Episode:Experiential Deity—God the Supreme (Part 2)

Experiential Deity—God the Supreme (Part 2)
Broadcast on	September 1, 2020
Episode #	508
Study of	[Paper 117:2, p. 1280]

The Supreme is God-in-time; his is the secret of creature growth in time; his also is the conquest of the incomplete present and the consummation of the perfecting future. And the final fruits of all finite growth are: power controlled through mind by spirit by virtue of the unifying and creative presence of personality. The culminating consequence of all this growth is the Supreme Being.

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Keywords: Urantia, Experience, Evolutionary Growth, Vertical Perfection, Horizontal Completion

Note: This was the 10th anniversary or Symmetry of Soul. Ann Garner filled in for Kermit Anderson, who was away. In addition to Ann's thoughts, several callers joined to convey their anniversary thoughts.

Summary by Kermit

Commentary after Review

After call-ins commemorating ten years of SoS broadcasts we resumed our pursuit of a correct understanding of experiential deity. We revisited the idea of the absolute qualitative difference between creature and Creator personality. The united wills of the creature and Creator in the Deity of the Supreme Being, expressive as one personality represents a superabsolute synthesis (a phenomenon beyond Reality) which is enabled by the Paradise Trinity. Reality cannot be truthfully understood without considering its interplay with Deity. This applies not only to high concepts of universal cosmic significance, but also to the seemingly commonplace process of oral communication among individuals.

Regarding the last sentence of [117:1.5] “The union of Paradise perfection and time-space experience yields a new meaning value on deity levels of reality.” This is in reference to the comment about the sovereign will of our Master Son exceeding the combination of the will of divinity and humanity.

And forecasting the study of section 2. The Source of Evolutionary Growth, we are reminded of the vertical and horizontal phases of growth suggested in the final phrase of the final sentence of [117:1.6] “..the eternal path in quest of perfection and liberation from the fetters of incompleteness.” To wit, we ascend to perfection as ascenders (vertically) and penetrate to completion as finaliters (horizontally).

117:2 The Source of Evolutionary Growth

The author continues blending individuality and unity perspectives referring to the Supreme (Deity) as “he”, God in time (individuality). The Supreme Being (He) the culminating fact of this evolutionary growth is transcendent of time, not “in time”. Another hint that the projection down in time, the “secret” of creature growth is the personal-purposive Mother. Both phases span the totality of the finite.

Very challenging is the idea that the present growth which characterizes our existence is a function of the Supreme and will end upon the completion of the growth of the Supreme. Note the reference to “spirit-led existence”. We are reminded that corresponding to the hierarchy of mind wombs in the universe of universes is a hierarchy of corresponding spirit facts. Progressing mind is led by perfecting spirit. That which encompasses the totality of the growing Almighty we call the Supreme Spirit. Correspondingly, the Sevenfold Spirit encompasses the collective superuniverse level and each of the seven Master Spirits so functions in each separate superuniverse.

Creature-trinitized sons are described as nonparticipating in the experiential growth of the present universe age. As “ceiling dwellers” in the universe, vertical growth is not possible for them because they are vertically already at the top, but why can they not grow horizontally? Remember these beings are the personification of a very precise point-like specificity of a single concept in supremacy. As such they grow not, serving as stationary reference points in an otherwise ever changing environment. Consider the Son- and Spirit-fused mortals whose vertical ascension ceiling is the superuniverse and local universe respectively, whereupon they penetrate their respective domains horizontally. Reflection should immediately yield a number of good and sufficient reasons for such an arrangement. In parallel with the creature-trinitized sons who represent the partnership of perfected (finaliter) and perfect beings (Havona native or Paradise citizen), the Son- and Spirit-fused mortals partner with abandonters and susatia at their respective universe levels.

Curiously we are told that Mighty Messengers, being Trinity embraced are nonparticipating in the growth of the present universe age. SoS suggests that the contrasts between these experiencing beings who participate in such growth and those who do not serves the complete functioning of the whole.

As with so many seemingly commonplace terms in our language, when used in the revelation care must be taken to consider that their meaning is likely beyond what can be found in even the most comprehensive dictionary. So it is with the word growth. As evolutionary mortals participating in the cycle of the growth of the Supreme we ascend vertically to perfection and as finaliters we continue our participation by penetrating horizontally to completion.

Try to imagine, upon the completion of the growth of the Supreme, creature evolution as part of Supremacy will cease. Whatever kind of growth will characterize the outer space universes, we are assured that it will be very different from what is currently happening in the seven superuniverses. With the Supreme Being as experiential sovereign in the grand universe the outer-spacer citizens of the next universe age will have a growth potential which excludes their participation in the power-personality synthesis of the current universe age. It will be our job to compensate the outer-spacers for their deprivation of the growth of Supremacy.

The section concludes with a philosophic question concerning supreme causation. Does the Supreme Being actualize because of the evolution of the grand universe, or vice versa? Everything we have discovered up to now indicates the two processes are evolutionary reciprocals. Certainly the Supreme Being is in the process of appearing as a unified summation of all finite activity of this universe age. And what is it that unifies the summation phenomena that is the Almighty Supreme? This focalizer and unifier we have been told is God the Mother.

Notes by Brad

• Being a serious student
  • Don't assume they're synonyms. Precise language is always employed in this book; it's up to you to ask why a particular word was selected.
    • For example, lowercase-d deity is not the same as divinity (Deity-like-ness). But the distinction is subtle.
  • Once you're told about (or observe) a pattern in the 5th ER, look for it. It repeats over and over.
    • The patterns of 3 in triunity, for example.
    • The reciprocal, non-monolithic nature of the Supreme, for example.
  • Keep trying to synthesize.
    • No one analogy can serve all need for understanding when studying.
    • Maybe you really like upwelling-downwelling? Okay, but sometimes intensive-extensive might be the better analogy.
  • Keep the whole book in miud as you study any one paper
    • Paper 117 in particular presupposes you know concepts from far earlier in the 5th ER.
    • Do you remember creature-trinitized sons, from Part I of the book?

