Paper 16 — The Seven Master Spirits

P.184 – §1 The Seven Master Spirits
of Paradise are the primary personalities of the Infinite Spirit. In this
sevenfold creative act of self-duplication the Infinite Spirit exhausted
the associative possibilities mathematically inherent in the factual existence
of the three persons of Deity. Had it been possible to produce a larger
number of Master Spirits, they would have been created, but there are
just seven associative possibilities, and only seven, inherent in three
Deities. And this explains why the universe is operated in seven grand
divisions, and why the number seven is basically fundamental in its organization
and administration.

P.184 – §2 The Seven Master Spirits thus have their
origin in, and derive their individual characteristics from, the following
seven likenesses:

P.184 – §3 1. The Universal Father.

P.184 – §4 2. The Eternal Son.

P.184 – §5 3. The Infinite Spirit.

P.184 – §6 4. The Father and the Son.

P.184 – §7 5. The Father and the Spirit.

P.184 – §8 6. The Son and the Spirit.

P.184 – §9 7. The Father, Son, and Spirit.

P.184 – §10 We know very little about the action
of the Father and the Son in the creation of the Master Spirits. Apparently
they were brought into existence by the personal acts of the Infinite
Spirit, but we have been definitely instructed that both the Father and
the Son participated in their origin.

P.184 – §11 In spirit character and nature these
Seven Spirits of Paradise are as one, but in all other aspects of identity
they are very unlike, and the results of their functioning in the superuniverses
are such that the individual differences of each are unmistakably discernible.
All the afterplans of the seven segments of the grand universe–and even
the correlative segments of outer space–have been conditioned by the
other-than-spiritual diversity of these Seven Master Spirits of supreme
and ultimate supervision.

 
P.184 – §12 The Master Spirits have many functions,
but at the present time their particular domain is the central supervision
of the seven superuniverses. Each Master Spirit maintains an enormous
force-focal headquarters, which slowly circulates around the periphery
of Paradise, always maintaining a position opposite the superuniverse
of immediate supervision and at the Paradise focal point of its specialized
power control and segmental energy distribution. The radial boundary lines
of any one of the superuniverses do actually converge at the Paradise
headquarters of the supervising Master Spirit.


Radial boundary lines of superuniverses emanate from Paradise.


courtesy of Nigel Nunn

1. RELATION TO TRIUNE DEITY – P.185

P.185 – §1 The Conjoint Creator, the Infinite Spirit,
is necessary to the completion of the triune personalization of undivided
Deity. This threefold Deity personalization is inherently sevenfold in
possibility of individual and associative expression; hence the subsequent
plan to create universes inhabited by intelligent and potentially spiritual
beings, duly expressive of the Father, Son, and Spirit, made the personalization
of the Seven Master Spirits inescapable. We have come to speak of the
threefold personalization of Deity as the absolute inevitability, while
we have come to look upon the appearance of the Seven Master Spirits as
the subabsolute inevitability.

P.185 – §2 While the Seven Master Spirits are hardly
expressive of threefold Deity, they are the eternal portrayal of sevenfold
Deity, the active and associative functions of the three ever-existent
persons of Deity. By and in and through these Seven Spirits, the Universal
Father, the Eternal Son, or the Infinite Spirit, or any dual association,
is able to function as such. When the Father, the Son, and the Spirit
act together, they can and do function through Master Spirit Number Seven,
but not as the Trinity. The Master Spirits singly and collectively represent
any and all possible Deity functions, single and several, but not collective,
not the Trinity. Master Spirit Number Seven is personally nonfunctional
with regard to the Paradise Trinity, and that is just why he can function
personally for the Supreme Being.

P.185 – §3 But when the Seven Master Spirits vacate
their individual seats of personal power and superuniverse authority and
assemble about the Conjoint Actor in the triune presence of Paradise Deity,
then and there are they collectively representative of the functional
power, wisdom, and authority of undivided Deity–the Trinity–to and in
the evolving universes. Such a Paradise union of the primal sevenfold
expression of Deity does actually embrace, literally encompass, all of
every attribute and attitude of the three eternal Deities in Supremacy
and in Ultimacy. To all practical intents and purposes the Seven Master
Spirits do, then and there, encompass the functional domain of the Supreme-Ultimate
to and in the master universe.

P.185 – §4 As far as we can discern, these Seven
Spirits are associated with the divine activities of the three eternal
persons of Deity; we detect no evidence of direct association with the
functioning presences of the three eternal phases of the Absolute. When
associated, the Master Spirits represent the Paradise Deities in what
may be roughly conceived as the finite domain of action. It might embrace
much that is ultimate but not absolute.

