The Urantia Book
PAPER 115
THE SUPREME BEING
Sponsored by a Mighty Messenger temporarily sojourning on
Urantia.
115:0.1 WITH God the Father, sonship is the
great relationship. With God the Supreme, achievement is the
prerequisite to status -- one must do something as well as be
something.
1. RELATIVITY OF CONCEPT FRAMES
115:1.1
Partial, incomplete, and evolving
intellects would be helpless in the master universe, would be
unable to form the first rational thought pattern, were it not
for the innate ability of all mind, high or low, to form a
universe frame in which to think. If mind cannot fathom
conclusions, if it cannot penetrate to true origins, then will
such mind unfailingly postulate conclusions and invent origins
that it may have a means of logical thought within the frame of
these mind-created postulates. And while such universe frames
for creature thought are indispensable to rational intellectual
operations, they are, without exception, erroneous to a greater
or lesser degree.
115:1.2 Conceptual frames of the universe are
only relatively true; they are serviceable scaffolding which
must eventually give way before the expansions of enlarging
cosmic comprehension. The understandings of truth, beauty, and
goodness, morality, ethics, duty, love, divinity, origin,
existence, purpose, destiny, time, space, even Deity, are only
relatively true. God is much, much more than a Father, but the
Father is man's highest concept of God; nonetheless, the
Father-Son portrayal of Creator-creature relationship will be
augmented by those supermortal conceptions of Deity which will
be attained in Orvonton, in Havona, and on Paradise. Man must
think in a mortal universe frame, but that does not mean that he
cannot envision other and higher frames within which thought can
take place.
115:1.3 In order to facilitate mortal
comprehension of the universe of universes, the diverse levels
of cosmic reality have been designated as finite, absonite, and
absolute. Of these only the absolute is unqualifiedly eternal,
truly existential. Absonites and finites are derivatives,
modifications, qualifications, and attenuations of the original
and primordial absolute reality of infinity.
115:1.4 The realms of the finite exist by
virtue of the eternal purpose of God. Finite creatures, high and
low, may propound theories, and have done so, as to the
necessity of the finite in the cosmic economy, but in the last
analysis it exists because God so willed. The universe cannot be
explained, neither can a finite creature offer a rational reason
for his own individual existence without appealing to the prior
acts and pre-existent volition of ancestral beings, Creators or
procreators.
2. THE ABSOLUTE BASIS FOR SUPREMACY
115:2.1 From the existential standpoint,
nothing new can happen throughout the galaxies, for the
completion of infinity inherent in the I AM is eternally present
in the seven Absolutes, is functionally associated in the
triunities, and is transmitively associated in the triodities.
But the fact that infinity is thus existentially present in
these absolute associations in no way makes it impossible to
realize new cosmic experientials. From a finite creature's
viewpoint, infinity contains much that is potential, much that
is on the order of a future possibility rather than a present
actuality.
115:2.2 Value is a unique element in universe
reality. We do not comprehend how the value of anything infinite
and divine could possibly be increased. But we discover that
meanings can be modified if not augmented even in the
relations of infinite Deity. To the experiential universes even
divine values are increased as actualities by enlarged
comprehension of reality meanings.
115:2.3 The entire scheme of universal
creation and evolution on all experiencing levels is apparently
a matter of the conversion of potentialities into actualities;
and this transmutation has to do equally with the realms of
space potency, mind potency, and spirit potency.
115:2.4 The apparent method whereby the
possibilities of the cosmos are brought into actual existence
varies from level to level, being experiential evolution in the
finite and experiential eventuation in the absonite. Existential
infinity is indeed unqualified in all-inclusiveness, and this
very all-inclusiveness must, perforce, encompass even the
possibility for evolutionary finite experiencing. And the
possibility for such experiential growth becomes a universe
actuality through triodity relationships impinging upon and in
the Supreme.
