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The 5th Epochal Revelation
-The Urantia Papers
PAPER 16
THE SEVEN MASTER SPIRITS
16:0.1
THE Seven Master Spirits of Paradise are the primary
personalities of the Infinite Spirit. In this sevenfold
creative act of self-duplication the Infinite Spirit
exhausted the associative possibilities mathematically
inherent in the factual existence of the three persons
of Deity. Had it been possible to produce a larger
number of Master Spirits, they would have been created,
but there are just seven associative possibilities, and
only seven, inherent in three Deities. And this explains
why the universe is operated in seven grand divisions,
and why the number seven is basically fundamental in its
organization and administration.
16:0.2
The Seven Master Spirits thus have their origin in, and
derive their individual characteristics from, the
following seven likenesses:
1. The Universal Father.
2. The Eternal Son.
3. The Infinite Spirit.
4. The Father and the Son.
5. The Father and the Spirit.
6. The Son and the Spirit.
7. The Father, Son, and Spirit.
16:0.3
We know very little about the action of the Father and
the Son in the creation of the Master Spirits.
Apparently they were brought into existence by the
personal acts of the Infinite Spirit, but we have been
definitely instructed that both the Father and the Son
participated in their origin.
16:0.4
In spirit character and nature these Seven Spirits of
Paradise are as one, but in all other aspects of
identity they are very unlike, and the results of their
functioning in the superuniverses are such that the
individual differences of each are unmistakably
discernible. All the afterplans of the seven segments of
the grand universe -- and even the correlative segments
of outer space -- have been conditioned by the
other-than-spiritual diversity of these Seven Master
Spirits of supreme and ultimate supervision.
16:0.5
The Master Spirits have many functions, but at the
present time their particular domain is the central
supervision of the seven superuniverses. Each Master
Spirit maintains an enormous force-focal headquarters,
which slowly circulates around the periphery of
Paradise, always maintaining a position opposite the
superuniverse of immediate supervision and at the
Paradise focal point of its specialized power control
and segmental energy distribution. The radial boundary
lines of any one of the superuniverses do actually
converge at the Paradise headquarters of the supervising
Master Spirit.
1. RELATION TO TRIUNE DEITY
16:1.1
The Conjoint Creator, the Infinite Spirit, is necessary
to the completion of the triune personalization of
undivided Deity. This threefold Deity personalization is
inherently sevenfold in possibility of individual and
associative expression; hence the subsequent plan to
create universes inhabited by intelligent and
potentially spiritual beings, duly expressive of the
Father, Son, and Spirit, made the personalization of the
Seven Master Spirits inescapable. We have come to speak
of the threefold personalization of Deity as the
absolute
inevitability, while we have come to look upon the
appearance of the Seven Master Spirits as the
subabsolute
inevitability.
16:1.2
While the Seven Master Spirits are hardly expressive of
threefold
Deity, they are the eternal portrayal of
sevenfold
Deity, the active and associative functions of the three
ever-existent persons of Deity. By and in and through
these Seven Spirits, the Universal Father, the Eternal
Son, or the Infinite Spirit, or any dual association, is
able to function as such. When the Father, the Son, and
the Spirit act together, they can and do function
through Master Spirit Number Seven, but not as the
Trinity. The Master Spirits singly and collectively
represent any and all possible Deity functions, single
and several, but not collective, not the Trinity. Master
Spirit Number Seven is personally nonfunctional with
regard to the Paradise Trinity, and that is just why he
can function
personally for the Supreme Being.
16:1.3
But when the Seven Master Spirits vacate their
individual seats of personal power and superuniverse
authority and assemble about the Conjoint Actor in the
triune presence of Paradise Deity, then and there are
they collectively representative of the functional
power, wisdom, and authority of undivided Deity -- the
Trinity -- to and in the evolving universes. Such a
Paradise union of the primal sevenfold expression of
Deity does actually embrace, literally encompass, all of
every attribute and attitude of the three eternal
Deities in Supremacy and in Ultimacy. To all practical
intents and purposes the Seven Master Spirits do, then
and there, encompass the functional domain of the
Supreme-Ultimate to and in the master universe.
16:1.4
As far as we can discern, these Seven Spirits are
associated with the divine activities of the three
eternal persons of Deity; we detect no evidence of
direct association with the functioning presences of the
three eternal phases of the Absolute. When associated,
the Master Spirits represent the Paradise Deities in
what may be roughly conceived as the finite domain of
action. It might embrace much that is ultimate but not
absolute.