 

2. RELATION TO THE INFINITE SPIRIT – P.185

P.185 – §5 Just as the Eternal and Original Son is
revealed through the persons of the constantly increasing number of divine
Sons, so is the Infinite and Divine Spirit revealed through the channels
of the Seven Master Spirits and their associated spirit groups. At the
center of centers the Infinite Spirit is approachable, but not all who
attain Paradise are immediately able to discern his personality and differentiated
presence; but all who attain the central universe can and do immediately
commune with one of the Seven Master Spirits, the one presiding over the
superuniverse from which the newly arrived space pilgrim hails.

P.186 – §1 To the universe of universes the Paradise
Father speaks only through his Son, while he and the Son conjointly act
only through the Infinite Spirit. Outside of Paradise and Havona the Infinite
Spirit speaks only by the voices of the Seven Master Spirits.

P.186 – §2 The Infinite Spirit exerts an influence
of personal presence within the confines of the Paradise-Havona system;
elsewhere his personal spirit presence is exerted by and through one of
the Seven Master Spirits. Therefore is the superuniverse spirit presence
of the Third Source and Center on any world or in any individual conditioned
by the unique nature of the supervisory Master Spirit of that segment
of creation. Conversely, the combined lines of spirit force and intelligence
pass inward to the Third Person of Deity by way of the Seven Master Spirits.

P.186 – §3 The Seven Master Spirits are collectively
endowed with the supreme-ultimate attributes of the Third Source and Center.
While each one individually partakes of this endowment, only collectively
do they disclose the attributes of omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence.
No one of them can so function universally; as individuals and in the
exercise of these powers of supremacy and ultimacy each is personally
limited to the superuniverse of immediate supervision.

P.186 – §4 All of everything which has been told
you concerning the divinity and personality of the Conjoint Actor applies
equally and fully to the Seven Master Spirits, who so effectively distribute
the Infinite Spirit to the seven segments of the grand universe in accordance
with their divine endowment and in the manner of their differing and individually
unique natures. It would therefore be proper to apply to the collective
group of seven any or all of the names of the Infinite Spirit. Collectively
they are one with the Conjoint Creator on all subabsolute levels.

 

3. IDENTITY AND DIVERSITY OF THE MASTER SPIRITS – P.186

P.186 – §5 The Seven Master Spirits are indescribable
beings, but they are distinctly and definitely personal. They have names,
but we elect to introduce them by number. As primary personalizations
of the Infinite Spirit, they are akin, but as primary expressions of the
seven possible associations of triune Deity, they are essentially diverse
in nature, and this diversity of nature determines their differential
of superuniverse conduct. These Seven Master Spirits may be described
as follows:

P.186 – §6 Master Spirit Number One. In a special
manner this Spirit is the direct representation of the Paradise Father.
He is a peculiar and efficient manifestation of the power, love, and wisdom
of the Universal Father. He is the close associate and supernal adviser
of the chief of Mystery Monitors, that being who presides over the College
of Personalized Adjusters on Divinington. In all associations of the Seven
Master Spirits, it is always Master Spirit Number One who speaks for the
Universal Father.

P.186 – §7 This Spirit presides over the first superuniverse
and, while unfailingly exhibiting the divine nature of a primary personalization
of the Infinite Spirit, seems more especially to resemble the Universal
Father in character. He is always in personal liaison with the seven Reflective
Spirits at the headquarters of the first superuniverse.

P.187 – §1 Master Spirit Number Two. This Spirit
adequately portrays the matchless nature and charming character of the
Eternal Son, the first-born of all creation. He is always in close association
with all orders of the Sons of God whenever they may happen to be in the
residential universe as individuals or in joyous conclave. In all the
assemblies of the Seven Master Spirits he always speaks for, and in behalf
of, the Eternal Son.

P.187 – §2 This Spirit directs the destinies of superuniverse
number two and rules this vast domain much as would the Eternal Son. He
is always in liaison with the seven Reflective Spirits situated at the
capital of the second superuniverse.

P.187 – §3 Master Spirit Number Three. This Spirit
personality especially resembles the Infinite Spirit, and he directs the
movements and work of many of the high personalities of the Infinite Spirit.
He presides over their assemblies and is closely associated with all personalities
who take exclusive origin in the Third Source and Center. When the Seven
Master Spirits are in council, it is Master Spirit Number Three who always
speaks for the Infinite Spirit.

P.187 – §4 This Spirit is in charge of superuniverse
number three, and he administers the affairs of this segment much as would
the Infinite Spirit. He is always in liaison with the Reflective Spirits
at the headquarters of the third superuniverse.

