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The 5th Epochal Revelation
-The Urantia Papers
PAPER 115
THE SUPREME BEING
115:0.1
WITH God the Father, sonship is the great relationship.
With God the Supreme, achievement is the prerequisite to
status -- one must do something as well as be something.
1. RELATIVITY OF CONCEPT FRAMES
115:1.1
Partial, incomplete, and evolving intellects would be
helpless in the master universe, would be unable to form
the first rational thought pattern, were it not for the
innate ability of all mind, high or low, to form a
universe frame
in which to think. If mind cannot fathom conclusions, if
it cannot penetrate to true origins, then will such mind
unfailingly postulate conclusions and invent origins
that it may have a means of logical thought within the
frame of these mind-created postulates. And while such
universe frames for creature thought are indispensable
to rational intellectual operations, they are, without
exception, erroneous to a greater or lesser degree.
115:1.2
Conceptual frames of the universe are only relatively
true; they are serviceable scaffolding which must
eventually give way before the expansions of enlarging
cosmic comprehension. The understandings of truth,
beauty, and goodness, morality, ethics, duty, love,
divinity, origin, existence, purpose, destiny, time,
space, even Deity, are only relatively true. God is
much, much more than a Father, but the Father is man's
highest concept of God; nonetheless, the Father-Son
portrayal of Creator-creature relationship will be
augmented by those supermortal conceptions of Deity
which will be attained in Orvonton, in Havona, and on
Paradise. Man must think in a mortal universe frame, but
that does not mean that he cannot envision other and
higher frames within which thought can take place.
115:1.3
In order to facilitate mortal comprehension of the
universe of universes, the diverse levels of cosmic
reality have been designated as finite, absonite, and
absolute. Of these only the absolute is unqualifiedly
eternal, truly existential. Absonites and finites are
derivatives, modifications, qualifications, and
attenuations of the original and primordial absolute
reality of infinity.
115:1.4
The realms of the finite exist by virtue of the eternal
purpose of God. Finite creatures, high and low, may
propound theories, and have done so, as to the necessity
of the finite in the cosmic economy, but in the last
analysis it exists because God so willed. The universe
cannot be explained, neither can a finite creature offer
a rational reason for his own individual existence
without appealing to the prior acts and pre-existent
volition of ancestral beings, Creators or procreators.
2. THE ABSOLUTE BASIS FOR SUPREMACY
115:2.1
From the existential standpoint, nothing new can happen
throughout the galaxies, for the completion of infinity
inherent in the I AM is eternally present in the seven
Absolutes, is functionally associated in the triunities,
and is transmitively associated in the triodities. But
the fact that infinity is thus existentially present in
these absolute associations in no way makes it
impossible to realize new cosmic experientials. From a
finite creature's viewpoint, infinity contains much that
is potential, much that is on the order of a future
possibility rather than a present actuality.
115:2.2
Value is a unique element in universe reality. We do not
comprehend how the value of anything infinite and divine
could possibly be increased. But we discover that
meanings can
be modified if not augmented even in the relations of
infinite Deity. To the experiential universes even
divine values are increased as actualities by enlarged
comprehension of reality meanings.
115:2.3
The entire scheme of universal creation and evolution on
all experiencing levels is apparently a matter of the
conversion of potentialities into actualities; and this
transmutation has to do equally with the realms of space
potency, mind potency, and spirit potency.
115:2.4
The apparent method whereby the possibilities of the
cosmos are brought into actual existence varies from
level to level, being experiential evolution in the
finite and experiential eventuation in the absonite.
Existential infinity is indeed unqualified in
all-inclusiveness, and this very all-inclusiveness must,
perforce, encompass even the possibility for
evolutionary finite experiencing. And the possibility
for such experiential growth becomes a universe
actuality through triodity relationships impinging upon
and in the Supreme.
3. ORIGINAL, ACTUAL, AND POTENTIAL
115:3.1
The absolute cosmos is conceptually without limit; to
define the extent and nature of this primal reality is
to place qualifications upon infinity and to attenuate
the pure concept of eternity. The idea of the
infinite-eternal, the eternal-infinite, is unqualified
in extent and absolute in fact. There is no language in
the past, present, or future of Urantia adequate to
express the reality of infinity or the infinity of
reality. Man, a finite creature in an infinite cosmos,
must content himself with distorted reflections and
attenuated conceptions of that limitless, boundless,
never-beginning, never-ending existence the
comprehension of which is really beyond his ability.
115:3.2
Mind can never hope to grasp the concept of an Absolute
without attempting first to break the unity of such a
reality. Mind is unifying of all divergencies, but in
the very absence of such divergencies, mind finds no
basis upon which to attempt to formulate understanding
concepts.
115:3.3
The primordial stasis of infinity requires segmentation
prior to human attempts at comprehension. There is a
unity in infinity which has been expressed in these
papers as the I AM -- the premier postulate of the
creature mind. But never can a creature understand how
it is that this unity becomes duality, triunity, and
diversity while yet remaining an unqualified unity. Man
encounters a similar problem when he pauses to
contemplate the undivided Deity of Trinity alongside the
plural personalization of God.
