Episode:Bridging the Gulf (Part 4)
While the psychologist angels help us "to see yourself as others see you," other morontia teachers introduce us to mota, new energies, cosmic history, and spiritual poise.
Keywords: Angels, Psychology, Counselors, Heaven, Urantia
Summary by Kermit
Edited by Brad
Left over from the week before concerning the views given to our seers of old. Whereas, Paul was presented with a projection from his Thought Adjuster of mansion world #3, we are also told of the glimpses given to “some of our wisemen” of the “heaven of heavens”. Several bible verses mentioning these experiences were given concerning “the apostle”. Biblical accounts aren’t specific in the way of actual visions or details, but more of an awareness of a sevenfold heaven. The first level is the mansion worlds. More ancient scriptures from the Hindu and Zoroastrian traditions also make reference to “heaven and heaven of heavens”.
So how far into our ascension career have these wise men seen? We cannot be sure.
48:6.24
3. Mind Planners. These are the psychologist of the first heaven. They study the nature, experience and status of the Adjuster souls in transit through the mansion worlds and facilitate their grouping for assignment and advancement.
We notice an interesting disclaimer concerning the ultimate fairness of these mind planners, and their just dealings with us. Perhaps we were told of this because of possible misunderstanding of the term “mind planners”, lest we are apprehensive about having our powers of choice abrogated. The same kind of apprehensions could also pertain to term "Thought controllers" (another name for Thought Adjusters). The point made that Thought Adjusters aren’t called “thought originators”. Personality, the seat of our creativity, plus the Thought Adjuster which is wholly subservient to our will. We come up with the thoughts. And the Thought Adjuster attempts to spiritualize and harmonize those thoughts.
We noted the quote “to see yourself as others see you” (what the Mind Planners do) and “see yourselves as angles see you”. The first part of that quote was Robert Burns the Scottish Poet, but the second section was not so attributed. We discussed source works, wondering if there might be some human source work that quotes both of these lines?
These Mind Planners also help to teach us "if your own mind does not serve you well, you can exchange it for the mind of Jesus of Nazareth, who always serves you well."
This is one of the most often-quoted passages of The Urantia Book, often quoted by people who are looking for a magical approach to solving problems or difficulties. The Mind Planners, here, are attempts to get us on the path of truth, not fact. There's a difference between fact and truth. We can call upon “the mindal catalying” influence of the Spirit of Truth to up step our minds with truth, provided we have made a place for the Spirit of Truth to function. And that has to do with accepting the sum and substance of the son’s mission.
We also talked about similar ideas to the accessibility of Jesus and to “let the mind that was in Christ Jesus, be also in you” and asking "in Jesus' name." These lead to a trap, of asking for whatever you want, by magical invocation of the name of Jesus. This is not a magical process.
We must think of the various spirit ministries as augmenting our mind, not replacing it. You still have to think with your own mind. The mind of Jesus refers not to the mind of Michael, but to the adjutant mind of Jesus of Nazareth, which had access to this Spirit of Truth of Michael, by virtue of his being Michael incarnate. And now we have access to that same Spirit of Truth post-Pentecost. In preparing a place for the Spirit of Truth to function, we have to overcome the subjective distortion concerning the sum and substance of the Son’s mission. The Holy Spirit bestows that capacity for receiving the Spirit of Truth and Thought Adjuster within our own mind.
We recalled [196:0.13]: Jesus doesn’t require his disciples to believe IN him, but to believe WITH him. How do we do that? We have to re-establish the character of our mind. We have to strike step with the objectivity of the transcendent presence that Jesus manifested. We don't do that as a purely subjective being. We have to grasp our objective foundation and re-establish our character of mind.