2. RELATION TO THE INFINITE SPIRIT
16:2.1
Just as the Eternal and Original Son is revealed through
the persons of the constantly increasing number of
divine Sons, so is the Infinite and Divine Spirit
revealed through the channels of the Seven Master
Spirits and their associated spirit groups. At the
center of centers the Infinite Spirit is approachable,
but not all who attain Paradise are immediately able to
discern his personality and differentiated presence; but
all who attain the central universe can and do
immediately commune with one of the Seven Master
Spirits, the one presiding over the superuniverse from
which the newly arrived space pilgrim hails.
16:2.2
To the universe of universes the Paradise Father speaks
only through his Son, while he and the Son conjointly
act only through the Infinite Spirit. Outside of
Paradise and Havona the Infinite Spirit
speaks only
by the voices of the Seven Master Spirits.
16:2.3
The Infinite Spirit exerts an influence of
personal presence
within the confines of the Paradise-Havona system;
elsewhere his personal spirit presence is exerted by and
through one of the Seven Master Spirits. Therefore is
the superuniverse spirit presence of the Third Source
and Center on any world or in any individual conditioned
by the unique nature of the supervisory Master Spirit of
that segment of creation. Conversely, the combined lines
of spirit force and intelligence pass inward to the
Third Person of Deity by way of the Seven Master
Spirits.
16:2.4
The Seven Master Spirits are collectively endowed with
the supreme-ultimate attributes of the Third Source and
Center. While each one individually partakes of this
endowment, only collectively do they disclose the
attributes of omnipotence, omniscience, and
omnipresence. No one of them can so function
universally; as individuals and in the exercise of these
powers of supremacy and ultimacy each is personally
limited to the superuniverse of immediate supervision.
16:2.5
All of everything which has been told you concerning the
divinity and personality of the Conjoint Actor applies
equally and fully to the Seven Master Spirits, who so
effectively distribute the Infinite Spirit to the seven
segments of the grand universe in accordance with their
divine endowment and in the manner of their differing
and individually unique natures. It would therefore be
proper to apply to the collective group of seven any or
all of the names of the Infinite Spirit. Collectively
they are one with the Conjoint Creator on all
subabsolute levels.
3. IDENTITY AND DIVERSITY OF THE MASTER SPIRITS
16:3.1
The Seven Master Spirits are indescribable beings, but
they are distinctly and definitely personal. They have
names, but we elect to introduce them by number. As
primary personalizations of the Infinite Spirit, they
are akin, but as primary expressions of the seven
possible associations of triune Deity, they are
essentially diverse in nature, and this diversity of
nature determines their differential of superuniverse
conduct. These Seven Master Spirits may be described as
follows:
16:3.2
Master Spirit
Number One. In a special manner this Spirit is the
direct representation of the Paradise Father. He is a
peculiar and efficient manifestation of the power, love,
and wisdom of the Universal Father. He is the close
associate and supernal adviser of the chief of Mystery
Monitors, that being who presides over the College of
Personalized Adjusters on Divinington. In all
associations of the Seven Master Spirits, it is always
Master Spirit Number One who speaks for the Universal
Father.
16:3.3
This Spirit presides over the first superuniverse and,
while unfailingly exhibiting the divine nature of a
primary personalization of the Infinite Spirit, seems
more especially to resemble the Universal Father in
character. He is always in personal liaison with the
seven Reflective Spirits at the headquarters of the
first superuniverse.
16:3.4
Master Spirit
Number Two. This Spirit adequately portrays the
matchless nature and charming character of the Eternal
Son, the first-born of all creation. He is always in
close association with all orders of the Sons of God
whenever they may happen to be in the residential
universe as individuals or in joyous conclave. In all
the assemblies of the Seven Master Spirits he always
speaks for, and in behalf of, the Eternal Son.
16:3.5
This Spirit directs the destinies of superuniverse
number two and rules this vast domain much as would the
Eternal Son. He is always in liaison with the seven
Reflective Spirits situated at the capital of the second
superuniverse.
16:3.6
Master Spirit
Number Three. This Spirit personality especially
resembles the Infinite Spirit, and he directs the
movements and work of many of the high personalities of
the Infinite Spirit. He presides over their assemblies
and is closely associated with all personalities who
take exclusive origin in the Third Source and Center.
When the Seven Master Spirits are in council, it is
Master Spirit Number Three who always speaks for the
Infinite Spirit.
16:3.7
This Spirit is in charge of superuniverse number three,
and he administers the affairs of this segment much as
would the Infinite Spirit. He is always in liaison with
the Reflective Spirits at the headquarters of the third
superuniverse.
16:3.8
Master Spirit
Number Four. Partaking of the combined natures of
the Father and the Son, this Master Spirit is the
determining influence regarding Father-Son policies and
procedures in the councils of the Seven Master Spirits.
