God is
unity. Deity is universally co-ordinated. The universe
of universes is one vast integrated mechanism which is
absolutely controlled by one infinite mind. The
physical, intellectual, and spiritual domains of
universal creation are divinely correlated. The perfect
and imperfect are truly interrelated, and therefore may
the finite evolutionary creature ascend to Paradise in
obedience to the Universal Father's mandate: "Be you
perfect, even as I am perfect."
The diverse
levels of creation are all unified in the plans and
administration of the Architects of the Master Universe.
To the circumscribed minds of time-space mortals the
universe may present many problems and situations which
apparently portray disharmony and indicate absence of
effective co-ordination; but those of us who are able to
observe wider stretches of universal phenomena, and who
are more experienced in this art of detecting the basic
unity which underlies creative diversity and of
discovering the divine oneness which overspreads all
this functioning of plurality, better perceive the
divine and single purpose exhibited in all these
manifold manifestations of universal creative energy.
1.
PHYSICAL CO-ORDINATION
The
physical or material creation is not infinite, but it is
perfectly co-ordinated. There are force, energy, and
power, but they are all one in origin. The seven
superuniverses are seemingly dual; the central universe,
triune; but Paradise is of single constitution. And
Paradise is the actual source of all material
universes--past, present, and future. But this cosmic
derivation is an eternity event; at no time--past,
present, or future--does either space or the material
cosmos come forth from the nuclear Isle of Light. As the
cosmic source, Paradise functions prior to space and
before time; hence would its derivations seem to be
orphaned in time and space did they not emerge through
the Unqualified Absolute, their ultimate repository in
space and their revealer and regulator in time.
The
Unqualified Absolute upholds the physical universe,
while the Deity Absolute motivates the exquisite
overcontrol of all material reality; and both Absolutes
are functionally unified by the Universal Absolute. This
cohesive correlation of the material universe is best
understood by all personalities--material, morontia,
absonite, or spiritual--by the observation of the
gravity response of all bona fide material reality to
the gravity centering on nether Paradise.
Page 638
Gravity
unification is universal and unvarying; pure-energy
response is likewise universal and inescapable. Pure
energy (primordial force) and pure spirit are wholly
preresponsive to gravity. These primal forces, inhering
in the Absolutes, are personally controlled by the
Universal Father; hence does all gravity center in the
personal presence of the Paradise Father of pure energy
and pure spirit and in his supermaterial abode.
Pure
energy is the ancestor of all relative, nonspirit
functional realities, while pure spirit is the potential
of the divine and directive overcontrol of all basic
energy systems. And these realities, so diverse as
manifested throughout space and as observed in the
motions of time, are both centered in the person of the
Paradise Father. In him they are one--must be
unified--because God is one. The Father's personality is
absolutely unified.
In the
infinite nature of God the Father there could not
possibly exist duality of reality, such as physical and
spiritual; but the instant we look aside from the
infinite levels and absolute reality of the personal
values of the Paradise Father, we observe the existence
of these two realities and recognize that they are fully
responsive to his personal presence; in him all things
consist.
The
moment you depart from the unqualified concept of the
infinite personality of the Paradise Father, you must
postulate MIND as the inevitable technique of unifying
the ever-widening divergence of these dual universe
manifestations of the original monothetic Creator
personality, the First Source and Center--the I AM.
2.
INTELLECTUAL UNITY
The
Thought-Father realizes spirit expression in the
Word-Son and attains reality expansion through Paradise
in the far-flung material universes. The spiritual
expressions of the Eternal Son are correlated with the
material levels of creation by the functions of the
Infinite Spirit, by whose spirit-responsive ministry of
mind, and in whose physical-directive acts of mind, the
spiritual realities of Deity and the material
repercussions of Deity are correlated the one with the
other.