P.187 – §5 Master Spirit Number Four. Partaking of
the combined natures of the Father and the Son, this Master Spirit is
the determining influence regarding Father-Son policies and procedures
in the councils of the Seven Master Spirits. This Spirit is the chief
director and adviser of those ascendant beings who have attained the Infinite
Spirit and thus have become candidates for seeing the Son and the Father.
He fosters that enormous group of personalities taking origin in the Father
and the Son. When it becomes necessary to represent the Father and the
Son in the association of the Seven Master Spirits, it is always Master
Spirit Number Four who speaks.

P.187 – §6 This Spirit fosters the fourth segment
of the grand universe in accordance with his peculiar association of the
attributes of the Universal Father and the Eternal Son. He is always in
personal liaison with the Reflective Spirits of the headquarters of the
fourth superuniverse.

P.187 – §7 Master Spirit Number Five. This divine
personality who exquisitely blends the character of the Universal Father
and the Infinite Spirit is the adviser of that enormous group of beings
known as the power directors, power centers, and physical controllers.
This Spirit also fosters all personalities taking origin in the Father
and the Conjoint Actor. In the councils of the Seven Master Spirits, when
the Father-Spirit attitude is in question, it is always Master Spirit
Number Five who speaks.

P.187 – §8 This Spirit directs the welfare of the
fifth superuniverse in such a way as to suggest the combined action of
the Universal Father and the Infinite Spirit. He is always in liaison
with the Reflective Spirits at the headquarters of the fifth superuniverse.

P.187 – §9 Master Spirit Number Six. This divine
being seems to portray the combined character of the Eternal Son and the
Infinite Spirit. Whenever the creatures jointly created by the Son and
the Spirit forgather in the central universe, it is this Master Spirit
who is their adviser; and whenever, in the councils of the Seven Master
Spirits, it becomes necessary to speak conjointly for the Eternal Son
and the Infinite Spirit, it is Master Spirit Number Six who responds.

P.188 – §1 This Spirit directs the affairs of the
sixth superuniverse much as would the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit.
He is always in liaison with the Reflective Spirits at the headquarters
of the sixth superuniverse.

P.188 – §2 Master Spirit Number Seven. The presiding
Spirit of the seventh superuniverse is a uniquely equal portrayal of the
Universal Father, the Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit. The Seventh
Spirit, the fostering adviser of all triune-origin beings, is also the
adviser and director of all the ascending pilgrims of Havona, those lowly
beings who have attained the courts of glory through the combined ministry
of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.

P.188 – §3 The Seventh Master Spirit is not organically
representative of the Paradise Trinity; but it is a known fact that his
personal and spiritual nature is the Conjoint Actor’s portraiture in equal
proportions of the three infinite persons whose Deity union is the Paradise
Trinity, and whose function as such is the source of the personal and
spiritual nature of God the Supreme. Hence the Seventh Master Spirit discloses
a personal and organic relationship to the spirit person of the evolving
Supreme. Therefore in the Master Spirit councils on high, when it becomes
necessary to cast the ballot for the combined personal attitude of the
Father, Son, and Spirit or to depict the spiritual attitude of the Supreme
Being, it is Master Spirit Number Seven who functions. He thus inherently
becomes the presiding head of the Paradise council of the Seven Master
Spirits.

P.188 – §4 No one of the Seven Spirits is organically
representative of the Paradise Trinity, but when they unite as sevenfold
Deity, this union in a deity sense–not in a personal sense–equivalates
to a functional level associable with Trinity functions. In this sense
the "Sevenfold Spirit" is functionally associable with the Paradise
Trinity. It is also in this sense that Master Spirit Number Seven sometimes
speaks in confirmation of Trinity attitudes or, rather, acts as spokesman
for the attitude of the Sevenfold-Spirit-union regarding the attitude
of the Threefold-Deity-union, the attitude of the Paradise Trinity.

P.188 – §5 The multiple functions of the Seventh
Master Spirit thus range from a combined portraiture of the personal natures
of the Father, Son, and Spirit, through a representation of the personal
attitude of God the Supreme, to a disclosure of the deity attitude of
the Paradise Trinity. And in certain respects this presiding Spirit is
similarly expressive of the attitudes of the Ultimate and of the Supreme-Ultimate.

P.188 – §6 It is Master Spirit Number Seven who,
in his multiple capacities, personally sponsors the progress of the ascension
candidates from the worlds of time in their attempts to achieve comprehension
of the undivided Deity of Supremacy. Such comprehension involves a grasp
of the existential sovereignty of the Trinity of Supremacy so co-ordinated
with a concept of the growing experiential sovereignty of the Supreme
Being as to constitute the creature grasp of the unity of Supremacy. Creature
realization of these three factors equals Havona comprehension of Trinity
reality and endows the pilgrims of time with the ability eventually to
penetrate the Trinity, to discover the three infinite persons of Deity.

