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