Mind is
the functional endowment of the Infinite Spirit,
therefore infinite in potential and universal in
bestowal. The primal thought of the Universal Father
eternalizes in dual expression: the Isle of Paradise and
his Deity equal, the spiritual and Eternal Son. Such
duality of eternal reality renders the mind God, the
Infinite Spirit, inevitable. Mind is the indispensable
channel of communication between spiritual and material
realities. The material evolutionary creature can
conceive and comprehend the indwelling spirit only by
the ministry of mind.
This
infinite and universal mind is ministered in the
universes of time and space as the cosmic mind; and
though extending from the primitive ministry of the
adjutant spirits up to the magnificent mind of the chief
executive of a universe, even this cosmic mind is
adequately unified in the supervision of the Seven
Master Spirits, who are in turn co-ordinated with the
Supreme Mind of time and space and perfectly correlated
with the all-embracing mind of the Infinite Spirit.
Page 639
3.
SPIRITUAL UNIFICATION
As the
universal mind gravity is centered in the Paradise
personal presence of the Infinite Spirit, so does the
universal spirit gravity center in the Paradise personal
presence of the Eternal Son. The Universal Father is
one, but to time-space he is revealed in the dual
phenomena of pure energy and pure spirit.
Paradise
spirit realities are likewise one, but in all time-space
situations and relations this single spirit is revealed
in the dual phenomena of the spirit personalities and
emanations of the Eternal Son and the spirit
personalities and influences of the Infinite Spirit and
associated creations; and there is yet a
third--pure-spirit fragmentations--the Father's bestowal
of the Thought Adjusters and other spirit entities which
are prepersonal.
No matter
on what level of universe activities you may encounter
spiritual phenomena or contact with spirit beings, you
may know that they are all derived from the God who is
spirit by the ministry of the Spirit Son and the
Infinite Mind Spirit. And this far-flung spirit
functions as a phenomenon on the evolutionary worlds of
time as it is directed from the headquarters of the
local universes. From these capitals of the Creator Sons
come the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Truth, together
with the ministry of the adjutant mind-spirits, to the
lower and evolving levels of material minds.
While
mind is more unified on the level of the Master Spirits
in association with the Supreme Being and as the cosmic
mind in subordination to the Absolute Mind, the spirit
ministry to the evolving worlds is more directly unified
in the personalities resident on the headquarters of the
local universes and in the persons of the presiding
Divine Ministers, who are in turn well-nigh perfectly
correlated with the Paradise gravity circuit of the
Eternal Son, wherein occurs final unification of all
time-space spirit manifestations.
Perfected
creature existence can be attained, sustained, and
eternalized by the fusion of self-conscious mind with a
fragment of the pre-Trinity spirit endowment of some one
of the persons of the Paradise Trinity. The mortal mind
is the creation of the Sons and Daughters of the Eternal
Son and the Infinite Spirit and, when fused with the
Thought Adjuster from the Father, partakes of the
threefold spirit endowment of the evolutionary realms.
But these three spirit expressions become perfectly
unified in the finaliters, even as they were in eternity
so unified in the Universal I AM ere he ever became the
Universal Father of the Eternal Son and the Infinite
Spirit.
Spirit
must always and ultimately become threefold in
expression and Trinity-unified in final realization.
Spirit originates from one source through a threefold
expression; and in finality it must and does attain its
full realization in that divine unification which is
experienced in finding God--oneness with divinity--in
eternity, and by means of the ministry of the cosmic
mind of the infinite expression of the eternal word of
the Father's universal thought.
4.
PERSONALITY UNIFICATION
The
Universal Father is a divinely unified personality;
hence will all his ascendant children who are carried to
Paradise by the rebound momentum of the Thought
Adjusters, who went forth from Paradise to indwell
material mortals in obedience to the Father's mandate,
likewise be fully unified personalities ere they reach
Havona.