P.188 – §7 The inability of the Havona pilgrims fully
to find God the Supreme is compensated by the Seventh Master Spirit, whose
triune nature in such a peculiar manner is revelatory of the spirit person
of the Supreme. During the present universe age of the noncontactability
of the person of the Supreme, Master Spirit Number Seven functions in
the place of the God of ascendant creatures

P.189 – §0 in the matter of personal relationships.
He is the one high spirit being that all ascenders are certain to recognize
and somewhat comprehend when they reach the centers of glory.

P.189 – §1 This Master Spirit is always in liaison
with the Reflective Spirits of Uversa, the headquarters of the seventh
superuniverse, our own segment of creation. His administration of Orvonton
discloses the marvelous symmetry of the co-ordinate blending of the divine
natures of Father, Son, and Spirit.

 

4. ATTRIBUTES AND FUNCTIONS OF THE MASTER SPIRITS –
P.189

P.189 – §2 The Seven Master Spirits are the full
representation of the Infinite Spirit to the evolutionary universes. They
represent the Third Source and Center in the relationships of energy,
mind, and spirit. While they function as the co-ordinating heads of the
universal administrative control of the Conjoint Actor, do not forget
that they have their origin in the creative acts of the Paradise Deities.
It is literally true that these Seven Spirits are the personalized physical
power, cosmic mind, and spiritual presence of the triune Deity, "the
Seven Spirits of God sent forth to all the universe."

P.189 – §3 The Master Spirits are unique in that
they function on all universe levels of reality excepting the absolute.
They are, therefore, efficient and perfect supervisors of all phases of
administrative affairs on all levels of superuniverse activities. It is
difficult for the mortal mind to understand very much about the Master
Spirits because their work is so highly specialized yet all-embracing,
so exceptionally material and at the same time so exquisitely spiritual.
These versatile creators of the cosmic mind are the ancestors of the Universe
Power Directors and are, themselves, supreme directors of the vast and
far-flung spirit-creature creation.

P.189 – §4 The Seven Master Spirits are the creators
of the Universe Power Directors and their associates, entities who are
indispensable to the organization, control, and regulation of the physical
energies of the grand universe. And these same Master Spirits very materially
assist the Creator Sons in the work of shaping and organizing the local
universes.

P.189 – §5 We are unable to trace any personal connection
between the cosmic-energy work of the Master Spirits and the force functions
of the Unqualified Absolute. The energy manifestations under the jurisdiction
of the Master Spirits are all directed from the periphery of Paradise;
they do not appear to be in any direct manner associated with the force
phenomena identified with the nether surface of Paradise.

P.189 – §6 Unquestionably, when we encounter the
functional activities of the various Morontia Power Supervisors, we are
face to face with certain of the unrevealed activities of the Master Spirits.
Who, aside from these ancestors of both physical controllers and spirit
ministers, could have contrived so to combine and associate material and
spiritual energies as to produce a hitherto nonexistent phase of universe
reality–morontia substance and morontia mind?

P.189 – §7 Much of the reality of the spiritual worlds
is of the morontia order, a phase of universe reality wholly unknown on
Urantia. The goal of personality existence is spiritual, but the morontia
creations always intervene, bridging the gulf between the material realms
of mortal origin and the superuniverse spheres of advancing spiritual
status. It is in this realm that the Master Spirits make their great contribution
to the plan of man’s Paradise ascension.

P.190 – §1 The Seven Master Spirits have personal
representatives who function throughout the grand universe; but since
a large majority of these subordinate beings are not directly concerned
with the ascendant scheme of mortal progression in the path of Paradise
perfection, little or nothing has been revealed about them. Much, very
much, of the activity of the Seven Master Spirits remains hidden from
human understanding because in no way does it directly pertain to your
problem of Paradise ascent.

P.190 – §2 It is highly probable, though we cannot
offer definite proof, that the Master Spirit of Orvonton exerts a decided
influence in the following spheres of activity:

P.190 – §3 1. The life-initiation procedures of the
local universe Life Carriers.

P.190 – §4 2. The life activations of the adjutant
mind-spirits bestowed upon the worlds by a local universe Creative Spirit.

P.190 – §5 3. The fluctuations in energy manifestations
exhibited by the linear-gravity-responding units of organized matter.

P.190 – §6 4. The behavior of emergent energy when
fully liberated from the grasp of the Unqualified Absolute, thus becoming
responsive to the direct influence of linear gravity and to the manipulations
of the Universe Power Directors and their associates.

P.190 – §7 5. The bestowal of the ministry spirit
of a local universe Creative Spirit, known on Urantia as the Holy Spirit.

