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