Page 640
Personality inherently reaches out to unify all
constituent realities. The infinite personality of the
First Source and Center, the Universal Father, unifies
all seven constituent Absolutes of Infinity; and the
personality of mortal man, being an exclusive and direct
bestowal of the Universal Father, likewise possesses the
potential of unifying the constituent factors of the
mortal creature. Such unifying creativity of all
creature personality is a birthmark of its high and
exclusive source and is further evidential of its
unbroken contact with this same source through the
personality circuit, by means of which the personality
of the creature maintains direct and sustaining contact
with the Father of all personality on Paradise.
Notwithstanding that God is manifest from the domains of
the Sevenfold up through supremacy and ultimacy to God
the Absolute, the personality circuit, centering on
Paradise and in the person of God the Father, provides
for the complete and perfect unification of all these
diverse expressions of divine personality so far as
concerns all creature personalities on all levels of
intelligent existence and in all the realms of the
perfect, perfected, and perfecting universes.
While God
is to and in the universes all that we have portrayed,
nevertheless, to you and to all other God-knowing
creatures he is one, your Father and their Father. To
personality God cannot be plural. God is Father to each
of his creatures, and it is literally impossible for any
child to have more than one father.
Philosophically, cosmically, and with reference to
differential levels and locations of manifestation, you
may and perforce must conceive of the functioning of
plural Deities and postulate the existence of plural
Trinities; but in the worshipful experience of the
personal contact of every worshiping personality
throughout the master universe, God is one; and that
unified and personal Deity is our Paradise parent, God
the Father, the bestower, conservator, and Father of all
personalities from mortal man on the inhabited worlds to
the Eternal Son on the central Isle of Light.
5.
DEITY UNITY
The
oneness, the indivisibility, of Paradise Deity is
existential and absolute. There are three eternal
personalizations of Deity--the Universal Father, the
Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit--but in the
Paradise Trinity they are actually one Deity,
undivided and indivisible.
From the
original Paradise-Havona level of existential reality,
two subabsolute levels have differentiated, and thereon
have the Father, Son, and Spirit engaged in the creation
of numerous personal associates and subordinates. And
while it is inappropriate in this connection to
undertake the consideration of absonite deity
unification on transcendental levels of ultimacy, it is
feasible to look at some features of the unifying
function of the various Deity personalizations in whom
divinity is functionally manifest to the diverse sectors
of creation and to the different orders of intelligent
beings.
The
present functioning of divinity in the superuniverses is
actively manifest in the operations of the Supreme
Creators--the local universe Creator Sons and Spirits,
the superuniverse Ancients of Days, and the Seven Master
Spirits of Paradise. These beings constitute the first
three levels of God the Sevenfold leading inward to the
Universal Father, and this entire domain of God the
Sevenfold is co-ordinating on the first level of
experiential deity in the evolving Supreme Being.
Page 641
On
Paradise and in the central universe, Deity unity is a
fact of existence. Throughout the evolving universes of
time and space, Deity unity is an achievement.
6.
UNIFICATION OF EVOLUTIONARY DEITY
When the
three eternal persons of Deity function as undivided
Deity in the Paradise Trinity, they achieve perfect
unity; likewise, when they create, either associatively
or severally, their Paradise progeny exhibit the
characteristic unity of divinity. And this divinity of
purpose manifested by the Supreme Creators and Rulers of
the time-space domains eventuates in the unifying power
potential of the sovereignty of experiential supremacy
which, in the presence of the impersonal energy unity of
the universe, constitutes a reality tension that can be
resolved only through adequate unification with the
experiential personality realities of experiential
Deity.
The
personality realities of the Supreme Being come forth
from the Paradise Deities and on the pilot world of the
outer Havona circuit unify with the power prerogatives
of the Almighty Supreme coming up from the Creator
divinities of the grand universe. God the Supreme as a
person existed in Havona before the creation of the
seven superuniverses, but he functioned only on
spiritual levels. The evolution of the Almighty power of
Supremacy by diverse divinity synthesis in the evolving
universes eventuated in a new power presence of Deity
which co-ordinated with the spiritual person of the
Supreme in Havona by means of the Supreme Mind, which
concomitantly translated from the potential resident in
the infinite mind of the Infinite Spirit to the active
functional mind of the Supreme Being.