P.190 – §8 6. The subsequent bestowal of the spirit
of the bestowal Sons, on Urantia called the Comforter or the Spirit of
Truth.

P.190 – §9 7. The reflectivity mechanism of the local
universes and the superuniverse. Many features connected with this extraordinary
phenomenon can hardly be reasonably explained or rationally understood
without postulating the activity of the Master Spirits in association
with the Conjoint Actor and the Supreme Being.

P.190 – §10 Notwithstanding our failure adequately
to comprehend the manifold workings of the Seven Master Spirits, we are
confident there are two realms in the vast range of universe activities
with which they have nothing whatever to do: the bestowal and ministry
of the Thought Adjusters and the inscrutable functions of the Unqualified
Absolute.

 

5. RELATION TO CREATURES – P.190

P.190 – §11 Each segment of the grand universe, each
individual universe and world, enjoys the benefits of the united counsel
and wisdom of all Seven Master Spirits but receives the personal touch
and tinge of only one. And the personal nature of each Master Spirit entirely
pervades and uniquely conditions his superuniverse.

P.190 – §12 Through this personal influence of the
Seven Master Spirits every creature of every order of intelligent beings,
outside of Paradise and Havona, must bear the characteristic stamp of
individuality indicative of the ancestral nature of some one of these
Seven Paradise Spirits. As concerns the seven superuniverses, each native
creature, man or angel, will forever bear this badge of natal identification.

P.191 – §1 The Seven Master Spirits do not directly
invade the material minds of the individual creatures on the evolutionary
worlds of space. The mortals of Urantia do not experience the personal
presence of the mind-spirit influence of the Master Spirit of Orvonton.
If this Master Spirit does attain any sort of contact with the individual
mortal mind during the earlier evolutionary ages of an inhabited world,
it must occur through the ministry of the local universe Creative Spirit,
the consort and associate of the Creator Son of God who presides over
the destinies of each local creation. But this very Creative Mother Spirit
is, in nature and character, quite like the Master Spirit of Orvonton.

P.191 – §2 The physical stamp of a Master Spirit
is a part of man’s material origin. The entire morontia career is lived
under the continuing influence of this same Master Spirit. It is hardly
strange that the subsequent spirit career of such an ascending mortal
never fully eradicates the characteristic stamp of this same supervising
Spirit. The impress of a Master Spirit is basic to the very existence
of every pre-Havona stage of mortal ascension.

P.191 – §3 The distinctive personality trends exhibited
in the life experience of evolutionary mortals, which are characteristic
in each superuniverse, and which are directly expressive of the nature
of the dominating Master Spirit, are never fully effaced, not even after
such ascenders are subjected to the long training and unifying discipline
encountered on the one billion educational spheres of Havona. Even the
subsequent intense Paradise culture does not suffice to eradicate the
earmarks of superuniverse origin. Throughout all eternity an ascendant
mortal will exhibit traits indicative of the presiding Spirit of his superuniverse
of nativity. Even in the Corps of the Finality, when it is desired to
arrive at or to portray a complete Trinity relationship to the evolutionary
creation, always a group of seven finaliters is assembled, one from each
superuniverse.

 

6. THE COSMIC MIND – P.191

P.191 – §4 The Master Spirits are the sevenfold source
of the cosmic mind, the intellectual potential of the grand universe.
This cosmic mind is a subabsolute manifestation of the mind of the Third
Source and Center and, in certain ways, is functionally related to the
mind of the evolving Supreme Being.

P.191 – §5 On a world like Urantia we do not encounter
the direct influence of the Seven Master Spirits in the affairs of the
human races. You live under the immediate influence of the Creative Spirit
of Nebadon. Nevertheless these same Master Spirits dominate the basic
reactions of all creature mind because they are the actual sources of
the intellectual and spiritual potentials which have been specialized
in the local universes for function in the lives of those individuals
who inhabit the evolutionary worlds of time and space.

P.191 – §6 The fact of the cosmic mind explains the
kinship of various types of human and superhuman minds. Not only are kindred
spirits attracted to each other, but kindred minds are also very fraternal
and inclined towards co-operation the one with the other. Human minds
are sometimes observed to be running in channels of astonishing similarity
and inexplicable agreement.

P.191 – §7 There exists in all personality associations
of the cosmic mind a quality which might be denominated the "reality
response." It is this universal cosmic endowment of will creatures
which saves them from becoming helpless victims of the implied a priori
assumptions of science, philosophy, and religion. This

P.192 – §0 reality sensitivity of the cosmic mind
responds to certain phases of reality just as energy-material responds
to gravity. It would be still more correct to say that these supermaterial
realities so respond to the mind of the cosmos.

