
of response which are often disconcerting when encountered in
the phenomena of a circumscribed and isolated situation. What is
the explanation of this unpredictable freedom of reaction
disclosed by these emerging universe actualities? These unknown,
unfathomable unpredictables -- whether pertaining to the
behavior of a primordial unit of force, the reaction of an
unidentified level of mind, or the phenomenon of a vast
preuniverse in the making in the domains of outer space --
probably disclose the activities of the Ultimate and the
presence-performances of the Absolutes, which antedate the
function of all universe Creators.
12:6.7 We do not really know, but we surmise
that such amazing versatility and such profound co-ordination
signify the presence and performance of the Absolutes, and that
such diversity of response in the face of apparently uniform
causation discloses the reaction of the Absolutes, not only to
the immediate and situational causation, but also to all other
related causations throughout the entire master universe.
12:6.8 Individuals have their guardians of
destiny; planets, systems, constellations, universes, and
superuniverses each have their respective rulers who labor for
the good of their domains. Havona and even the grand universe
are watched over by those intrusted with such high
responsibilities. But who fosters and cares for the fundamental
needs of the master universe as a whole, from Paradise to the
fourth and outermost space level? Existentially such overcare is
probably attributable to the Paradise Trinity, but from an
experiential viewpoint the appearance of the post-Havona
universes is dependent on:
1. The Absolutes in potential.
2. The Ultimate in direction.
3. The Supreme in evolutionary
co-ordination.
4. The Architects of the Master
Universe in administration prior to the appearance of specific
rulers.
12:6.9 The Unqualified Absolute pervades all
space. We are not altogether clear as to the exact status of the
Deity and Universal Absolutes, but we know the latter functions
wherever the Deity and Unqualified Absolutes function. The Deity
Absolute may be universally present but hardly space present.
The Ultimate is, or sometime will be, space present to the outer
margins of the fourth space level. We doubt that the Ultimate
will ever have a space presence beyond the periphery of the
master universe, but within this limit the Ultimate is
progressively integrating the creative organization of the
potentials of the three Absolutes.
7. THE PART AND THE WHOLE
12:7.1 There is operative throughout all time
and space and with regard to all reality of whatever nature an
inexorable and impersonal law which is equivalent to the
function of a cosmic providence. Mercy characterizes God's
attitude of love for the individual; impartiality motivates
God's attitude toward the total. The will of God does not
necessarily prevail in the part -- the heart of any one
personality -- but his will does actually rule the whole, the
universe of universes.
12:7.2 In all his dealings with all his beings
it is true that the laws of God are not inherently arbitrary. To
you, with your limited vision and finite viewpoint, the acts of
God must often appear to be dictatorial and arbitrary. The laws
of God are merely the habits of God, his way of repeatedly doing
things; and he ever does all things well. You observe that God
does the same thing in the same way, repeatedly, simply because
that is the best way to do that particular thing in a given
circumstance; and the best way is the right way, and therefore
does infinite wisdom always order it done in that precise and
perfect manner. You should also remember that nature is not the
exclusive act of Deity; other influences are present in those
phenomena which man calls nature.
12:7.3 It is repugnant to the divine nature to
suffer any sort of deterioration or ever to permit the execution
of any purely personal act in an inferior way. It should be made
clear, however, that, if, in the divinity of any
situation, in the extremity of any circumstance, in any case
where the course of supreme wisdom might indicate the demand for
different conduct -- if the demands of perfection might for any
reason dictate another method of reaction, a better one, then
and there would the all-wise God function in that better and
more suitable way. That would be the expression of a higher law,
not the reversal of a lower law.
12:7.4 God is not a habit-bound slave to the
chronicity of the repetition of his own voluntary acts. There is
no conflict among the laws of the Infinite; they are all
perfections of the infallible nature; they are all the
unquestioned acts expressive of faultless decisions. Law is the
unchanging reaction of an infinite, perfect, and divine mind.
The acts of God are all volitional notwithstanding this apparent
sameness. In God there "is no variableness neither shadow of
changing." But all this which can be truly said of the Universal
Father cannot be said with equal certainty of all his
subordinate intelligences or of his evolutionary creatures.