The
material-minded creatures of the evolutionary worlds of
the seven superuniverses can comprehend Deity unity only
as it is evolving in this power-personality synthesis of
the Supreme Being. On any level of existence God cannot
exceed the conceptual capacity of the beings who live on
such a level. Mortal man must, through the recognition
of truth, the appreciation of beauty, and the worship of
goodness, evolve the recognition of a God of love and
then progress through ascending deity levels to the
comprehension of the Supreme. Deity, having been thus
grasped as unified in power, can then be personalized in
spirit to creature understanding and attainment.
While
ascending mortals achieve power comprehension of the
Almighty on the capitals of the superuniverses and
personality comprehension of the Supreme on the outer
circuits of Havona, they do not actually find the
Supreme Being as they are destined to find the Paradise
Deities. Even the finaliters, sixth-stage spirits, have
not found the Supreme Being, nor are they likely to
until they have achieved seventh-stage-spirit status,
and until the Supreme has become actually functional in
the activities of the future outer universes.
But when
ascenders find the Universal Father as the seventh level
of God the Sevenfold, they have attained the personality
of the First Person of all deity levels of
personal relationships with universe creatures.
Page 642
7.
UNIVERSAL EVOLUTIONARY REPERCUSSIONS
The
steady progress of evolution in the time-space universes
is accompanied by ever-enlarging revelations of Deity to
all intelligent creatures. The attainment of the height
of evolutionary progress on a world, in a system,
constellation, universe, superuniverse, or in the grand
universe signalizes corresponding enlargements of deity
function to and in these progressive units of creation.
And every such local enhancement of divinity realization
is accompanied by certain well-defined repercussions of
enlarged deity manifestation to all other sectors of
creation. Extending outward from Paradise, each new
domain of realized and attained evolution constitutes a
new and enlarged revelation of experiential Deity to the
universe of universes.
As the
components of a local universe are progressively settled
in light and life, God the Sevenfold is increasingly
made manifest. Time-space evolution begins on a planet
with the first expression of God the Sevenfold--the
Creator Son-Creative Spirit association--in control.
With the settling of a system in light, this Son-Spirit
liaison attains the fullness of function; and when an
entire constellation is thus settled, the second phase
of God the Sevenfold becomes more active throughout such
a realm. The completed administrative evolution of a
local universe is attended by new and more direct
ministrations of the superuniverse Master Spirits; and
at this point there also begins that ever-expanding
revelation and realization of God the Supreme which
culminates in the ascender's comprehension of the
Supreme Being while passing through the worlds of the
sixth Havona circuit.
The
Universal Father, the Eternal Son, and the Infinite
Spirit are existential deity manifestations to
intelligent creatures and are not, therefore, similarly
expanded in personality relations with the mind and
spirit creatures of all creation.
It should
be noted that ascending mortals may experience the
impersonal presence of successive levels of Deity long
before they become sufficiently spiritual and adequately
educated to attain experiential personal recognition of,
and contact with, these Deities as personal beings.
Each new
evolutionary attainment within a sector of creation, as
well as every new invasion of space by divinity
manifestations, is attended by simultaneous expansions
of Deity functional-revelation within the then existing
and previously organized units of all creation. This new
invasion of the administrative work of the universes and
their component units may not always appear to be
executed exactly in accordance with the technique
herewith outlined because it is the practice to send
forth advance groups of administrators to prepare the
way for the subsequent and successive eras of new
administrative overcontrol. Even God the Ultimate
foreshadows his transcendental overcontrol of the
universes during the later stages of a local universe
settled in light and life.
It is a
fact that, as the creations of time and space are
progressively settled in evolutionary status, there is
observed a new and fuller functioning of God the Supreme
concomitant with a corresponding withdrawing of the
first three manifestations of God the Sevenfold. If and
when the grand universe becomes settled in light and
life, what then will be the future function of the
Creator-Creative manifestations of God the Sevenfold if
God the Supreme assumes direct control of these
creations of time and space? Are these organizers and
pioneers of the time-space universes to be liberated for
similar activities in outer space? We do not know, but
we speculate much concerning these and related matters.