This Spirit is the chief director and adviser of those
ascendant beings who have attained the Infinite Spirit
and thus have become candidates for seeing the Son and
the Father. He fosters that enormous group of
personalities taking origin in the Father and the Son.
When it becomes necessary to represent the Father and
the Son in the association of the Seven Master Spirits,
it is always Master Spirit Number Four who speaks.
16:3.9
This Spirit fosters the fourth segment of the grand
universe in accordance with his peculiar association of
the attributes of the Universal Father and the Eternal
Son. He is always in personal liaison with the
Reflective Spirits of the headquarters of the fourth
superuniverse.
16:3.10
Master Spirit
Number Five. This divine personality who exquisitely
blends the character of the Universal Father and the
Infinite Spirit is the adviser of that enormous group of
beings known as the power directors, power centers, and
physical controllers. This Spirit also fosters all
personalities taking origin in the Father and the
Conjoint Actor. In the councils of the Seven Master
Spirits, when the Father-Spirit attitude is in question,
it is always Master Spirit Number Five who speaks.
16:3.11
This Spirit directs the welfare of the fifth
superuniverse in such a way as to suggest the combined
action of the Universal Father and the Infinite Spirit.
He is always in liaison with the Reflective Spirits at
the headquarters of the fifth superuniverse.
16:3.12
Master Spirit
Number Six. This divine being seems to portray the
combined character of the Eternal Son and the Infinite
Spirit. Whenever the creatures jointly created by the
Son and the Spirit forgather in the central universe, it
is this Master Spirit who is their adviser; and
whenever, in the councils of the Seven Master Spirits,
it becomes necessary to speak conjointly for the Eternal
Son and the Infinite Spirit, it is Master Spirit Number
Six who responds.
16:3.13
This Spirit directs the affairs of the sixth
superuniverse much as would the Eternal Son and the
Infinite Spirit. He is always in liaison with the
Reflective Spirits at the headquarters of the sixth
superuniverse.
16:3.14
Master Spirit
Number Seven. The presiding Spirit of the seventh
superuniverse is a uniquely equal portrayal of the
Universal Father, the Eternal Son, and the Infinite
Spirit. The Seventh Spirit, the fostering adviser of all
triune-origin beings, is also the adviser and director
of all the ascending pilgrims of Havona, those lowly
beings who have attained the courts of glory through the
combined ministry of the Father, the Son, and the
Spirit.
16:3.15
The Seventh Master Spirit is not organically
representative of the Paradise Trinity; but it is a
known fact that his personal and spiritual nature is the
Conjoint Actor's portraiture in equal proportions of the
three infinite persons whose Deity union is the Paradise
Trinity, and whose function as such is the source of the
personal and spiritual nature of God the Supreme. Hence
the Seventh Master Spirit discloses a personal and
organic relationship to the spirit person of the
evolving Supreme. Therefore in the Master Spirit
councils on high, when it becomes necessary to cast the
ballot for the combined personal attitude of the Father,
Son, and Spirit or to depict the spiritual attitude of
the Supreme Being, it is Master Spirit Number Seven who
functions. He thus inherently becomes the presiding head
of the Paradise council of the Seven Master Spirits.
16:3.16
No one of the Seven Spirits is organically
representative of the Paradise Trinity, but when they
unite as sevenfold Deity, this union in a deity sense --
not in a personal sense -- equivalates to a functional
level associable with Trinity functions. In this sense
the "Sevenfold Spirit" is functionally associable with
the Paradise Trinity. It is also in this sense that
Master Spirit Number Seven sometimes speaks in
confirmation of Trinity attitudes or, rather, acts as
spokesman for the attitude of the Sevenfold-Spirit-union
regarding the attitude of the Threefold-Deity-union, the
attitude of the Paradise Trinity.
16:3.17
The multiple functions of the Seventh Master Spirit thus
range from a combined portraiture of the
personal natures
of the Father, Son, and Spirit, through a representation
of the personal
attitude of God the Supreme, to a disclosure of the
deity attitude
of the Paradise Trinity. And in certain respects this
presiding Spirit is similarly expressive of the
attitudes of
the Ultimate and of the Supreme-Ultimate.
16:3.18
It is Master Spirit Number Seven who, in his multiple
capacities, personally sponsors the progress of the
ascension candidates from the worlds of time in their
attempts to achieve comprehension of the undivided Deity
of Supremacy. Such comprehension involves a grasp of the
existential sovereignty of the Trinity of Supremacy so
co-ordinated with a concept of the growing experiential
sovereignty of the Supreme Being as to constitute the
creature grasp of the unity of Supremacy. Creature
realization of these three factors equals Havona
comprehension of Trinity reality and endows the pilgrims
of time with the ability eventually to penetrate the
Trinity, to discover the three infinite persons of
Deity.