12:7.5 Because God is changeless, therefore
can you depend, in all ordinary circumstances, on his doing the
same thing in the same identical and ordinary way. God is the
assurance of stability for all created things and beings. He is
God; therefore he changes not.
12:7.6 And all this steadfastness of conduct
and uniformity of action is personal, conscious, and highly
volitional, for the great God is not a helpless slave to his own
perfection and infinity. God is not a self-acting automatic
force; he is not a slavish law-bound power. God is neither a
mathematical equation nor a chemical formula. He is a freewill
and primal personality. He is the Universal Father, a being
surcharged with personality and the universal fount of all
creature personality.
12:7.7 The will of God does not uniformly
prevail in the heart of the God-seeking material mortal, but if
the time frame is enlarged beyond the moment to embrace the
whole of the first life, then does God's will become
increasingly discernible in the spirit fruits which are borne in
the lives of the spirit-led children of God. And then, if human
life is further enlarged to include the morontia experience, the
divine will is observed to shine brighter and brighter in the
spiritualizing acts of those creatures of time who have begun to
taste the divine delights of experiencing the relationship of
the personality of man with the personality of the Universal
Father.
12:7.8 The Fatherhood of God and the
brotherhood of man present the paradox of the part and the whole
on the level of personality. God loves each individual as
an individual child in the heavenly family. Yet God thus loves
every individual; he is no respecter of persons, and the
universality of his love brings into being a relationship of the
whole, the universal brotherhood.
12:7.9 The love of the Father absolutely
individualizes each personality as a unique child of the
Universal Father, a child without duplicate in infinity, a will
creature irreplaceable in all eternity. The Father's love
glorifies each child of God, illuminating each member of the
celestial family, sharply silhouetting the unique nature of each
personal being against the impersonal levels that lie outside
the fraternal circuit of the Father of all. The love of God
strikingly portrays the transcendent value of each will
creature, unmistakably reveals the high value which the
Universal Father has placed upon each and every one of his
children from the highest creator personality of Paradise status
to the lowest personality of will dignity among the savage
tribes of men in the dawn of the human species on some
evolutionary world of time and space.
12:7.10 This very love of God for the
individual brings into being the divine family of all
individuals, the universal brotherhood of the freewill children
of the Paradise Father. And this brotherhood, being universal,
is a relationship of the whole. Brotherhood, when universal,
discloses not the each relationship, but the all
relationship. Brotherhood is a reality of the total and
therefore discloses qualities of the whole in contradistinction
to qualities of the part.
12:7.11 Brotherhood constitutes a fact of
relationship between every personality in universal existence.
No person can escape the benefits or the penalties that may come
as a result of relationship to other persons. The part profits
or suffers in measure with the whole. The good effort of each
man benefits all men; the error or evil of each man augments the
tribulation of all men. As moves the part, so moves the whole.
As the progress of the whole, so the progress of the part. The
relative velocities of part and whole determine whether the part
is retarded by the inertia of the whole or is carried forward by
the momentum of the cosmic brotherhood.
12:7.12 It is a mystery that God is a highly
personal self-conscious being with residential headquarters, and
at the same time personally present in such a vast universe and
personally in contact with such a well-nigh infinite number of
beings. That such a phenomenon is a mystery beyond human
comprehension should not in the least lessen your faith. Do not
allow the magnitude of the infinity, the immensity of the
eternity, and the grandeur and glory of the matchless character
of God to overawe, stagger, or discourage you; for the Father is
not very far from any one of you; he dwells within you, and in
him do we all literally move, actually live, and veritably have
our being.
12:7.13 Even though the Paradise Father
functions through his divine creators and his creature children,
he also enjoys the most intimate inner contact with you, so
sublime, so highly personal, that it is even beyond my
comprehension -- that mysterious communion of the Father
fragment with the human soul and with the mortal mind of its
actual indwelling. Knowing what you do of these gifts of God,
you therefore know that the Father is in intimate touch, not
only with his divine associates, but also with his evolutionary
mortal children of time. The Father indeed abides on Paradise,
but his divine presence also dwells in the minds of men.