115:3.4
It is only man's distance from infinity that causes this
concept to be expressed as one word. While infinity is
on the one hand UNITY, on the other it is DIVERSITY
without end or limit. Infinity, as it is observed by
finite intelligences, is the maximum paradox of creature
philosophy and finite metaphysics. Though man's
spiritual nature reaches up in the worship experience to
the Father who is infinite, man's intellectual
comprehension capacity is exhausted by the maximum
conception of the Supreme Being. Beyond the Supreme,
concepts are increasingly names; less and less are they
true designations of reality; more and more do they
become the creature's projection of finite understanding
toward the superfinite.
115:3.5
One basic conception of the absolute level involves a
postulate of three phases:
115:3.6
1. The Original.
The unqualified concept of the First Source and Center,
that source manifestation of the I AM from which all
reality takes origin.
115:3.7
2. The Actual.
The union of the three Absolutes of actuality, the
Second, Third, and Paradise Sources and Centers. This
triodity of the Eternal Son, the Infinite Spirit, and
the Paradise Isle constitutes the actual revelation of
the originality of the First Source and Center.
115:3.8
3. The Potential.
The union of the three Absolutes of potentiality, the
Deity, Unqualified, and Universal Absolutes. This
triodity of existential potentiality constitutes the
potential revelation of the originality of the First
Source and Center.
115:3.9
The interassociation of the Original, the Actual, and
the Potential yields the tensions within infinity which
result in the possibility for all universe growth; and
growth is the nature of the Sevenfold, the Supreme, and
the Ultimate.
115:3.10
In the association of the Deity, Universal, and
Unqualified Absolutes, potentiality is absolute while
actuality is emergent; in the association of the Second,
Third, and Paradise Sources and Centers, actuality is
absolute while potentiality is emergent; in the
originality of the First Source and Center, we cannot
say that either actuality or potentiality is either
existent or emergent --
the Father is.
115:3.11
From the time viewpoint, the Actual is that which was
and is; the Potential is that which is becoming and will
be; the Original is that which is. From the eternity
viewpoint, the differences between the Original, the
Actual, and the Potential are not thus apparent. These
triune qualities are not so distinguished on
Paradise-eternity levels. In eternity all is -- only has
all not yet been revealed in time and space.
115:3.12
From a creature's viewpoint, actuality is substance,
potentiality is capacity. Actuality exists centermost
and expands therefrom into peripheral infinity;
potentiality comes inward from the infinity periphery
and converges at the center of all things. Originality
is that which first causes and then balances the dual
motions of the cycle of reality metamorphosis from
potentials to actuals and the potentializing of existing
actuals.
115:3.13
The three Absolutes of potentiality are operative on the
purely eternal level of the cosmos, hence never function
as such on subabsolute levels. On the descending levels
of reality the triodity of potentiality is manifest with
the Ultimate and upon the Supreme. The potential may
fail to time-actualize with respect to a part on some
subabsolute level, but never in the aggregate. The will
of God does ultimately prevail, not always concerning
the individual but invariably concerning the total.
115:3.14
It is in the triodity of actuality that the existents of
the cosmos have their center; be it spirit, mind, or
energy, all center in this association of the Son, the
Spirit, and Paradise. The personality of the spirit Son
is the master pattern for all personality throughout all
universes. The substance of the Paradise Isle is the
master pattern of which Havona is a perfect, and the
superuniverses are a perfecting, revelation. The
Conjoint Actor is at one and the same time the mind
activation of cosmic energy, the conceptualization of
spirit purpose, and the integration of the mathematical
causes and effects of the material levels with the
volitional purposes and motives of the spiritual level.
In and to a finite universe the Son, Spirit, and
Paradise function in and upon the Ultimate as he is
conditioned and qualified in the Supreme.
115:3.15
Actuality (of Deity) is what man seeks in the Paradise
ascent. Potentiality (of human divinity) is what man
evolves in that search. The Original is what makes
possible the coexistence and integration of man the
actual, man the potential, and man the eternal.
115:3.16
The final dynamics of the cosmos have to do with the
continual transfer of reality from potentiality to
actuality. In theory, there may be an end to this
metamorphosis, but in fact, such is impossible since the
Potential and the Actual are both encircuited in the
Original (the I AM), and this identification makes it
forever impossible to place a limit on the developmental
progression of the universe. Whatsoever is identified
with the I AM can never find an end to progression since
the actuality of the potentials of the I AM is absolute,
and the potentiality of the actuals of the I AM is also
absolute. Always will actuals be opening up new avenues
of the realization of hitherto impossible potentials --
every human decision not only actualizes a new reality
in human experience but also opens up a new capacity for
human growth. The man lives in every child, and the
morontia progressor is resident in the mature
God-knowing man.