16:3.19
The inability of the Havona pilgrims fully to find God
the Supreme is compensated by the Seventh Master Spirit,
whose triune nature in such a peculiar manner is
revelatory of the spirit person of the Supreme. During
the present universe age of the noncontactability of the
person of the Supreme, Master Spirit Number Seven
functions in the place of the God of ascendant creatures
in the matter of personal relationships. He is the one
high spirit being that all ascenders are certain to
recognize and somewhat comprehend when they reach the
centers of glory.
16:3.20
This Master Spirit is always in liaison with the
Reflective Spirits of Uversa, the headquarters of the
seventh superuniverse, our own segment of creation. His
administration of Orvonton discloses the marvelous
symmetry of the co-ordinate blending of the divine
natures of Father, Son, and Spirit.
4. ATTRIBUTES AND FUNCTIONS OF THE MASTER SPIRITS
16:4.1
The Seven Master Spirits are the full representation of
the Infinite Spirit to the evolutionary universes. They
represent the Third Source and Center in the
relationships of energy, mind, and spirit. While they
function as the co-ordinating heads of the universal
administrative control of the Conjoint Actor, do not
forget that they have their origin in the creative acts
of the Paradise Deities. It is literally true that these
Seven Spirits are the personalized physical power,
cosmic mind, and spiritual presence of the triune Deity,
"the Seven Spirits of God sent forth to all the
universe."
16:4.2
The Master Spirits are unique in that they function on
all universe levels of reality excepting the absolute.
They are, therefore, efficient and perfect supervisors
of all phases of administrative affairs on all levels of
superuniverse activities. It is difficult for the mortal
mind to understand very much about the Master Spirits
because their work is so highly specialized yet
all-embracing, so exceptionally material and at the same
time so exquisitely spiritual. These versatile creators
of the cosmic mind are the ancestors of the Universe
Power Directors and are, themselves, supreme directors
of the vast and far-flung spirit-creature creation.
16:4.3
The Seven Master Spirits are the creators of the
Universe Power Directors and their associates, entities
who are indispensable to the organization, control, and
regulation of the physical energies of the grand
universe. And these same Master Spirits very materially
assist the Creator Sons in the work of shaping and
organizing the local universes.
16:4.4
We are unable to trace any personal connection between
the cosmic-energy work of the Master Spirits and the
force functions of the Unqualified Absolute. The energy
manifestations under the jurisdiction of the Master
Spirits are all directed from the periphery of Paradise;
they do not appear to be in any direct manner associated
with the force phenomena identified with the nether
surface of Paradise.
16:4.5
Unquestionably, when we encounter the functional
activities of the various Morontia Power Supervisors, we
are face to face with certain of the unrevealed
activities of the Master Spirits. Who, aside from these
ancestors of both physical controllers and spirit
ministers, could have contrived so to combine and
associate material and spiritual energies as to produce
a hitherto nonexistent phase of universe reality --
morontia substance and morontia mind?
16:4.6
Much of the reality of the spiritual worlds is of the
morontia order, a phase of universe reality wholly
unknown on Urantia. The goal of personality existence is
spiritual, but the morontia creations always intervene,
bridging the gulf between the material realms of mortal
origin and the superuniverse spheres of advancing
spiritual status. It is in this realm that the Master
Spirits make their great contribution to the plan of
man's Paradise ascension.
16:4.7
The Seven Master Spirits have personal representatives
who function throughout the grand universe; but since a
large majority of these subordinate beings are not
directly concerned with the ascendant scheme of mortal
progression in the path of Paradise perfection, little
or nothing has been revealed about them. Much, very
much, of the activity of the Seven Master Spirits
remains hidden from human understanding because in no
way does it directly pertain to your problem of Paradise
ascent.
16:4.8
It is highly probable, though we cannot offer definite
proof, that the Master Spirit of Orvonton exerts a
decided influence in the following spheres of activity:
16:4.9
1. The life-initiation procedures of the local universe
Life Carriers.
16:4.10
2. The life activations of the adjutant mind-spirits
bestowed upon the worlds by a local universe Creative
Spirit.
16:4.11
3. The fluctuations in energy manifestations exhibited
by the linear-gravity-responding units of organized
matter.
16:4.12
4. The behavior of emergent energy when fully liberated
from the grasp of the Unqualified Absolute, thus
becoming responsive to the direct influence of linear
gravity and to the manipulations of the Universe Power
Directors and their associates.