12:7.14 Even though the spirit of a Son be
poured out upon all flesh, even though a Son once dwelt with you
in the likeness of mortal flesh, even though the seraphim
personally guard and guide you, how can any of these divine
beings of the Second and Third Centers ever hope to come as near
to you or to understand you as fully as the Father, who has
given a part of himself to be in you, to be your real and
divine, even your eternal, self?
8. MATTER, MIND, AND SPIRIT
12:8.1 "God is spirit," but Paradise is not.
The material universe is always the arena wherein take place all
spiritual activities; spirit beings and spirit ascenders live
and work on physical spheres of material reality.
12:8.2 The bestowal of cosmic force, the
domain of cosmic gravity, is the function of the Isle of
Paradise. All original force-energy proceeds from Paradise, and
the matter for the making of untold universes now circulates
throughout the master universe in the form of a supergravity
presence which constitutes the force-charge of pervaded space.
12:8.3 Whatever the transformations of force
in the outlying universes, having gone out from Paradise, it
journeys on subject to the never-ending, ever-present, unfailing
pull of the eternal Isle, obediently and inherently swinging on
forever around the eternal space paths of the universes.
Physical energy is the one reality which is true and steadfast
in its obedience to universal law. Only in the realms of
creature volition has there been deviation from the divine paths
and the original plans. Power and energy are the universal
evidences of the stability, constancy, and eternity of the
central Isle of Paradise.
12:8.4 The bestowal of spirit and the
spiritualization of personalities, the domain of spiritual
gravity, is the realm of the Eternal Son. And this spirit
gravity of the Son, ever drawing all spiritual realities to
himself, is just as real and absolute as is the all-powerful
material grasp of the Isle of Paradise. But material-minded man
is naturally more familiar with the material manifestations of a
physical nature than with the equally real and mighty operations
of a spiritual nature which are discerned only by the spiritual
insight of the soul.
12:8.5 As the mind of any personality in the
universe becomes more spiritual -- Godlike -- it becomes less
responsive to material gravity. Reality, measured by
physical-gravity response, is the antithesis of reality as
determined by quality of spirit content. Physical-gravity action
is a quantitative determiner of nonspirit energy;
spiritual-gravity action is the qualitative measure of the
living energy of divinity.
12:8.6 What Paradise is to the physical
creation, and what the Eternal Son is to the spiritual universe,
the Conjoint Actor is to the realms of mind -- the intelligent
universe of material, morontial, and spiritual beings and
personalities.
12:8.7 The Conjoint Actor reacts to both
material and spiritual realities and therefore inherently
becomes the universal minister to all intelligent beings, beings
who may represent a union of both the material and spiritual
phases of creation. The endowment of intelligence, the ministry
to the material and the spiritual in the phenomenon of mind, is
the exclusive domain of the Conjoint Actor, who thus becomes the
partner of the spiritual mind, the essence of the morontia mind,
and the substance of the material mind of the evolutionary
creatures of time.
12:8.8 Mind is the technique whereby spirit
realities become experiential to creature personalities. And in
the last analysis the unifying possibilities of even human mind,
the ability to co-ordinate things, ideas, and values, is
supermaterial.
12:8.9 Though it is hardly possible for the
mortal mind to comprehend the seven levels of relative cosmic
reality, the human intellect should be able to grasp much of the
meaning of three functioning levels of finite reality:
12:8.10 1. Matter. Organized energy
which is subject to linear gravity except as it is modified by
motion and conditioned by mind.
12:8.11 2. Mind. Organized
consciousness which is not wholly subject to material gravity,
and which becomes truly liberated when modified by spirit.
12:8.12 3. Spirit. The highest personal
reality. True spirit is not subject to physical gravity but
eventually becomes the motivating influence of all evolving
energy systems of personality dignity.
12:8.13 The goal of existence of all
personalities is spirit; material manifestations are relative,
and the cosmic mind intervenes between these universal
opposites. The bestowal of mind and the ministration of spirit
are the work of the associate persons of Deity, the Infinite
Spirit and the Eternal Son. Total Deity reality is not mind but
spirit-mind -- mind-spirit unified by personality. Nevertheless
the absolutes of both the spirit and the thing converge in the
person of the Universal Father.
