Episode:Personality and Selfhood (Part 3)
The revelation guides us as we peel back more layers of personality recognition and the associated material, mindal, and spiritual energies. This gift of personality confers the dignity of cosmic citizenship.
Keywords: Universe, Personality, Soul, Spirit, Urantia
Summary by Kermit
16:8.1 Urantia Personality
For clarification, the type of personality being considered here are creature personalities of the finite-mortal type as opposed to creator personalities, or third source personalities, or First Source personalities, bestowed by the Infinite Spirit. Also, in this narrative we find both top down and bottom up perspectives used almost interchangeably.
Further reference to the divine personality source of all personality, making our personality a direct expression of God-likeness is divine in potential. Note the difference between perfect and perfecting as we try to develop the simultaneous top down, bottom up perspective.
8.2
We can’t define personality, but understanding the factors (material, mental, and spiritual energies) comprising the mechanism wherein, whereon and wherewith the Father causes personality to function. Here we have top down point of view. The nature of revelation is transcendent over human source work. The challenge is to try to come to terms with it.
8.3
Personality, being unique and original, independent of and antecedent to the Thought Adjuster. Yet is necessary to the manifestation of personality. Thought Adjusters identical and personality diverse and further conditioned by the nature and qualities of the threefold make up of the organismal vehicle. This is then a bottom up perspective of the interactions between the Thought Adjuster, matter mind and spirit of the organismal vehicle and personality.
The manifestation of personality in this realm is very limited because the actualities of matter mind and spirit are barely emerging from the reservoirs of potential. Divine potential, far from divine actual. God loves us for what we are becoming.
Personality is as mysterious as the Thought Adjuster.
8.4
Personality is that feature of an individual which we KNOW, regardless of the changes in form, mind or spirit status. The difference between knowing about and KNOWing. What about selfhood? Something the personality is engaged to that doesn’t change, the ongoing selfhood, allowing the personality to have a continuous engagement despite radical changes in the self.
Top down perspective, a core changeless thread of selfhood, from bottom up over time more and more of your self is personalized and consecrated to eternity. Thus, bottom up we see an evolving, expanding selfhood. Father’s view is from eternity, no difference between self and selfhood.
Starting with the cosmic mind at the superuniverse level, down stepped into the local universe into the domain of the Local Universe Mother Spirit, the singular cosmic mind, splits in two, a core spirit unity thread comes down unmodified (the Holy Spirit) related to the core selfhood. There is then a mind-energy phenomenon wrapped around the Holy Spirit core is split into a 7 faceted mind (adjutant mind).
Encircuitment in the Holy Spirit is above mere mind. Simultaneous two fold encircuitment, that comes with the engagement of the 7th adjutant mind spirit (wisdom), Holy Spirit and Father’s Personality Circuit.
The mother influence dominates through the whole local universe, until she births us out of her mindal womb as a first stage spirit. Father’s influence is described more definitively and recognized first by creatures, while the mother influence is more slowly recognized.
We live in a dual system, Creative Mother Spirit and Creator Son are co-equals.
8.5-8.6
Creature personality distinguished by self-consciousness and free will.
Self consciousness indicates capacity for individualized experience in and with cosmic realities. The degree to which we harmonize the encircuitment we’ve been talking about brings us identity status in the personality relationships of the universe. (We become more real).
8.7
Seven realms of involvement of free will in the human personality.
Moral decision, Spiritual choice, Unselfish love, Purposeful co-operation, Cosmic insight, Personality dedication, Worship
Combining these with the three cosmic intuitions, CAUSATION, DUTY AND WORSHIP. There is a complex interplay between what the threefold gift of the cosmic mind and how the self-consciousness and free will of personality begins to weave them together.
The fullness of understanding this section begins with section 6 of this paper.
In addition, these higher functions represent a personalization/harmonization of the mind adjutants, otherwise the mind spirits are just energies, example worship begins as the energy of zeal.
8.8
The gift of personality on the cosmic mind endowed mortal mechanism confers cosmic citizenship and enables reactivity to the three cosmic mind realities, LOGICAL, MORAL, SPIRITUAL.
The acquirement on the 6th level of meaning (the faith-grasp of the fellowship worship of Deity)-recognition of sonship with God becomes associated with the 4th level of meaning of brotherhood, which is established by the 1st cosmic intuition, causation.
p. 69 P5:6 Cites three great satisfactions from religious experience,
- Intellectually-more unified human consciousness
- Philosophically-substantiation of his ideals of moral values
- Spiritually-thrives on the experience of divine companionship in the spiritual satisfaction of true worship.
A coherence with the three cosmic intuitions.
It is not enough to know about these things, but to know these things, they must be experientially acquired as a personal self. This can not be given by another individual.
The personality is the “grasping mechanism” that take it up a notch from recognition to realization. Unless something is grasped, it can not be copied by the Adjuster into the soul.
Challenge ourselves to go beyond believing to experientially know it.
8.9
The full function of the personality endowment brings the truth and fact of sonship with God. In addition to the capacity for indwelling, comes reactive response to the personality-gravity circuit of the Father.
56:4.1-2 Personality Unification
The divinely unified personality of the Father, confers such unification on his creatures who are carried to Paradise on the rebound momentum of the Thought Adjusters.
Personality unifies all constituent realities. As the Personality of the First Source and Center unifies all seven constituent Absolutes of Infinity, so the personality of man unifies all constituent factors of the mortal creature. This unifying creativity of creature personality is evidential of unbroken contact with the Father’s personality through the personality circuit.
Note on our “passport to Havona” perfection of purpose” 26:4 p. 290 now the perfection of understanding and technique of comprehension indispensible to perfection of Paradise personality.
4.3
This paragraph establishes the Father’s primacy over all manifestations of deity i.e. Sevenfold, supremecy, ultimacy, to God the Absolute) through his personality circuit. Includes the perfect, perfected and perfecting.
What does it feel like to recognize our encircuitment in the Father’s personality circuit? Is my “doing”, my volition, transcendent of the bestowal of personality or prior to the bestowal of personality. Is my doing coming from the material self? Is my “doing” conforming to the cosmos. The circuit provides a sustenance not available to the material self. Only available when doing, not just being.
4.4
Father is our Father at the personal level, beyond all other manifestations of Deity. Personality alone allows this.
4.5
God the Father, bestower, conservator and Father of all personalities from mortal man to the Eternal Son. A foreshadowing of the last sentence of the book, When all is said and done the Father idea is still the highest human concept of God.