16:4.13
5. The bestowal of the ministry spirit of a local
universe Creative Spirit, known on Urantia as the Holy
Spirit.
16:4.14
6. The subsequent bestowal of the spirit of the bestowal
Sons, on Urantia called the Comforter or the Spirit of
Truth.
16:4.15
7. The reflectivity mechanism of the local universes and
the superuniverse. Many features connected with this
extraordinary phenomenon can hardly be reasonably
explained or rationally understood without postulating
the activity of the Master Spirits in association with
the Conjoint Actor and the Supreme Being.
16:4.16
Notwithstanding our failure adequately to comprehend the
manifold workings of the Seven Master Spirits, we are
confident there are two realms in the vast range of
universe activities with which they have nothing
whatever to do: the bestowal and ministry of the Thought
Adjusters and the inscrutable functions of the
Unqualified Absolute.
5. RELATION TO CREATURES
16:5.1
Each segment of the grand universe, each individual
universe and world, enjoys the benefits of the united
counsel and wisdom of all Seven Master Spirits but
receives the personal touch and tinge of only one. And
the personal nature of each Master Spirit entirely
pervades and uniquely conditions his superuniverse.
16:5.2
Through this personal influence of the Seven Master
Spirits every creature of every order of intelligent
beings, outside of Paradise and Havona, must bear the
characteristic stamp of individuality indicative of the
ancestral nature of some one of these Seven Paradise
Spirits. As concerns the seven superuniverses, each
native creature, man or angel, will forever bear this
badge of natal identification.
16:5.3
The Seven Master Spirits do not directly invade the
material minds of the individual creatures on the
evolutionary worlds of space. The mortals of Urantia do
not experience the personal presence of the mind-spirit
influence of the Master Spirit of Orvonton. If this
Master Spirit does attain any sort of contact with the
individual mortal mind during the earlier evolutionary
ages of an inhabited world, it must occur through the
ministry of the local universe Creative Spirit, the
consort and associate of the Creator Son of God who
presides over the destinies of each local creation. But
this very Creative Mother Spirit is, in nature and
character, quite like the Master Spirit of Orvonton.
16:5.4
The physical stamp of a Master Spirit is a part of man's
material origin. The entire morontia career is lived
under the continuing influence of this same Master
Spirit. It is hardly strange that the subsequent spirit
career of such an ascending mortal never fully
eradicates the characteristic stamp of this same
supervising Spirit. The impress of a Master Spirit is
basic to the very existence of every pre-Havona stage of
mortal ascension.
16:5.5
The distinctive personality trends exhibited in the life
experience of evolutionary mortals, which are
characteristic in each superuniverse, and which are
directly expressive of the nature of the dominating
Master Spirit, are never fully effaced, not even after
such ascenders are subjected to the long training and
unifying discipline encountered on the one billion
educational spheres of Havona. Even the subsequent
intense Paradise culture does not suffice to eradicate
the earmarks of superuniverse origin. Throughout all
eternity an ascendant mortal will exhibit traits
indicative of the presiding Spirit of his superuniverse
of nativity. Even in the Corps of the Finality, when it
is desired to arrive at or to portray a
complete
Trinity relationship to the evolutionary creation,
always a group of seven finaliters is assembled, one
from each superuniverse.
6. THE COSMIC MIND
16:6.1
The Master Spirits are the sevenfold source of the
cosmic mind, the intellectual potential of the grand
universe. This cosmic mind is a subabsolute
manifestation of the mind of the Third Source and Center
and, in certain ways, is functionally related to the
mind of the evolving Supreme Being.
16:6.2
On a world like Urantia we do not encounter the direct
influence of the Seven Master Spirits in the affairs of
the human races. You live under the immediate influence
of the Creative Spirit of Nebadon. Nevertheless these
same Master Spirits dominate the basic reactions of all
creature mind because they are the actual sources of the
intellectual and spiritual potentials which have been
specialized in the local universes for function in the
lives of those individuals who inhabit the evolutionary
worlds of time and space.
16:6.3
The fact of the cosmic mind explains the kinship of
various types of human and superhuman minds. Not only
are kindred spirits attracted to each other, but kindred
minds are also very fraternal and inclined towards
co-operation the one with the other. Human minds are
sometimes observed to be running in channels of
astonishing similarity and inexplicable agreement.
16:6.4
There exists in all personality associations of the
cosmic mind a quality which might be denominated the
"reality response." It is this universal cosmic
endowment of will creatures which saves them from
becoming helpless victims of the implied a priori
assumptions of science, philosophy, and religion. This
reality sensitivity of the cosmic mind responds to
certain phases of reality just as energy-material
responds to gravity. It would be still more correct to
say that these supermaterial realities so respond to the
mind of the cosmos.