Page 643
As the
frontiers of experiential Deity are extended out into
the domains of the Unqualified Absolute, we envision the
activity of God the Sevenfold during the earlier
evolutionary epochs of these creations of the future. We
are not all in agreement respecting the future status of
the Ancients of Days and the superuniverse Master
Spirits. Neither do we know whether or not the Supreme
Being will therein function as in the seven
superuniverses. But we all conjecture that the Michaels,
the Creator Sons, are destined to function in these
outer universes. Some hold that the future ages will
witness some closer form of union between the associated
Creator Sons and Divine Ministers; it is even possible
that such a creator union might eventuate in some new
expression of associate-creator identity of an ultimate
nature. But we really know nothing about these
possibilities of the unrevealed future.
We do
know, however, that in the universes of time and space,
God the Sevenfold provides a progressive approach to the
Universal Father, and that this evolutionary approach is
experientially unified in God the Supreme. We might
conjecture that such a plan must prevail in the outer
universes; on the other hand the new orders of beings
that may sometime inhabit these universes may be able to
approach Deity on ultimate levels and by absonite
techniques. In short, we have not the slightest concept
of what technique of deity approach may become operative
in the future universes of outer space.
Nevertheless, we deem that the perfected superuniverses
will in some way become a part of the Paradise-ascension
careers of those beings who may inhabit these outer
creations. It is quite possible that in that future age
we may witness outer-spacers approaching Havona through
the seven superuniverses, administered by God the
Supreme with or without the collaboration of the Seven
Master Spirits.
8.
THE SUPREME UNIFIER
The
Supreme Being has a threefold function in the experience
of mortal man: First, he is the unifier of time-space
divinity, God the Sevenfold; second, he is the maximum
of Deity which finite creatures can actually comprehend;
third, he is mortal man's only avenue of approach to the
transcendental experience of consorting with absonite
mind, eternal spirit, and Paradise personality.
Ascendant
finaliters, having been born in the local universes,
nurtured in the superuniverses, and trained in the
central universe, embrace in their personal experiences
the full potential of the comprehension of the
time-space divinity of God the Sevenfold unifying in the
Supreme. Finaliters serve successively in superuniverses
other than those of nativity, thereby superimposing
experience upon experience until the fullness of the
sevenfold diversity of possible creature experience has
been encompassed. Through the ministry of the indwelling
Adjusters the finaliters are enabled to find the
Universal Father, but it is by these techniques of
experience that such finaliters come really to know
the Supreme Being, and they are destined to the service
and the revelation of this Supreme Deity in and
to the future universes of outer space.
Page 644
Bear in mind, all that God the Father and his Paradise
Sons do for us, we in turn and in spirit have the
opportunity to do for and in the emerging Supreme Being.
The experience of love, joy, and service in the universe
is mutual. God the Father does not need that his sons
should return to him all that he bestows upon them, but
they do (or may) in turn bestow all of this upon their
fellows and upon the evolving Supreme Being.
All
creational phenomena are reflective of antecedent
creator-spirit activities. Said Jesus, and it is
literally true, "The Son does only those things which he
sees the Father do." In time you mortals may begin the
revelation of the Supreme to your fellows, and
increasingly may you augment this revelation as you
ascend Paradiseward. In eternity you may be permitted to
make increasing revelations of this God of evolutionary
creatures on supreme levels--even ultimate--as
seventh-stage finaliters.
9.
UNIVERSAL ABSOLUTE UNITY
The
Unqualified Absolute and the Deity Absolute are unified
in the Universal Absolute. The Absolutes are co-ordinated
in the Ultimate, conditioned in the Supreme, and
time-space modified in God the Sevenfold. On subinfinite
levels there are three Absolutes, but in infinity
they appear to be one. On Paradise there are
three personalizations of Deity, but in the Trinity they
are one.