• Deity is required because there's no such thing as magic.
  • Example: Creator personality and creature personality are absolutely distinct flavors of personality.
    • Yet, "in the Supreme Being, Creator and creature are united in one Deity whose will is expressive of one divine personality."
    • This implies super-absolute functioning—the Paradise Trinity.
    • Going beyond absolute? How is that possible? Deity.
  • Example: Facts of the external world are represented in our minds.
    • Mind and body have separate, absolute foundations, after all.
    • Mind-body problem. Super-absolute assistance required. Deity. No magic allowed.

• "The Supreme is God-in-time", how do we properly interpret this without glazing past it?
  • Can it be a facet of Deity (the Supreme) down in time? No.
  • Can it be the power-pattern aspect down in time (the Almighty Supreme)?
    • No, not logical to join that with a top-down Deity fact.
  • Must be the personal-purposive, the downwelling, the Mother.
    • Cool. But why did we have to do all this work on our own?
    • The authors are writing a more poetic, concise tone (as opposed to a mathematically, cosmologically precise tone).
    • They're counting on you, the properly studied reader, to interpret their writing appropriately.
• "his is the secret of creature growth in time." Is this referring to Deity?
  • Again, no. Clearly this is the personal-purposive part down in time: God the Mother.
  • So technically (less poetically) the pronoun is "hers is the secret"
• "his also is the conquest of the incomplete present and the consummation of the perfecting future." Is this Deity?
  • Again, no. This must be the upwelling power-pattern, Almighty Supreme.
  • While the literal fact of growth is the Almighty, the "secret" of this growth (how can it be?) is God the Mother.

• Growth in vertical & horizontal dimensions
  • Phase 1: Vertical perfection. We ascend vertically, up a (relatively) narrow sliver of reality, to Paradise.
    • But you're still incomplete...
  • Phase 2: Horizontal completion. We penetrate the full horizontal scope of our domain, the finite, to completion.
    • All 7 superuniverses, etc.
  • "...pursues the eternal path in quest of perfection and liberation from the fetters of incompleteness" hints at both of these phases.
  • Even the Almighty, a facet of Deity, faces "the incomplete present" [117:2.1] that must be filled out horizontally in this metaphor. Incomplete until complete; but ever perfecting.

• Growth = perfecting spirit. "Existence is equivalent to growth"
  • In this universe age, that it. Don't over-extend to the absonite and beyond.
    • "This kind of growth is peculiar" to the present evolutionary universe age.
    • In the absonite it'll be a whole other kettle of fish beyond our imagination (you need 18 of the 20 triodities to contemplate it!)
    • And relative to the Ultimate, the Supreme is just a tiny dot!
  • So stay humble. We are tadpoles who don't know much of growth yet.
    • The "outer-spacers" of the future universe ages will have us as their eventuated foundation.
    • They will be depending on you and me to have broad shoulders upon which they can stand!
    • But don't let this go to your head. In standing on your shoulders, they'll reach higher than you ever could.
  • Havona, the pattern universe, takes the lead (spirit-led) in directing this growth through the Supreme Spirit.
    • The pattern repeats at all scales. Your own progressing mind is led, from above, by spirit as well.
    • For any given mind womb, there always must be a transcendent, encompassing spirit womb above it.

• Not all creatures and creators are in the Supreme in this universe age.
  • Hence some beings like creature-trinitized sons do not experience growth, as such.
    • They're "ceiling-dweller," high-origin beings held "in reserve" for the next universe age.
    • They are reference points of comparative stationarity, against which we may measure our growth.
    • They are rocks in the stream that we growers flow around.
  • Mighty Messengers intriguingly obtain full vertical growth, but are "snatched away" just before their would-be second phase of horizontal growth.
    • They continue to have experience after this. And they progress in a sense. But they no longer are part of evolutionary growth as such.
    • They are akin to the stationary sons of the Trinity in this universe age.
  • It takes the entire system for any one element to exist.
    • If you're a finaliter don't let it go to your head. Stationary objects are just as needed.
    • Contrast is essential for the production of a superadditive consequence
    • If an ascender's vertical growth caps off at the local universe level (a Spirit-fuser), they will fill out horizontally in a way no finaliter ever can!
    • If it caps off at the superuniverse level (a Son-fuser), they're just as needed as permanent inhabitants of the superuniverse.
    • Even the animals on a planet! Fishes stopped evolving vertically long ago, but are still a necessary foundation for human life and even human mind.
  • The Paradise Trinity grabs many beings, to bring them into the wholeness of reference.
    • The reasons for this may seem inscrutable to us for now.

• As the finite age age is summed (the Almighty Supreme), we discern it is unified.
  • How did it get unified? Is it magically self-unifying.
  • No. There is the whole. The Mother. It takes two.
  • The focalization produces a unified summation.
  • But it's a subtle Deity influence. Not an object in relity you can poke. You need insight, not sight, to know its existence.

• Experience, progress, and growth are not synonyms.
  • Mighty Messengers, after their Trinity embrace, do not obtain further growth (they are not in the Supreme), but they do experience and do progress.
  • Growth is a very transcendent concept. Don't count on looking it up in a dictionary to understand it.

• "Emptiness does have its virtue, for it may become experientially filled."
  • Something to remember during those times in life that feel comparatively dry and empty.
  • Can you avoid, in one of those times, exalting the feeling to existential levels? Can you keep your cosmic perspective even in the worst of times?