16:6.5
The cosmic mind unfailingly responds (recognizes
response) on three levels of universe reality. These
responses are self-evident to clear-reasoning and
deep-thinking minds. These levels of reality are:
16:6.6
1. Causation
-- the reality domain of the physical senses, the
scientific realms of logical uniformity, the
differentiation of the factual and the nonfactual,
reflective conclusions based on cosmic response. This is
the mathematical form of the cosmic discrimination.
16:6.7
2. Duty --
the reality domain of morals in the philosophic realm,
the arena of reason, the recognition of relative right
and wrong. This is the judicial form of the cosmic
discrimination.
16:6.8
3. Worship --
the spiritual domain of the reality of religious
experience, the personal realization of divine
fellowship, the recognition of spirit values, the
assurance of eternal survival, the ascent from the
status of servants of God to the joy and liberty of the
sons of God. This is the highest insight of the cosmic
mind, the reverential and worshipful form of the cosmic
discrimination.
16:6.9
These scientific, moral, and spiritual insights, these
cosmic responses, are innate in the cosmic mind, which
endows all will creatures. The experience of living
never fails to develop these three cosmic intuitions;
they are constitutive in the self-consciousness of
reflective thinking. But it is sad to record that so few
persons on Urantia take delight in cultivating these
qualities of courageous and independent cosmic thinking.
16:6.10
In the local universe mind bestowals, these three
insights of the cosmic mind constitute the a priori
assumptions which make it possible for man to function
as a rational and self-conscious personality in the
realms of science, philosophy, and religion. Stated
otherwise, the recognition of the
reality of
these three manifestations of the Infinite is by a
cosmic technique of self-revelation. Matter-energy is
recognized by the mathematical logic of the senses;
mind-reason intuitively knows its moral duty;
spirit-faith (worship) is the religion of the reality of
spiritual experience. These three basic factors in
reflective thinking may be unified and co-ordinated in
personality development, or they may become
disproportionate and virtually unrelated in their
respective functions. But when they become unified, they
produce a strong character consisting in the correlation
of a factual science, a moral philosophy, and a genuine
religious experience. And it is these three cosmic
intuitions that give objective validity, reality, to
man's experience in and with things, meanings, and
values.
16:6.11
It is the purpose of education to develop and sharpen
these innate endowments of the human mind; of
civilization to express them; of life experience to
realize them; of religion to ennoble them; and of
personality to unify them.
7. MORALS, VIRTUE, AND PERSONALITY
16:7.1
Intelligence alone cannot explain the moral nature.
Morality, virtue, is indigenous to human personality.
Moral intuition, the realization of duty, is a component
of human mind endowment and is associated with the other
inalienables of human nature: scientific curiosity and
spiritual insight. Man's mentality far transcends that
of his animal cousins, but it is his moral and religious
natures that especially distinguish him from the animal
world.
16:7.2
The selective response of an animal is limited to the
motor level of behavior. The supposed insight of the
higher animals is on a motor level and usually appears
only after the experience of motor trial and error. Man
is able to exercise scientific, moral, and spiritual
insight prior to all exploration or experimentation.
16:7.3
Only a personality can know what it is doing before it
does it; only personalities possess insight in advance
of experience. A personality can look before it leaps
and can therefore learn from looking as well as from
leaping. A nonpersonal animal ordinarily learns only by
leaping.
16:7.4
As a result of experience an animal becomes able to
examine the different ways of attaining a goal and to
select an approach based on accumulated experience. But
a personality can also examine the goal itself and pass
judgment on its worth-whileness, its value. Intelligence
alone can discriminate as to the best means of attaining
indiscriminate ends, but a moral being possesses an
insight which enables him to discriminate between ends
as well as between means. And a moral being in choosing
virtue is nonetheless intelligent. He knows what he is
doing, why he is doing it, where he is going, and how he
will get there.
16:7.5
When man fails to discriminate the ends of his mortal
striving, he finds himself functioning on the animal
level of existence. He has failed to avail himself of
the superior advantages of that material acumen, moral
discrimination, and spiritual insight which are an
integral part of his cosmic-mind endowment as a personal
being.
16:7.6
Virtue is righteousness -- conformity with the cosmos.
To name virtues is not to define them, but to live them
is to know them. Virtue is not mere knowledge nor yet
wisdom but rather the reality of progressive experience
in the attainment of ascending levels of cosmic
achievement. In the day-by-day life of mortal man,
virtue is realized by the consistent choosing of good
rather than evil, and such choosing ability is evidence
of the possession of a moral nature.