3. ORIGINAL, ACTUAL, AND POTENTIAL
115:3.1 The absolute cosmos is conceptually
without limit; to define the extent and nature of this primal
reality is to place qualifications upon infinity and to
attenuate the pure concept of eternity. The idea of the
infinite-eternal, the eternal-infinite, is unqualified in extent
and absolute in fact. There is no language in the past, present,
or future of Urantia adequate to express the reality of infinity
or the infinity of reality. Man, a finite creature in an
infinite cosmos, must content himself with distorted reflections
and attenuated conceptions of that limitless, boundless,
never-beginning, never-ending existence the comprehension of
which is really beyond his ability.
115:3.2 Mind can never hope to grasp the
concept of an Absolute without attempting first to break the
unity of such a reality. Mind is unifying of all divergencies,
but in the very absence of such divergencies, mind finds no
basis upon which to attempt to formulate understanding concepts.
115:3.3 The primordial stasis of infinity
requires segmentation prior to human attempts at comprehension.
There is a unity in infinity which has been expressed in these
papers as the I AM -- the premier postulate of the creature
mind. But never can a creature understand how it is that this
unity becomes duality, triunity, and diversity while yet
remaining an unqualified unity. Man encounters a similar problem
when he pauses to contemplate the undivided Deity of Trinity
alongside the plural personalization of God.
115:3.4 It is only man's distance from
infinity that causes this concept to be expressed as one word.
While infinity is on the one hand UNITY, on the other it is
DIVERSITY without end or limit. Infinity, as it is observed by
finite intelligences, is the maximum paradox of creature
philosophy and finite metaphysics. Though man's spiritual nature
reaches up in the worship experience to the Father who is
infinite, man's intellectual comprehension capacity is exhausted
by the maximum conception of the Supreme Being. Beyond the
Supreme, concepts are increasingly names; less and less are they
true designations of reality; more and more do they become the
creature's projection of finite understanding toward the
superfinite.
115:3.5 One basic conception of the absolute
level involves a postulate of three phases:
115:3.6 1. The Original. The
unqualified concept of the First Source and Center, that source
manifestation of the I AM from which all reality takes origin.
115:3.7 2. The Actual. The union of the
three Absolutes of actuality, the Second, Third, and Paradise
Sources and Centers. This triodity of the Eternal Son, the
Infinite Spirit, and the Paradise Isle constitutes the actual
revelation of the originality of the First Source and Center.
115:3.8 3. The Potential. The union of
the three Absolutes of potentiality, the Deity, Unqualified, and
Universal Absolutes. This triodity of existential potentiality
constitutes the potential revelation of the originality of the
First Source and Center.
115:3.9 The interassociation of the Original,
the Actual, and the Potential yields the tensions within
infinity which result in the possibility for all universe
growth; and growth is the nature of the Sevenfold, the Supreme,
and the Ultimate.
115:3.10 In the association of the Deity,
Universal, and Unqualified Absolutes, potentiality is absolute
while actuality is emergent; in the association of the Second,
Third, and Paradise Sources and Centers, actuality is absolute
while potentiality is emergent; in the originality of the First
Source and Center, we cannot say that either actuality or
potentiality is either existent or emergent -- the Father is.
115:3.11 From the time viewpoint, the Actual
is that which was and is; the Potential is that which is
becoming and will be; the Original is that which is. From the
eternity viewpoint, the differences between the Original, the
Actual, and the Potential are not thus apparent. These triune
qualities are not so distinguished on Paradise-eternity levels.
In eternity all is -- only has all not yet been revealed in time
and space.
115:3.12 From a creature's viewpoint,
actuality is substance, potentiality is capacity. Actuality
exists centermost and expands therefrom into peripheral
infinity; potentiality comes inward from the infinity periphery
and converges at the center of all things. Originality is that
which first causes and then balances the dual motions of the
cycle of reality metamorphosis from potentials to actuals and
the potentializing of existing actuals.
115:3.13 The three Absolutes of potentiality
are operative on the purely eternal level of the cosmos, hence
never function as such on subabsolute levels. On the descending
levels of reality the triodity of potentiality is manifest with
the Ultimate and upon the Supreme. The potential may fail to
time-actualize with respect to a part on some subabsolute level,
but never in the aggregate. The will of God does ultimately
prevail, not always concerning the individual but invariably
concerning the total.