Following this line of thought we considered [170:2.20], a summary of the requires to enter the kingdom. We can enter the kingdom right NOW. The requirements are faith, the attitude of a child, and truth hunger and the requirement of the motive to find God and to be like God. So we see that Jesus’ requirement is not arduous; it's not a salvation issue. Grace is fully active. We all start as struggling children. However, to progress we have to challenge ourselves to see what a spiritual adult looks like: a life of responsibility and self control. We can accept this grace as a small child, but we must get up and start walking to be progressing.
Another quote from Jesus from [156:5.13] about the true definition of a God-knowing individual gave us pause. They "are not discouraged by misfortune or downcast by disappointment." An enormous change from a first miler to a second miler. Being born again, born of the spirit, in reality,,' not just in thought. They are never discouraged. They are immune to the depression consequent upon purely material upheavals. Are you IMMUNE? We all agreed we haven't quite made it.
Spirit livers are not perturbed by the episodes of the material world! Candidates for eternal life are practioners of an invigorating and constructive technique for meeting all of the vicissitudes and harassments of mortal living.
A true yardstick against which to measure our spiritual maturity. We have a lot of work to do! But we are not to be discouraged. These are the mansion worlds, which exist because of the near impossibility of achieving these things in this life. There is a path, it is just not magical or automatic.
4. Morontia Counselors. They teach, direct and counsel as we transit to the higher schools of the system headquarters. They add insight upon insight to our experience. Down here on Earth we progress by faith, but on high we actually can see the realities that faith tells us exist. These teachers are patient. They suggests quite a few ascenders who, even though in the heavenly realms, still don’t “get it”.
5. Technicians. These seraphim act as liaisons with the Morontia Power Supervisors and with the Master Physical Controllers and they function extensively as instructors of the ascending pilgrims concerning the nature of energies which are utilized on these transition spheres.
Here they're trying to remind us here that in order to be able to improve our conformity to the cosmos, we must recognize the literalness of what is going on. Laws of morontia energy need to be learned. We need to be able to strike step with the cosmos—the three fold nature of reality (things, meanings, and values correspond to the three fold basis of reality).
6. Recorder-Teachers. These are the instructors regarding the techniques of fact recording. We had some commentary about truth seeker and being a fact finder. Some day these angels will teach us to seek truth as well as fact, to expand our souls as well as our minds.
We often take fact and falsely exalt it and call it truth.
They explain that even now you should learn to water the garden of your heart as well as to seek for the dry sands of knowledge. What does this mean? What do they mean regards “heart”? It's not the second level of meaning, the feeling, but at higher levels of meaning.
Reflect on the “But sometimes error is so great that its rectification by revelation would be fatal to those slowly emerging truths which are essential to its experiential overthrow.” It's interesting to read that in reflecting on the practice many of us have of evangelizing The Urantia Book.
We talked about forms being valueless once lessons are learned. We need to let go of old, used forms for the next stage of progress and new forms. We confuse the form for the substance.
Law is life itself, not the rules of its conduct. One can be technically right as to fact and everlastingly wrong in the truth. We also discussed the relation between fact and goodness, which is truth. If there is a non-fact in any of that, the truth becomes corrupted. It really requires pure connection between fact and goodness. Again, literalness is emphasized. The premeditation of an untrue purpose pertains to evil (giving badness form in your mind, falsehood is then automatic). When you know that you are giving badness form in your mind, it becomes sin.
The relationship of truth and fact given in the description about the empty tomb and what actually happened to Jesus’ body in [189:2.6].
7. Ministering Reserves. It's interesting how they challenge our beliefs about angels as beneficent helpers, who go out of their way to make our lives more comfortable. Here we are told that these angels have been the father of many disappointments. The most disappointing disappointments may have been instigated by these helpers.
Many other facts were given about these ministering reserves, such as sould being kindled to service for the first time by these reserves for the very first time. This reminds us that growth can often be slow. Also, pressure develops stability and certainty (as opposed to the chaos and panic it seems to cause in our lives to often). And we should accept challenges without complaint. They ask: if we fail, will we rise again to progress. If we don't attain these levels, they will teach us.