16:7.7
Man's choosing between good and evil is influenced, not
only by the keenness of his moral nature, but also by
such influences as ignorance, immaturity, and delusion.
A sense of proportion is also concerned in the exercise
of virtue because evil may be perpetrated when the
lesser is chosen in the place of the greater as a result
of distortion or deception. The art of relative
estimation or comparative measurement enters into the
practice of the virtues of the moral realm.
16:7.8
Man's moral nature would be impotent without the art of
measurement, the discrimination embodied in his ability
to scrutinize meanings. Likewise would moral choosing be
futile without that cosmic insight which yields the
consciousness of spiritual values. From the standpoint
of intelligence, man ascends to the level of a moral
being because he is endowed with personality.
16:7.9
Morality can never be advanced by law or by force. It is
a personal and freewill matter and must be disseminated
by the contagion of the contact of morally fragrant
persons with those who are less morally responsive, but
who are also in some measure desirous of doing the
Father's will.
16:7.10
Moral acts are those human performances which are
characterized by the highest intelligence, directed by
selective discrimination in the choice of superior ends
as well as in the selection of moral means to attain
these ends. Such conduct is virtuous. Supreme virtue,
then, is wholeheartedly to choose to do the will of the
Father in heaven.
8. URANTIA PERSONALITY
16:8.1
The Universal Father bestows personality upon numerous
orders of beings as they function on diverse levels of
universe actuality. Urantia human beings are endowed
with personality of the finite-mortal type, functioning
on the level of the ascending sons of God.
16:8.2
Though we can hardly undertake to define personality, we
may attempt to narrate our understanding of the known
factors which go to make up the ensemble of material,
mental, and spiritual energies whose interassociation
constitutes the mechanism wherein and whereon and
wherewith the Universal Father causes his bestowed
personality to function.
16:8.3
Personality is a unique endowment of original nature
whose existence is independent of, and antecedent to,
the bestowal of the Thought Adjuster. Nevertheless, the
presence of the Adjuster does augment the qualitative
manifestation of personality. Thought Adjusters, when
they come forth from the Father, are identical in
nature, but personality is diverse, original, and
exclusive; and the manifestation of personality is
further conditioned and qualified by the nature and
qualities of the associated energies of a material,
mindal, and spiritual nature which constitute the
organismal vehicle for personality manifestation.
16:8.4
Personalities may be similar, but they are never the
same. Persons of a given series, type, order, or pattern
may and do resemble one another, but they are never
identical. Personality is that feature of an individual
which we know,
and which enables us to identify such a being at some
future time regardless of the nature and extent of
changes in form, mind, or spirit status. Personality is
that part of any individual which enables us to
recognize and positively identify that person as the one
we have previously known, no matter how much he may have
changed because of the modification of the vehicle of
expression and manifestation of his personality.
16:8.5
Creature personality is distinguished by two
self-manifesting and characteristic phenomena of mortal
reactive behavior: self-consciousness and associated
relative free will.
16:8.6
Self-consciousness consists in intellectual awareness of
personality actuality; it includes the ability to
recognize the reality of other personalities. It
indicates capacity for individualized experience in and
with cosmic realities, equivalating to the attainment of
identity status in the personality relationships of the
universe. Self-consciousness connotes recognition of the
actuality of mind ministration and the realization of
relative independence of creative and determinative free
will.
16:8.7
The relative free will which characterizes the
self-consciousness of human personality is involved in:
1. Moral decision, highest wisdom.
2. Spiritual choice, truth discernment.
3. Unselfish love, brotherhood service.
4. Purposeful co-operation, group loyalty.
5. Cosmic insight, the grasp of universe meanings.
6. Personality dedication, wholehearted devotion to
doing the Father's will.
7. Worship, the sincere pursuit of divine values and the
wholehearted love of the divine Value-Giver.
16:8.8
The Urantia type of human personality may be viewed as
functioning in a physical mechanism consisting of the
planetary modification of the Nebadon type of organism
belonging to the electrochemical order of life
activation and endowed with the Nebadon order of the
Orvonton series of the cosmic mind of parental
reproductive pattern. The bestowal of the divine gift of
personality upon such a mind-endowed mortal mechanism
confers the dignity of cosmic citizenship and enables
such a mortal creature forthwith to become reactive to
the constitutive recognition of the three basic mind
realities of the cosmos:
1. The mathematical or logical recognition of the
uniformity of physical causation.
2. The reasoned recognition of the obligation of moral
conduct.
3. The faith-grasp of the fellowship worship of Deity,
associated with the loving service of humanity.