12:8.14 On Paradise the three energies,
physical, mindal, and spiritual, are co-ordinate. In the
evolutionary cosmos energy-matter is dominant except in
personality, where spirit, through the mediation of mind, is
striving for the mastery. Spirit is the fundamental reality of
the personality experience of all creatures because God is
spirit. Spirit is unchanging, and therefore, in all personality
relations, it transcends both mind and matter, which are
experiential variables of progressive attainment.
12:8.15 In cosmic evolution matter becomes a
philosophic shadow cast by mind in the presence of spirit
luminosity of divine enlightenment, but this does not invalidate
the reality of matter-energy. Mind, matter, and spirit are
equally real, but they are not of equal value to personality in
the attainment of divinity. Consciousness of divinity is a
progressive spiritual experience.
12:8.16 The brighter the shining of the
spiritualized personality (the Father in the universe, the
fragment of potential spirit personality in the individual
creature), the greater the shadow cast by the intervening mind
upon its material investment. In time, man's body is just as
real as mind or spirit, but in death, both mind (identity) and
spirit survive while the body does not. A cosmic reality can be
nonexistent in personality experience. And so your Greek figure
of speech -- the material as the shadow of the more real spirit
substance -- does have a philosophic significance.
9. PERSONAL REALITIES
12:9.1 Spirit is the basic personal reality in
the universes, and personality is basic to all progressing
experience with spiritual reality. Every phase of personality
experience on every successive level of universe progression
swarms with clues to the discovery of alluring personal
realities. Man's true destiny consists in the creation of new
and spirit goals and then in responding to the cosmic
allurements of such supernal goals of nonmaterial value.
12:9.2 Love is the secret of beneficial
association between personalities. You cannot really know a
person as the result of a single contact. You cannot
appreciatingly know music through mathematical deduction, even
though music is a form of mathematical rhythm. The number
assigned to a telephone subscriber does not in any manner
identify the personality of that subscriber or signify anything
concerning his character.
12:9.3 Mathematics, material science, is
indispensable to the intelligent discussion of the material
aspects of the universe, but such knowledge is not necessarily a
part of the higher realization of truth or of the personal
appreciation of spiritual realities. Not only in the realms of
life but even in the world of physical energy, the sum of two or
more things is very often something more than, or
something different from, the predictable additive
consequences of such unions. The entire science of mathematics,
the whole domain of philosophy, the highest physics or
chemistry, could not predict or know that the union of two
gaseous hydrogen atoms with one gaseous oxygen atom would result
in a new and qualitatively superadditive substance -- liquid
water. The understanding knowledge of this one physiochemical
phenomenon should have prevented the development of
materialistic philosophy and mechanistic cosmology.
12:9.4 Technical analysis does not reveal what
a person or a thing can do. For example: Water is used
effectively to extinguish fire. That water will put out fire is
a fact of everyday experience, but no analysis of water could
ever be made to disclose such a property. Analysis determines
that water is composed of hydrogen and oxygen; a further study
of these elements discloses that oxygen is the real supporter of
combustion and that hydrogen will itself freely burn.
12:9.5
Your religion is becoming real because it is emerging from the
slavery of fear and the bondage of superstition. Your philosophy
struggles for emancipation from dogma and tradition. Your
science is engaged in the agelong contest between truth and
error while it fights for deliverance from the bondage of
abstraction, the slavery of mathematics, and the relative
blindness of mechanistic materialism.
12:9.6 Mortal man has a spirit nucleus. The
mind is a personal-energy system existing around a divine spirit
nucleus and functioning in a material environment. Such a living
relationship of personal mind and spirit constitutes the
universe potential of eternal personality. Real trouble, lasting
disappointment, serious defeat, or inescapable death can come
only after self-concepts presume fully to displace the governing
power of the central spirit nucleus, thereby disrupting the
cosmic scheme of personality identity.
12:9.7
Presented by a Perfector of Wisdom acting by authority of the
Ancients of Days.