115:3.14 It is in the triodity of actuality
that the existents of the cosmos have their center; be it
spirit, mind, or energy, all center in this association of the
Son, the Spirit, and Paradise. The personality of the spirit Son
is the master pattern for all personality throughout all
universes. The substance of the Paradise Isle is the master
pattern of which Havona is a perfect, and the superuniverses are
a perfecting, revelation. The Conjoint Actor is at one and the
same time the mind activation of cosmic energy, the
conceptualization of spirit purpose, and the integration of the
mathematical causes and effects of the material levels with the
volitional purposes and motives of the spiritual level. In and
to a finite universe the Son, Spirit, and Paradise function in
and upon the Ultimate as he is conditioned and qualified in the
Supreme.
115:3.15 Actuality (of Deity) is what man
seeks in the Paradise ascent. Potentiality (of human divinity)
is what man evolves in that search. The Original is what makes
possible the coexistence and integration of man the actual, man
the potential, and man the eternal.
115:3.16 The final dynamics of the cosmos have
to do with the continual transfer of reality from potentiality
to actuality. In theory, there may be an end to this
metamorphosis, but in fact, such is impossible since the
Potential and the Actual are both encircuited in the Original
(the I AM), and this identification makes it forever impossible
to place a limit on the developmental progression of the
universe. Whatsoever is identified with the I AM can never find
an end to progression since the actuality of the potentials of
the I AM is absolute, and the potentiality of the actuals of the
I AM is also absolute. Always will actuals be opening up new
avenues of the realization of hitherto impossible potentials --
every human decision not only actualizes a new reality in human
experience but also opens up a new capacity for human growth.
The man lives in every child, and the morontia progressor is
resident in the mature God-knowing man.
115:3.17 Statics in growth can never appear in
the total cosmos since the basis for growth -- the absolute
actuals -- is unqualified, and since the possibilities for
growth -- the absolute potentials -- are unlimited. From a
practical viewpoint the philosophers of the universe have come
to the conclusion that there is no such thing as an end.
115:3.18 From a circumscribed view there are,
indeed, many ends, many terminations of activities, but from a
larger viewpoint on a higher universe level, there are no
endings, merely transitions from one phase of development to
another. The major chronicity of the master universe is
concerned with the several universe ages, the Havona, the
superuniverse, and the outer universe ages. But even these basic
divisions of sequence relationships cannot be more than relative
landmarks on the unending highway of eternity.
115:3.19 The final penetration of the truth,
beauty, and goodness of the Supreme Being could only open up to
the progressing creature those absonite qualities of ultimate
divinity which lie beyond the concept levels of truth, beauty,
and goodness.
4. SOURCES OF SUPREME REALITY
115:4.1 Any consideration of the origins
of God the Supreme must begin with the Paradise Trinity, for the
Trinity is original Deity while the Supreme is derived Deity.
Any consideration of the growth of the Supreme must give
consideration to the existential triodities, for they encompass
all absolute actuality and all infinite potentiality (in
conjunction with the First Source and Center). And the
evolutionary Supreme is the culminating and personally
volitional focus of the transmutation -- the transformation --
of potentials to actuals in and on the finite level of
existence. The two triodities, actual and potential, encompass
the totality of the interrelationships of growth in the
universes.
115:4.2 The source of the Supreme is in the
Paradise Trinity -- eternal, actual, and undivided Deity. The
Supreme is first of all a spirit person, and this spirit person
stems from the Trinity. But the Supreme is secondly a Deity of
growth -- evolutionary growth -- and this growth derives from
the two triodities, actual and potential.
115:4.3 If it is difficult to comprehend that
the infinite triodities can function on the finite level, pause
to consider that their very infinity must in itself contain the
potentiality of the finite; infinity encompasses all things
ranging from the lowest and most qualified finite existence to
the highest and unqualifiedly absolute realities.
115:4.4 It is not so difficult to comprehend
that the infinite does contain the finite as it is to understand
just how this infinite actually is manifest to the finite. But
the Thought Adjusters indwelling mortal man are one of the
eternal proofs that even the absolute God (as absolute) can and
does actually make direct contact with even the lowest and least
of all universe will creatures.