P.192 – §1 The cosmic mind unfailingly responds (recognizes
response) on three levels of universe reality. These responses are self-evident
to clear-reasoning and deep-thinking minds. These levels of reality are:

P.192 – §2 1. Causation–the reality domain of the
physical senses, the scientific realms of logical uniformity, the differentiation
of the factual and the nonfactual, reflective conclusions based on cosmic
response. This is the mathematical form of the cosmic discrimination.

P.192 – §3 2. Duty–the reality domain of morals
in the philosophic realm, the arena of reason, the recognition of relative
right and wrong. This is the judicial form of the cosmic discrimination.

P.192 – §4 3. Worship–the spiritual domain of the
reality of religious experience, the personal realization of divine fellowship,
the recognition of spirit values, the assurance of eternal survival, the
ascent from the status of servants of God to the joy and liberty of the
sons of God. This is the highest insight of the cosmic mind, the reverential
and worshipful form of the cosmic discrimination.

P.192 – §5 These scientific, moral, and spiritual
insights, these cosmic responses, are innate in the cosmic mind, which
endows all will creatures. The experience of living never fails to develop
these three cosmic intuitions; they are constitutive in the self-consciousness
of reflective thinking. But it is sad to record that so few persons on
Urantia take delight in cultivating these qualities of courageous and
independent cosmic thinking.

P.192 – §6 In the local universe mind bestowals,
these three insights of the cosmic mind constitute the a priori assumptions
which make it possible for man to function as a rational and self-conscious
personality in the realms of science, philosophy, and religion. Stated
otherwise, the recognition of the reality of these three manifestations
of the Infinite is by a cosmic technique of self-revelation. Matter-energy
is recognized by the mathematical logic of the senses; mind-reason intuitively
knows its moral duty; spirit-faith (worship) is the religion of the reality
of spiritual experience. These three basic factors in reflective thinking
may be unified and co-ordinated in personality development, or they may
become disproportionate and virtually unrelated in their respective functions.
But when they become unified, they produce a strong character consisting
in the correlation of a factual science, a moral philosophy, and a genuine
religious experience. And it is these three cosmic intuitions that give
objective validity, reality, to man’s experience in and with things, meanings,
and values.

P.192 – §7 It is the purpose of education to develop
and sharpen these innate endowments of the human mind; of civilization
to express them; of life experience to realize them; of religion to ennoble
them; and of personality to unify them.

 

7. MORALS, VIRTUE, AND PERSONALITY – P.192

P.192 – §8 Intelligence alone cannot explain the
moral nature. Morality, virtue, is indigenous to human personality. Moral
intuition, the realization of duty, is a component of human mind endowment
and is associated with the other inalienables of human nature: scientific
curiosity and spiritual insight. Man’s mentality

P.193 – §0 far transcends that of his animal cousins,
but it is his moral and religious natures that especially distinguish
him from the animal world.

P.193 – §1 The selective response of an animal is
limited to the motor level of behavior. The supposed insight of the higher
animals is on a motor level and usually appears only after the experience
of motor trial and error. Man is able to exercise scientific, moral, and
spiritual insight prior to all exploration or experimentation.

P.193 – §2 Only a personality can know what it is
doing before it does it; only personalities possess insight in advance
of experience. A personality can look before it leaps and can therefore
learn from looking as well as from leaping. A nonpersonal animal ordinarily
learns only by leaping.

P.193 – §3 As a result of experience an animal becomes
able to examine the different ways of attaining a goal and to select an
approach based on accumulated experience. But a personality can also examine
the goal itself and pass judgment on its worth-whileness, its value. Intelligence
alone can discriminate as to the best means of attaining indiscriminate
ends, but a moral being possesses an insight which enables him to discriminate
between ends as well as between means. And a moral being in choosing virtue
is nonetheless intelligent. He knows what he is doing, why he is doing
it, where he is going, and how he will get there.

P.193 – §4 When man fails to discriminate the ends
of his mortal striving, he finds himself functioning on the animal level
of existence. He has failed to avail himself of the superior advantages
of that material acumen, moral discrimination, and spiritual insight which
are an integral part of his cosmic-mind endowment as a personal being.

P.193 – §5 Virtue is righteousness–conformity with
the cosmos. To name virtues is not to define them, but to live them is
to know them. Virtue is not mere knowledge nor yet wisdom but rather the
reality of progressive experience in the attainment of ascending levels
of cosmic achievement. In the day-by-day life of mortal man, virtue is
realized by the consistent choosing of good rather than evil, and such
choosing ability is evidence of the possession of a moral nature.

