Episode:Religion in Depth—Human Experience (Part 5)
High levels of human living are attained in the supreme love of God and in the unselfish love of man. Jesus loved men so much because he placed such a high value upon them. If once you understand your neighbor, you will become tolerant, and this tolerance will grow into friendship and ripen into love.
Keywords: Urantia, Religion, Intelligence, Wisdom, Love
Summary by Kermit
Commentary on Review
We further reflected on the title of section four: Problems of Growth. Previously we identified one of the problems of growth as being the conflict encountered when treading the seven steps preceding progress (effort, struggle, conflict, etc). Pursuing this a little further we recognize that the willingness to engage conflict as well as the manner in which we engage it are encompassed in the personal quest for self-mastery, and the manifold opportunities daily life provides for exercising ever advancing levels of self-control. This lengthy evolutionary process cannot be achieved by fiat, by the consecration of will. This self-mastery quest is contained in the second consecration of which we speak frequently on the broadcast, the consecration of your mind to the universal harmony of God the Mother. [Paper 143], where we are told that self-mastery is the measure of man’s moral nature and the indicator of his spiritual development, makes the direct connection of which we speak. We further discussed the physics or kinetics of this process. Fundamentally put, with the upward faith grasp of our personality to the level of spirit we can leverage the dominance of spirit over mind, and mind’s dominance over the material. So it is that from the vantage point of the faith grasp of spirit a new discipline can be brought to bear upon the mind where the favorable conditions: loyal, humble, sincere, just, and patient can be cultivated. Evenso, we are told that the greatest task is the transcendent encompassment of all three cosmic domains in the personal realization of divine fellowship—LOVE.
We also made the connection between the first mile of Christian living and the consecration of your will to the perfect will of God the Father, and the second mile of loving service with the second consecration of your mind to being grown by the God the Mother realized through the pursuit of self-mastery. Why is self-mastery in such short supply? We discussed a number of influences and conditions that militate against widespread self-mastery, including the reluctance to let go of an erroneous world-view and the aversion to the effort required to wrestle with cosmic problem solving.
100:4.4
We began our reading for the evening in paragraph four of section four. Here we are given lessons on the beginning steps to allowing the Mother to grow love in us. Examining Jesus’ love for his fellows, we are asked to reflect on how he came to love men. It isn’t by an act of will that we love, but through the supply of favorable conditions such that love is grown in us. This sounds like the self-mastery we’ve been talking about. The consecration of will here doesn’t get us to genuinely love our fellows. Again, we have a path that begins with an attempt to understand (discovering another’s motivation), growing into tolerance (tempered zeal) and ripening into love.
The illustration of the initial step of this process is given in the caveman story. Only through a widened perspective do we see that his hate and animosity are really the beginning of much that is fine and noble in the human race.
The following paragraph reinforces the need for us to adopt the humble and patient recognition of our tadpole status and begin at the beginning. Here we have the analogy of love going viral to pervade the sentimental-emotion stream of humanity eventually culminating in the realization of the brotherhood of man. Yet, careful examination of this passage reveals considerable qualification and precision that conditions the actualization of this process. First, it’s not about a consecration of will that this happens. Further only genuine and unselfish love is truly contagious. Again, we are directed back to the necessity for the second consecration and the role of self-mastery in the realization of human brotherhood.
100:5. Conversion and Mysticism
We read the first two paragraphs of this section with an eye towards the continuity they provide in transitioning us from the previous section. The revelators very directly point to a world filled with lost souls as a result of the failure to install a philosophy of living in the place of religious authority. This deficiency is related to the lack of the second consecration and self-mastery rather than the failure to consecrate the will to the Father’s will; it’s the failure to relate to the Mother via the cultivation of a personal living philosophy.
Our last paragraph of the evening traces the progression of religious growth described above. Remember, we have a spiritual Father and a cosmic Mother. We are being asked to extend ourselves beyond the initiation of aligning our will with that of the Father, to a relationship with the other divine parent so that we might truly love and begin to move to the second mile of free service and liberty loving devotion.
Notes by Brad
- Achieving high levels of self-control is difficult. Such an effort is spread out over time. Your mind is consecrated, and that is all about self-mastery. Takes time.
- See also [143:2.3] (Lesson on Self-Mastery)
- The desire to do good unto others? It isn't willed into existence, it is grown into existence. All I can do is provide favorable conditions.
- Note that this is not the same as desiring to respond sentimentally to someone. That's the level of feelings. That's first-miler material.
- Remember the considerable conflict in the philosophic realms of the mind. This is to be expected, even welcomed if you are to truly be transformed.
- It takes time to be grown. Be patient. But keep offering the favorable conditions, day by day.
- Why do so many people say they have a hard time finding meaning in their life? Because they have to found values (from which meanings are superadditively obtained)
- Only a mastered self can respond objectively to a negative subjective experience (for example, a bad encounter with someone)
- "But my self is incessantly clamoring for recognition!" Of course it is. You need some self-mastery. And it's a long, laborious, but rewarding process.
- Tolerance is tempered zeal. Which isn't that difficult to do, all things considered. It takes self mastery, yes, but only a little.
- Intentions are in the mind. Motivations are spiritual. Having insight into the motivations driving someone is not trivial.
- Friendship is a high concept in the Urantia Book, too! We've been misusing that word!
- Fathom, as a verb, implies depths. Fathoming motives is deeper than seeing intentions.
- Understanding one more person every day, truly and sincerely and not self-righteously? That is possible! It's a "tadpole" maneuver, but hat's okay, we're tadpoles. It's moving in the right direction.
- These paragraphs should produce "considerable commotion" in the philosophic realms of your mind.
- An ism versus cult? If an ism, to outside observers, seems to have a religious aura, it's then a cult.
- This somewhat parallels the upgrade of a society (5th adjutant) to a culture (6th adjutant) by use of religious impulse energy.