The major
philosophic proposition of the master universe is this:
Did the Absolute (the three Absolutes as one in
infinity) exist before the Trinity? and is the Absolute
ancestral to the Trinity? or is the Trinity antecedent
to the Absolute?
Is the
Unqualified Absolute a force presence independent of the
Trinity? Does the presence of the Deity Absolute connote
the unlimited function of the Trinity? and is the
Universal Absolute the final function of the Trinity,
even a Trinity of Trinities?
On first
thought, a concept of the Absolute as ancestor to all
things--even the Trinity--seems to afford transitory
satisfaction of consistency gratification and
philosophic unification, but any such conclusion is
invalidated by the actuality of the eternity of the
Paradise Trinity. We are taught, and we believe, that
the Universal Father and his Trinity associates are
eternal in nature and existence. There is, then, but one
consistent philosophic conclusion, and that is: The
Absolute is, to all universe intelligences, the
impersonal and co-ordinate reaction of the Trinity (of
Trinities) to all basic and primary space situations,
intrauniversal and extrauniversal. To all personality
intelligences of the grand universe the Paradise Trinity
forever stands in finality, eternity, supremacy, and
ultimacy and, for all practical purposes of personal
comprehension and creature realization, as absolute.
As
creature minds may view this problem, they are led to
the final postulate of the Universal I AM as the primal
cause and the unqualified source of both the Trinity and
the Absolute. When, therefore, we crave to entertain a
personal concept of the Absolute, we revert to our ideas
and ideals of the Paradise Father. When we desire to
facilitate comprehension or to augment consciousness of
this otherwise impersonal Absolute, we revert to the
fact that the Universal Father is the existential Father
of absolute personality; the Eternal Son is the Absolute
Person, though not, in the experiential sense, the
personalization of the Absolute.
Page 645
And then we go on to envisage the experiential Trinities
as culminating in the experiential personalization of
the Deity Absolute, while conceiving the Universal
Absolute as constituting the universe and the
extrauniverse phenomena of the manifest presence of the
impersonal activities of the unified and co-ordinated
Deity associations of supremacy, ultimacy, and
infinity--the Trinity of Trinities.
God the
Father is discernible on all levels from the finite to
the infinite, and though his creatures from Paradise to
the evolutionary worlds have variously perceived him,
only the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit know him as
an infinity.
Spiritual
personality is absolute only on Paradise, and the
concept of the Absolute is unqualified only in infinity.
Deity presence is absolute only on Paradise, and the
revelation of God must always be partial, relative, and
progressive until his power becomes experientially
infinite in the space potency of the Unqualified
Absolute, while his personality manifestation becomes
experientially infinite in the manifest presence of the
Deity Absolute, and while these two potentials of
infinity become reality-unified in the Universal
Absolute.
But
beyond subinfinite levels the three Absolutes are
one, and thereby is infinity Deity-realized regardless
of whether any other order of existence ever
self-realizes consciousness of infinity.
Existential status in eternity implies existential
self-consciousness of infinity, even though another
eternity may be required to experience self-realization
of the experiential potentialities inherent in an
infinity eternity--an eternal infinity.
And God
the Father is the personal source of all manifestations
of Deity and reality to all intelligent creatures and
spirit beings throughout all the universe of universes.
As personalities, now or in the successive universe
experiences of the eternal future, no matter if you
achieve the attainment of God the Sevenfold, comprehend
God the Supreme, find God the Ultimate, or attempt to
grasp the concept of God the Absolute, you will discover
to your eternal satisfaction that in the consummation of
each adventure you have, on new experiential levels,
rediscovered the eternal God--the Paradise Father of all
universe personalities.
The
Universal Father is the explanation of universal unity
as it must be supremely, even ultimately, realized in
the postultimate unity of absolute values and
meanings--unqualified Reality.