P.193 – §6 Man’s choosing between good and evil is
influenced, not only by the keenness of his moral nature, but also by
such influences as ignorance, immaturity, and delusion. A sense of proportion
is also concerned in the exercise of virtue because evil may be perpetrated
when the lesser is chosen in the place of the greater as a result of distortion
or deception. The art of relative estimation or comparative measurement
enters into the practice of the virtues of the moral realm.

P.193 – §7 Man’s moral nature would be impotent without
the art of measurement, the discrimination embodied in his ability to
scrutinize meanings. Likewise would moral choosing be futile without that
cosmic insight which yields the consciousness of spiritual values. From
the standpoint of intelligence, man ascends to the level of a moral being
because he is endowed with personality.

P.193 – §8 Morality can never be advanced by law
or by force. It is a personal and freewill matter and must be disseminated
by the contagion of the contact of morally fragrant persons with those
who are less morally responsive, but who are also in some measure desirous
of doing the Father’s will.

P.193 – §9 Moral acts are those human performances
which are characterized by the highest intelligence, directed by selective
discrimination in the choice of superior ends as well as in the selection
of moral means to attain these ends. Such conduct is virtuous. Supreme
virtue, then, is wholeheartedly to choose to do the will of the Father
in heaven.

 

8. URANTIA PERSONALITY – P.194

P.194 – §1 The Universal Father bestows personality
upon numerous orders of beings as they function on diverse levels of universe
actuality. Urantia human beings are endowed with personality of the finite-mortal
type, functioning on the level of the ascending sons of God.

P.194 – §2 Though we can hardly undertake to define
personality, we may attempt to narrate our understanding of the known
factors which go to make up the ensemble of material, mental, and spiritual
energies whose interassociation constitutes the mechanism wherein and
whereon and wherewith the Universal Father causes his bestowed personality
to function.

P.194 – §3 Personality is a unique endowment of original
nature whose existence is independent of, and antecedent to, the bestowal
of the Thought Adjuster. Nevertheless, the presence of the Adjuster does
augment the qualitative manifestation of personality. Thought Adjusters,
when they come forth from the Father, are identical in nature, but personality
is diverse, original, and exclusive; and the manifestation of personality
is further conditioned and qualified by the nature and qualities of the
associated energies of a material, mindal, and spiritual nature which
constitute the organismal vehicle for personality manifestation.

P.194 – §4 Personalities may be similar, but they
are never the same. Persons of a given series, type, order, or pattern
may and do resemble one another, but they are never identical. Personality
is that feature of an individual which we know, and which enables us to
identify such a being at some future time regardless of the nature and
extent of changes in form, mind, or spirit status. Personality is that
part of any individual which enables us to recognize and positively identify
that person as the one we have previously known, no matter how much he
may have changed because of the modification of the vehicle of expression
and manifestation of his personality.

P.194 – §5 Creature personality is distinguished
by two self-manifesting and characteristic phenomena of mortal reactive
behavior: self-consciousness and associated relative free will.

P.194 – §6 Self-consciousness consists in intellectual
awareness of personality actuality; it includes the ability to recognize
the reality of other personalities. It indicates capacity for individualized
experience in and with cosmic realities, equivalating to the attainment
of identity status in the personality relationships of the universe. Self-consciousness
connotes recognition of the actuality of mind ministration and the realization
of relative independence of creative and determinative free will.

P.194 – §7 The relative free will which characterizes
the self-consciousness of human personality is involved in:

P.194 – §8 1. Moral decision, highest wisdom.

P.194 – §9 2. Spiritual choice, truth discernment.

P.194 – §10 3. Unselfish love, brotherhood service.

P.194 – §11 4. Purposeful co-operation, group loyalty.

P.194 – §12 5. Cosmic insight, the grasp of universe
meanings.

P.194 – §13 6. Personality dedication, wholehearted
devotion to doing the Father’s will.

P.195 – §1 7. Worship, the sincere pursuit of divine
values and the wholehearted love of the divine Value-Giver.

P.195 – §2 The Urantia type of human personality
may be viewed as functioning in a physical mechanism consisting of the
planetary modification of the Nebadon type of organism belonging to the
electrochemical order of life activation and endowed with the Nebadon
order of the Orvonton series of the cosmic mind of parental reproductive
pattern. The bestowal of the divine gift of personality upon such a mind-endowed
mortal mechanism confers the dignity of cosmic citizenship and enables
such a mortal creature forthwith to become reactive to the constitutive
recognition of the three basic mind realities of the cosmos:

P.195 – §3 1. The mathematical or logical recognition
of the uniformity of physical causation.

P.195 – §4 2. The reasoned recognition of the obligation
of moral conduct.

P.195 – §5 3. The faith-grasp of the fellowship worship
of Deity, associated with the loving service of humanity.