115:4.5 The triodities which collectively
encompass the actual and the potential are manifest on the
finite level in conjunction with the Supreme Being. The
technique of such manifestation is both direct and indirect:
direct in so far as triodity relations repercuss directly in the
Supreme and indirect in so far as they are derived through the
eventuated level of the absonite.
115:4.6 Supreme reality, which is total finite
reality, is in process of dynamic growth between the unqualified
potentials of outer space and the unqualified actuals at the
center of all things. The finite domain thus factualizes through
the co-operation of the absonite agencies of Paradise and the
Supreme Creator Personalities of time. The act of maturing the
qualified possibilities of the three great potential Absolutes
is the absonite function of the Architects of the Master
Universe and their transcendental associates. And when these
eventualities have attained to a certain point of maturation,
the Supreme Creator Personalities emerge from Paradise to engage
in the agelong task of bringing the evolving universes into
factual being.
115:4.7 The growth of Supremacy derives from
the triodities; the spirit person of the Supreme, from the
Trinity; but the power prerogatives of the Almighty are
predicated on the divinity successes of God the Sevenfold, while
the conjoining of the power prerogatives of the Almighty Supreme
with the spirit person of God the Supreme takes place by virtue
of the ministry of the Conjoint Actor, who bestowed the mind of
the Supreme as the conjoining factor in this evolutionary Deity.
5. RELATION OF THE SUPREME TO THE PARADISE
TRINITY
115:5.1 The Supreme Being is absolutely
dependent on the existence and action of the Paradise Trinity
for the reality of his personal and spirit nature. While the
growth of the Supreme is a matter of triodity relationship, the
spirit personality of God the Supreme is dependent upon, and is
derived from, the Paradise Trinity, which ever remains as the
absolute center-source of perfect and infinite stability around
which the evolutionary growth of the Supreme progressively
unfolds.
115:5.2 The function of the Trinity is related
to the function of the Supreme, for the Trinity is functional on
all (total) levels, including the level of the function of
Supremacy. But as the age of Havona gives way to the age of the
superuniverses, so does the discernible action of the Trinity as
immediate creator give way to the creative acts of the children
of the Paradise Deities.
6. RELATION OF THE SUPREME TO THE
TRIODITIES
115:6.1 The triodity of actuality continues to
function directly in the post-Havona epochs; Paradise gravity
grasps the basic units of material existence, the spirit gravity
of the Eternal Son operates directly upon the fundamental values
of spirit existence, and the mind gravity of the Conjoint Actor
unerringly clutches all vital meanings of intellectual
existence.
115:6.2 But as each stage of creative activity
proceeds out through uncharted space, it functions and exists
farther and farther removed from direct action by the creative
forces and divine personalities of central emplacement -- the
absolute Isle of Paradise and the infinite Deities resident
thereon. These successive levels of cosmic existence become,
therefore, increasingly dependent upon developments within the
three Absolute potentialities of infinity.
115:6.3 The Supreme Being embraces
possibilities for cosmic ministry that are not apparently
manifested in the Eternal Son, the Infinite Spirit, or the
nonpersonal realities of the Isle of Paradise. This statement is
made with due regard for the absoluteness of these three basic
actualities, but the growth of the Supreme is not only
predicated on these actualities of Deity and Paradise but is
also involved in developments within the Deity, Universal, and
Unqualified Absolutes.
115:6.4 The Supreme not only grows as the
Creators and creatures of the evolving universes attain to
Godlikeness, but this finite Deity also experiences growth as a
result of the creature and Creator mastery of the finite
possibilities of the grand universe. The motion of the Supreme
is twofold: intensively toward Paradise and Deity and
extensively toward the limitlessness of the Absolutes of
potential.
115:6.5 In the present universe age this dual
motion is revealed in the descending and ascending personalities
of the grand universe. The Supreme Creator Personalities and all
their divine associates are reflective of the outward, diverging
motion of the Supreme, while the ascending pilgrims from the
seven superuniverses are indicative of the inward, converging
trend of Supremacy.