16:8.9
The full function of such a personality endowment is the
beginning realization of Deity kinship. Such a selfhood,
indwelt by a prepersonal fragment of God the Father, is
in truth and in fact a spiritual son of God. Such a
creature not only discloses capacity for the reception
of the gift of the divine presence but also exhibits
reactive response to the personality-gravity circuit of
the Paradise Father of all personalities.
9. REALITY OF HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS
16:9.1
The cosmic-mind-endowed, Adjuster-indwelt, personal
creature possesses innate recognition-realization of
energy reality, mind reality, and spirit reality. The
will creature is thus equipped to discern the fact, the
law, and the love of God. Aside from these three
inalienables of human consciousness, all human
experience is really subjective except that intuitive
realization of validity attaches to the
unification
of these three universe reality responses of cosmic
recognition.
16:9.2
The God-discerning mortal is able to sense the
unification value of these three cosmic qualities in the
evolution of the surviving soul, man's supreme
undertaking in the physical tabernacle where the moral
mind collaborates with the indwelling divine spirit to
dualize the immortal soul. From its earliest inception
the soul is real;
it has cosmic survival qualities.
16:9.3
If mortal man fails to survive natural death, the real
spiritual values of his human experience survive as a
part of the continuing experience of the Thought
Adjuster. The personality values of such a nonsurvivor
persist as a factor in the personality of the
actualizing Supreme Being. Such persisting qualities of
personality are deprived of identity but not of
experiential values accumulated during the mortal life
in the flesh. The survival of identity is dependent on
the survival of the immortal soul of morontia status and
increasingly divine value. Personality identity survives
in and by the survival of the soul.
16:9.4
Human self-consciousness implies the recognition of the
reality of selves other than the conscious self and
further implies that such awareness is mutual; that the
self is known as it knows. This is shown in a purely
human manner in man's social life. But you cannot become
so absolutely certain of a fellow being's reality as you
can of the reality of the presence of God that lives
within you. The social consciousness is not inalienable
like the God-consciousness; it is a cultural development
and is dependent on knowledge, symbols, and the
contributions of the constitutive endowments of man --
science, morality, and religion. And these cosmic gifts,
socialized, constitute civilization.
16:9.5
Civilizations are unstable because they are not cosmic;
they are not innate in the individuals of the races.
They must be nurtured by the combined contributions of
the constitutive factors of man -- science, morality,
and religion. Civilizations come and go, but science,
morality, and religion always survive the crash.
16:9.6
Jesus not only revealed God to man, but he also made a
new revelation of man to himself and to other men. In
the life of Jesus you see man at his best. Man thus
becomes so beautifully real because Jesus had so much of
God in his life, and the realization (recognition) of
God is inalienable and constitutive in all men.
16:9.7
Unselfishness, aside from parental instinct, is not
altogether natural; other persons are not naturally
loved or socially served. It requires the enlightenment
of reason, morality, and the urge of religion,
God-knowingness, to generate an unselfish and altruistic
social order. Man's own personality awareness,
self-consciousness, is also directly dependent on this
very fact of innate other-awareness, this innate ability
to recognize and grasp the reality of other personality,
ranging from the human to the divine.
16:9.8
Unselfish social consciousness must be, at bottom, a
religious consciousness; that is, if it is objective;
otherwise it is a purely subjective philosophic
abstraction and therefore devoid of love. Only a
God-knowing individual can love another person as he
loves himself.
16:9.9
Self-consciousness is in essence a communal
consciousness: God and man, Father and son, Creator and
creature. In human self-consciousness four
universe-reality realizations are latent and inherent:
1. The quest for knowledge, the logic of science.
2. The quest for moral values, the sense of duty.
3. The quest for spiritual values, the religious
experience.
4. The quest for personality values, the ability to
recognize the reality of God as a personality and the
concurrent realization of our fraternal relationship
with fellow personalities.
16:9.10
You become conscious of man as your creature brother
because you are already conscious of God as your Creator
Father. Fatherhood is the relationship out of which we
reason ourselves into the recognition of brotherhood.
And Fatherhood becomes, or may become, a universe
reality to all moral creatures because the Father has
himself bestowed personality upon all such beings and
has encircuited them within the grasp of the universal
personality circuit. We worship God, first, because he
is, then, because
he is in us, and last, because
we are in him.
16:9.11
Is it strange that the cosmic mind should be
self-consciously aware of its own source, the infinite
mind of the Infinite Spirit, and at the same time
conscious of the physical reality of the far-flung
universes, the spiritual reality of the Eternal Son, and
the personality reality of the Universal Father?
16:9.12
Sponsored by a Universal Censor from Uversa.
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