The
Master Force Organizers go out into space and mobilize
its energies to become gravity responsive to the
Paradise pull of the Universal Father; and subsequently
there come the Creator Sons, who organize these
gravity-responding forces into inhabited universes and
therein evolve intelligent creatures who receive unto
themselves the spirit of the Paradise Father and
subsequently ascend to the Father to become like him in
all possible divinity attributes.
The
ceaseless and expanding march of the Paradise creative
forces through space seems to presage the ever-extending
domain of the gravity grasp of the Universal Father and
the never-ending multiplication of varied types of
intelligent creatures who are able to love God and be
loved by him, and who, by thus becoming God-knowing, may
choose to be like him, may elect to attain Paradise and
find God.
Page 646
The universe of universes is altogether unified. God is
one in power and personality. There is co-ordination of
all levels of energy and all phases of personality.
Philosophically and experientially, in concept and in
reality, all things and beings center in the Paradise
Father. God is all and in all, and no things or beings
exist without him.
10.
TRUTH, BEAUTY, AND GOODNESS
As the
worlds settled in life and light progress from the
initial stage to the seventh epoch, they successively
grasp for the realization of the reality of God the
Sevenfold, ranging from the adoration of the Creator Son
to the worship of his Paradise Father. Throughout the
continuing seventh stage of such a world's history the
ever-progressing mortals grow in the knowledge of God
the Supreme, while they vaguely discern the reality of
the overshadowing ministry of God the Ultimate.
Throughout this glorious age the chief pursuit of the
ever-advancing mortals is the quest for a better
understanding and a fuller realization of the
comprehensible elements of Deity--truth, beauty, and
goodness. This represents man's effort to discern God in
mind, matter, and spirit. And as the mortal pursues this
quest, he finds himself increasingly absorbed in the
experiential study of philosophy, cosmology, and
divinity.
Philosophy you somewhat grasp, and divinity you
comprehend in worship, social service, and personal
spiritual experience, but the pursuit of
beauty--cosmology--you all too often limit to the study
of man's crude artistic endeavors. Beauty, art, is
largely a matter of the unification of contrasts.
Variety is essential to the concept of beauty. The
supreme beauty, the height of finite art, is the drama
of the unification of the vastness of the cosmic
extremes of Creator and creature. Man finding God and
God finding man--the creature becoming perfect as is the
Creator--that is the supernal achievement of the
supremely beautiful, the attainment of the apex of
cosmic art.
Hence
materialism, atheism, is the maximation of ugliness, the
climax of the finite antithesis of the beautiful.
Highest beauty consists in the panorama of the
unification of the variations which have been born of
pre-existent harmonious reality.
The
attainment of cosmologic levels of thought includes:
1.
Curiosity. Hunger for harmony and thirst for beauty.
Persistent attempts to discover new levels of harmonious
cosmic relationships.
2.
Aesthetic appreciation. Love of the beautiful and
ever-advancing appreciation of the artistic touch of all
creative manifestations on all levels of reality.
3.
Ethic sensitivity. Through the realization of truth
the appreciation of beauty leads to the sense of the
eternal fitness of those things which impinge upon the
recognition of divine goodness in Deity relations with
all beings; and thus even cosmology leads to the pursuit
of divine reality values--to God-consciousness.
The
worlds settled in light and life are so fully concerned
with the comprehension of truth, beauty, and goodness
because these quality values embrace the revelation of
Deity to the realms of time and space. The meanings of
eternal truth make a combined appeal to the intellectual
and spiritual natures of mortal man. Universal beauty
embraces the harmonious relations and rhythms of the
cosmic creation; this is more distinctly the
intellectual appeal and leads towards unified and
synchronous comprehension of the material universe.
Divine goodness represents the revelation of infinite
values to the finite mind, therein to be perceived and
elevated to the very threshold of the spiritual level of
human comprehension.
Page 647
Truth is
the basis of science and philosophy, presenting the
intellectual foundation of religion. Beauty sponsors
art, music, and the meaningful rhythms of all human
experience. Goodness embraces the sense of ethics,
morality, and religion--experiential perfection-hunger.