115:6.6 Always is the finite Deity seeking for
dual correlation, inward toward Paradise and the Deities thereof
and outward toward infinity and the Absolutes therein. The
mighty eruption of the Paradise-creative divinity personalizing
in the Creator Sons and powerizing in the power controllers,
signifies the vast outsurge of Supremacy into the domains of
potentiality, while the endless procession of the ascending
creatures of the grand universe witnesses the mighty insurge of
Supremacy toward unity with Paradise Deity.
115:6.7 Human beings have learned that the
motion of the invisible may sometimes be discerned by observing
its effects on the visible; and we in the universes have long
since learned to detect the movements and trends of Supremacy by
observing the repercussions of such evolutions in the
personalities and patterns of the grand universe.
115:6.8 Though we are not sure, we believe
that, as a finite reflection of Paradise Deity, the Supreme is
engaged in an eternal progression into outer space; but as a
qualification of the three Absolute potentials of outer space,
this Supreme Being is forever see king for Paradise coherence.
And these dual motions seem to account for most of the basic
activities in the presently organized universes.
7. THE NATURE OF THE SUPREME
115:7.1 In the Deity of the Supreme the
Father-I AM has achieved relatively complete liberation from the
limitations inherent in infinity of status, eternity of being,
and absoluteness of nature. But God the Supreme has been freed
from all existential limitations only by having become subject
to experiential qualifications of universal function. In
attaining capacity for experience, the finite God also becomes
subject to the necessity therefor; in achieving liberation from
eternity, the Almighty encounters the barriers of time; and the
Supreme could only know growth and development as a consequence
of partiality of existence and incompleteness of nature,
nonabsoluteness of being.
115:7.2 All this must be according to the
Father's plan, which has predicated finite progress upon effort,
creature achievement upon perseverance, and personality
development upon faith. By thus ordaining the
experience-evolution of the Supreme, the Father has made it
possible for finite creatures to exist in the universes and, by
experiential progression, sometime to attain the divinity of
Supremacy.
115:7.3 Including the Supreme and even the
Ultimate, all reality, excepting the unqualified values of the
seven Absolutes, is relative. The fact of Supremacy is
predicated on Paradise power, Son personality, and Conjoint
action, but the growth of the Supreme is involved in the Deity
Absolute, the Unqualified Absolute, and the Universal Absolute.
And this synthesizing and unifying Deity -- God the Supreme --
is the personification of the finite shadow cast athwart the
grand universe by the infinite unity of the unsearchable nature
of the Paradise Father, the First Source and Center.
115:7.4 To the extent that the triodities are
directly operative on the finite level, they impinge upon the
Supreme, who is the Deity focalization and cosmic summation of
the finite qualifications of the natures of the Absolute Actual
and the Absolute Potential.
115:7.5 The Paradise Trinity is considered to
be the absolute inevitability; the Seven Master Spirits are
apparently Trinity inevitabilities; the
power-mind-spirit-personality actualization of the Supreme must
be the evolutionary inevitability.
115:7.6 God the Supreme does not appear to
have been inevitable in unqualified infinity, but he seems to be
on all relativity levels. He is the indispensable focalizer,
summarizer, and encompasser of evolutionary experience,
effectively unifying the results of this mode of reality
perception in his Deity nature. And all this he appears to do
for the purpose of contributing to the appearance of the
inevitable eventuation, the superexperience and superfinite
manifestation of God the Ultimate.
115:7.7 The Supreme Being cannot be fully
appreciated without taking into consideration source, function,
and destiny: relationship to the originating Trinity, the
universe of activity, and the Trinity Ultimate of immediate
destiny.
115:7.8 By the process of summating
evolutionary experience the Supreme connects the finite with the
absonite, even as the mind of the Conjoint Actor integrates the
divine spirituality of the personal Son with the immutable
energies of the Paradise pattern, and as the presence of the
Universal Absolute unifies Deity activation with the Unqualified
reactivity. And this unity must be a revelation of the
undetected working of the original unity of the First
Father-Cause and Source-Pattern of all things and all beings.
115:7.9
Sponsored by a Mighty Messenger temporarily sojourning on
Urantia.