Episode:Jesus the Tutor—Return from Rome (Part 5)
The human mind early begins to manifest qualities which are supermaterial; the truly reflective human intellect is not altogether bound by the limits of time. The supremely happy and efficiently unified mind is the one wholly dedicated to the doing of the will of the Father in heaven.
Keywords: Urantia, Jesus, Mind, Self-Consciousness, Reflective Thinking
Note: Kermit had technical difficulties and wasn’t able to participate in some of the episode.
Summary by Brad
133:6.5
We spent more time on the last 3 paragraphs of section 6, to focus in on the word soul, which can have 2 meanings:
The upper domain of mind. The higher personalized self in contrast with the lower material self of animal origin. The upper mind is “above” the topmost 7th of the seven adjutant mind-spirits in that it is unified adjutant mind. The upper mind begins at the 4th level of meaning and opens up even more with the 5th and 6th levels of meaning. The upper mind is the moral self-consciousness, not the lower mind’s purely intellectual self-consciousness. The upper mind is the soul in some contexts.
The literal morontia object. It is what survives beyond the mortal life. It is constructed of morontia material; it is a morontia object. This morontia object is a living phenomenon and must not be thought of as an unchanging phenomenon. This morontia object dwells with the upper mind but is not within the upper mind. This morontia object is birthed on the occasion of the first moral activity, around age 6. This morontia object receives a copy of the logical, moral, and spiritual wholeness of the upper mind. This morontia object is woven using material substance and spirit substance, so attempting to detect it with pure material testing or pure spirit testing will fail. The morontia object is the soul in some contexts.
We reminded ourselves again that the first moral choice, around age 6, is not a self-righteous act by the 6-year-old. You are not a creator being. The Father initiates the Thought Adjuster in your mind with this moral choice. This subtle point has been largely missed by students of the 5th ER up until now. We reminded ourselves that this “moral choice” is not about a dichotomous choice between moral and immoral, much less ethical or unethical, much less taboo or not taboo. Did your 4-year-old share her toys with others? That wasn’t moral choice, that was ethical parroting—a good start, but not moral. Sharing toys is not about duty to the cosmos.
133:7
We rejoined our intrepid travelers, concluding their journey seeking real rest and play. We may not be certain what that looks like, but we know it wouldn’t look like merely fancy-animal stuff, which would be properly denominated actual rest. We do know a personal (real) phenomenon needs patience, not the frantic zeal of tourism. We do know a personal (real) experience would be threefold: about things, about values, and about the superadditive consequence of meanings. What we do know, then, may help us understand real rest and play better.
The hourglass analogy of mind was handy for understanding where we’d find impersonal mind energy (lower domain) and spirit-conceiving mind energy (upper domain). The upper domain is where a human’s encircuitment in the Holy Spirit occurs. The upper domain is where the higher levels of meaning are found. The upper domain is the personalized self, it is where we find our inner life. But the upper and lower domains of mind are not a dichotomy—it’s one mind system for us. Also, the lower domain is not to be despised—in this life perforce we serve two masters. And this is not easy stuff! Distinguishing one’s personalized self from the animal-origin self? Pretty uncharted territory, but essential to understanding free will, choice versus decision, spirit versus feelings, and much more.
We studied carefully the assertion that animals experience a low form of self-consciousness. Does the 5th ER contradict itself in a few short paragraphs? As usual, no. This is clarified in [62:6], where the 3rd of the seven adjutant mind-spirits is described as a “crude form of protective self-consciousness.” It is not human self-consciousness, to be sure. It is not a reflective self-consciousness to be sure. But a dog’s loyalty—an especially strong 3rd adjutant manifestation—demonstrates this crude self-consciousness in that a dog might unreflectively sacrifice itself in loyalty to its owner. Today many confuse “self-conscious” with “conscious.” Animals and humans both have feelings owing to their being conscious. But a human goes further: they are aware they have feelings, which is human self-consciousness.
Are humans just mechanical computers, the sum of their successive states? No. Selfhood confers upon us a sorter and associater. No so-called “artificially intelligent” machine ever could achieve selfhood, as machines don’t have spirit over mind or even mind over matter. But sad to record... if you don’t use your sorter and associater, you’re moving through this life on an animal level, perhaps even a near-mechanical level.
Time for us is an abstraction from motion, an appearance. Does an animal perceive time in this human way? No, not in a human self-conscious way, but more of a succession of events.
Do animals experience meaningful recognition of any kind? No, given that animals have no recognition of values, and given that meanings are the superadditive consequence of things and values, animals can have no meaningful recognitions.
Do animals experience “purpose”? No, purpose arises from motive, and motive derives from association with spirit.
Animals are kept sane by grace, but our ongoing cosmic sanity is in our human hands—free will.
An animal seeks so-called peace at any price. A human finds genuine peace through effort, struggle, conflict, faith, determination, love, loyalty, and progress.
An animal thinks. A human uses reflective thinking. A human can move beyond time and consider eternity. A human can move beyond facts toward truth. Can you provide the favorable conditions to be grown into a genuine human?
133:8
We completed our arc with the end of the multi-year journey. We skipped details of the grove of Daphne—that’s a different show. We enjoyed the cuteness Ganid displayed in his words toward Jesus as the journey ended. We noted how digressive the journey back was—Susa is far off the straight-line path back to Palestine.
We ended, in effect, by wondering how many of those in our Symmetry of Soul study group will choose in this life to get a real philosophic mind going? Not just a religious mind or a scientific mind, but a superadditively philosophic mind? Provide favorable conditions, and your philosophic mind will be grown.
This summary writer wonders why Jesus became “sober and reflective” as they neared the end of their journey. Something profound at work? Or was even the 3rd circler Jesus experiencing a state of mind familiar to many of us as a chapter of our lives closes?
Notes by Brad
- Real rest and play, not just actual rest and play. With a connection to worship. How might one achieve that on a vacation? Patience is key.
- Things on the one hand. Values on the other hand. And meanings as the superadditive consequence.
- [62:6] for more on the seven adjutant mind-spirits and "a crude form of protective self-consciousness" in animals. But this is about higher consciousness in the adjutant mind spirits, specifically the 3rd adjutant.
- Not full-on human self-consciousness, not a reflective self-consciousness. Though it can be anthropomorphized as such, and often is ("that dog sacrificed his life for his owner")
- So even "self-conscious" can have more or less distortion of meaning.
- An animal has feelings, but isn't aware it has feelings.
- 2600 years of philosophy hasn't yet defined the words "idea" and "self" definitively. The 5th ER helps us find a definition.
- "Ideas are sensations plus the reflective interpretations of the personal self."
- Idea is a profound word, not just a mental object, like a thought--"ooh, let's get a chocolate cake, what an idea!"
- Ideal is an even more profound word.
- "I have a nice idea. Let's find an ideal temperature for this room." No no no! So much misuse of words!
- "The purpose of this staff meeting today is..." no! Purpose is a profound word!
- Animals can have intentions, but not purpose (arising from motive).
- Animal are kept sane by God the Mother's "sorter and associator." Our sanity is handed off to us at some point.
- Free will is spiritual dominance over mind. It's another profound concept.
- You can't overcome sin with good. Only evil. Sin has been purposed and a conscious rejection of good.
- [134:7] Jesus did indeed return to Antioch.
- Ecclesiastes and Proverbs are among the ancient "wisdom books" of the Old Testament.
- "Peace be upon you" is something Jesus said here ending this journey, and is a fine thing to imitate Jesus saying.
- Our challenge is to get a basic philosophic mind in all of this study here, not merely a religious mind or a scientific mind.