P.195 – §6 The full function of such a personality
endowment is the beginning realization of Deity kinship. Such a selfhood,
indwelt by a prepersonal fragment of God the Father, is in truth and in
fact a spiritual son of God. Such a creature not only discloses capacity
for the reception of the gift of the divine presence but also exhibits
reactive response to the personality-gravity circuit of the Paradise Father
of all personalities.

 

9. REALITY OF HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS – P.195

P.195 – §7 The cosmic-mind-endowed, Adjuster-indwelt,
personal creature possesses innate recognition-realization of energy reality,
mind reality, and spirit reality. The will creature is thus equipped to
discern the fact, the law, and the love of God. Aside from these three
inalienables of human consciousness, all human experience is really subjective
except that intuitive realization of validity attaches to the unification
of these three universe reality responses of cosmic recognition.

P.195 – §8 The God-discerning mortal is able to sense
the unification value of these three cosmic qualities in the evolution
of the surviving soul, man’s supreme undertaking in the physical tabernacle
where the moral mind collaborates with the indwelling divine spirit to
dualize the immortal soul. From its earliest inception the soul is real;
it has cosmic survival qualities.

P.195 – §9 If mortal man fails to survive natural
death, the real spiritual values of his human experience survive as a
part of the continuing experience of the Thought Adjuster. The personality
values of such a nonsurvivor persist as a factor in the personality of
the actualizing Supreme Being. Such persisting qualities of personality
are deprived of identity but not of experiential values accumulated during
the mortal life in the flesh. The survival of identity is dependent on
the survival of the immortal soul of morontia status and increasingly
divine value. Personality identity survives in and by the survival of
the soul.

P.195 – §10 Human self-consciousness implies the
recognition of the reality of selves other than the conscious self and
further implies that such awareness is mutual; that the self is known
as it knows. This is shown in a purely human manner in man’s social life.
But you cannot become so absolutely certain of a fellow being’s reality
as you can of the reality of the presence of God that lives within you.

P.196 – §0 The social consciousness is not inalienable
like the God-consciousness; it is a cultural development and is dependent
on knowledge, symbols, and the contributions of the constitutive endowments
of man–science, morality, and religion. And these cosmic gifts, socialized,
constitute civilization.

P.196 – §1 Civilizations are unstable because they
are not cosmic; they are not innate in the individuals of the races. They
must be nurtured by the combined contributions of the constitutive factors
of man–science, morality, and religion. Civilizations come and go, but
science, morality, and religion always survive the crash.

P.196 – §2 Jesus not only revealed God to man, but
he also made a new revelation of man to himself and to other men. In the
life of Jesus you see man at his best. Man thus becomes so beautifully
real because Jesus had so much of God in his life, and the realization
(recognition) of God is inalienable and constitutive in all men.

P.196 – §3 Unselfishness, aside from parental instinct,
is not altogether natural; other persons are not naturally loved or socially
served. It requires the enlightenment of reason, morality, and the urge
of religion, God-knowingness, to generate an unselfish and altruistic
social order. Man’s own personality awareness, self-consciousness, is
also directly dependent on this very fact of innate other-awareness, this
innate ability to recognize and grasp the reality of other personality,
ranging from the human to the divine.

P.196 – §4 Unselfish social consciousness must be,
at bottom, a religious consciousness; that is, if it is objective; otherwise
it is a purely subjective philosophic abstraction and therefore devoid
of love. Only a God-knowing individual can love another person as he loves
himself.

P.196 – §5 Self-consciousness is in essence a communal
consciousness: God and man, Father and son, Creator and creature. In human
self-consciousness four universe-reality realizations are latent and inherent:

P.196 – §6 1. The quest for knowledge, the logic
of science.

P.196 – §7 2. The quest for moral values, the sense
of duty.

P.196 – §8 3. The quest for spiritual values, the
religious experience.

P.196 – §9 4. The quest for personality values, the
ability to recognize the reality of God as a personality and the concurrent
realization of our fraternal relationship with fellow personalities.

P.196 – §10 You become conscious of man as your creature
brother because you are already conscious of God as your Creator Father.
Fatherhood is the relationship out of which we reason ourselves into the
recognition of brotherhood. And Fatherhood becomes, or may become, a universe
reality to all moral creatures because the Father has himself bestowed
personality upon all such beings and has encircuited them within the grasp
of the universal personality circuit. We worship God, first, because he
is, then, because he is in us, and last, because we are in him.

P.196 – §11 Is it strange that the cosmic mind should
be self-consciously aware of its own source, the infinite mind of the
Infinite Spirit, and at the same time conscious of the physical reality
of the far-flung universes, the spiritual reality of the Eternal Son,
and the personality reality of the Universal Father?

P.196 – §12 [Sponsored by a Universal Censor from
Uversa.]