The
existence of beauty implies the presence of appreciative
creature mind just as certainly as the fact of
progressive evolution indicates the dominance of the
Supreme Mind. Beauty is the intellectual recognition of
the harmonious time-space synthesis of the far-flung
diversification of phenomenal reality, all of which
stems from pre-existent and eternal oneness.
Goodness
is the mental recognition of the relative values of the
diverse levels of divine perfection. The recognition of
goodness implies a mind of moral status, a personal mind
with ability to discriminate between good and evil. But
the possession of goodness, greatness, is the measure of
real divinity attainment.
The
recognition of true relations implies a mind
competent to discriminate between truth and error. The
bestowal Spirit of Truth which invests the human minds
of Urantia is unerringly responsive to truth--the living
spirit relationship of all things and all beings as they
are co-ordinated in the eternal ascent Godward.
Every
impulse of every electron, thought, or spirit is an
acting unit in the whole universe. Only sin is isolated
and evil gravity resisting on the mental and spiritual
levels. The universe is a whole; no thing or being
exists or lives in isolation. Self-realization is
potentially evil if it is antisocial. It is literally
true: "No man lives by himself." Cosmic socialization
constitutes the highest form of personality unification.
Said Jesus: "He who would be greatest among you, let him
become server of all."
Even
truth, beauty, and goodness--man's intellectual approach
to the universe of mind, matter, and spirit--must be
combined into one unified concept of a divine and
supreme ideal. As mortal personality unifies the
human experience with matter, mind, and spirit, so does
this divine and supreme ideal become power-unified in
Supremacy and then personalized as a God of fatherly
love.
All
insight into the relations of the parts to any given
whole requires an understanding grasp of the relation of
all parts to that whole; and in the universe this means
the relation of created parts to the Creative Whole.
Deity thus becomes the transcendental, even the
infinite, goal of universal and eternal attainment.
Universal
beauty is the recognition of the reflection of the Isle
of Paradise in the material creation, while eternal
truth is the special ministry of the Paradise Sons who
not only bestow themselves upon the mortal races but
even pour out their Spirit of Truth upon all peoples.
Divine goodness is more fully shown forth in the loving
ministry of the manifold personalities of the Infinite
Spirit.
Page 648
But love, the sum total of these three qualities, is
man's perception of God as his spirit Father.
Physical
matter is the time-space shadow of the Paradise
energy-shining of the absolute Deities. Truth meanings
are the mortal-intellect repercussions of the eternal
word of Deity--the time-space comprehension of supreme
concepts. The goodness values of divinity are the
merciful ministries of the spirit personalities of the
Universal, the Eternal, and the Infinite to the
time-space finite creatures of the evolutionary spheres.
These
meaningful reality values of divinity are blended in the
Father's relation with each personal creature as divine
love. They are co-ordinated in the Son and his Sons as
divine mercy. They manifest their qualities through the
Spirit and his spirit children as divine ministry, the
portrayal of loving mercy to the children of time. These
three divinities are primarily manifested by the Supreme
Being as power-personality synthesis. They are variously
shown forth by God the Sevenfold in seven differing
associations of divine meanings and values on seven
ascending levels.
To finite
man truth, beauty, and goodness embrace the full
revelation of divinity reality. As this
love-comprehension of Deity finds spiritual expression
in the lives of God-knowing mortals, there are yielded
the fruits of divinity: intellectual peace, social
progress, moral satisfaction, spiritual joy, and cosmic
wisdom. The advanced mortals on a world in the seventh
stage of light and life have learned that love is the
greatest thing in the universe--and they know that God
is love.
Love is
the desire to do good to others.
[Presented
by a Mighty Messenger visiting on Urantia, by request of
the Nebadon Revelatory Corps and in collaboration with a
certain Melchizedek, the vicegerent Planetary Prince of
Urantia.] |