115:3.17
Statics in growth can never appear in the total cosmos
since the basis for growth -- the absolute actuals -- is
unqualified, and since the possibilities for growth --
the absolute potentials -- are unlimited. From a
practical viewpoint the philosophers of the universe
have come to the conclusion that there is no such thing
as an end.
115:3.18
From a circumscribed view there are, indeed, many ends,
many terminations of activities, but from a larger
viewpoint on a higher universe level, there are no
endings, merely transitions from one phase of
development to another. The major chronicity of the
master universe is concerned with the several universe
ages, the Havona, the superuniverse, and the outer
universe ages. But even these basic divisions of
sequence relationships cannot be more than relative
landmarks on the unending highway of eternity.
115:3.19
The final penetration of the truth, beauty, and goodness
of the Supreme Being could only open up to the
progressing creature those absonite qualities of
ultimate divinity which lie beyond the concept levels of
truth, beauty, and goodness.
4. SOURCES OF SUPREME REALITY
115:4.1
Any consideration of the
origins of
God the Supreme must begin with the Paradise Trinity,
for the Trinity is original Deity while the Supreme is
derived Deity. Any consideration of the growth of the
Supreme must give consideration to the existential
triodities, for they encompass all absolute actuality
and all infinite potentiality (in conjunction with the
First Source and Center). And the evolutionary Supreme
is the culminating and personally volitional focus of
the transmutation -- the transformation -- of potentials
to actuals in and on the finite level of existence. The
two triodities, actual and potential, encompass the
totality of the interrelationships of growth in the
universes.
115:4.2
The source of the Supreme is in the Paradise Trinity --
eternal, actual, and undivided Deity. The Supreme is
first of all a spirit person, and this spirit person
stems from the Trinity. But the Supreme is secondly a
Deity of growth -- evolutionary growth -- and this
growth derives from the two triodities, actual and
potential.
115:4.3
If it is difficult to comprehend that the infinite
triodities can function on the finite level, pause to
consider that their very infinity must in itself contain
the potentiality of the finite; infinity encompasses all
things ranging from the lowest and most qualified finite
existence to the highest and unqualifiedly absolute
realities.
115:4.4
It is not so difficult to comprehend that the infinite
does contain the finite as it is to understand just how
this infinite actually is manifest to the finite. But
the Thought Adjusters indwelling mortal man are one of
the eternal proofs that even the absolute God (as
absolute) can and does actually make direct contact with
even the lowest and least of all universe will
creatures.
115:4.5
The triodities which collectively encompass the actual
and the potential are manifest on the finite level in
conjunction with the Supreme Being. The technique of
such manifestation is both direct and indirect: direct
in so far as triodity relations repercuss directly in
the Supreme and indirect in so far as they are derived
through the eventuated level of the absonite.
115:4.6
Supreme reality, which is total finite reality, is in
process of dynamic growth between the unqualified
potentials of outer space and the unqualified actuals at
the center of all things. The finite domain thus
factualizes through the co-operation of the absonite
agencies of Paradise and the Supreme Creator
Personalities of time. The act of maturing the qualified
possibilities of the three great potential Absolutes is
the absonite function of the Architects of the Master
Universe and their transcendental associates. And when
these eventualities have attained to a certain point of
maturation, the Supreme Creator Personalities emerge
from Paradise to engage in the agelong task of bringing
the evolving universes into factual being.
115:4.7
The growth of Supremacy derives from the triodities; the
spirit person of the Supreme, from the Trinity; but the
power prerogatives of the Almighty are predicated on the
divinity successes of God the Sevenfold, while the
conjoining of the power prerogatives of the Almighty
Supreme with the spirit person of God the Supreme takes
place by virtue of the ministry of the Conjoint Actor,
who bestowed the mind of the Supreme as the conjoining
factor in this evolutionary Deity.
5. RELATION OF THE SUPREME TO THE PARADISE TRINITY
115:5.1
The Supreme Being is absolutely dependent on the
existence and action of the Paradise Trinity for the
reality of his personal and spirit nature. While the
growth of the Supreme is a matter of triodity
relationship, the spirit personality of God the Supreme
is dependent upon, and is derived from, the Paradise
Trinity, which ever remains as the absolute
center-source of perfect and infinite stability around
which the evolutionary growth of the Supreme
progressively unfolds.
115:5.2
The function of the Trinity is related to the function
of the Supreme, for the Trinity is functional on all
(total) levels, including the level of the function of
Supremacy. But as the age of Havona gives way to the age
of the superuniverses, so does the discernible action of
the Trinity as immediate creator give way to the
creative acts of the children of the Paradise Deities.
6. RELATION OF THE SUPREME TO THE TRIODITIES
115:6.1
The triodity of actuality continues to function directly
in the post-Havona epochs; Paradise gravity grasps the
basic units of material existence, the spirit gravity of
the Eternal Son operates directly upon the fundamental
values of spirit existence, and the mind gravity of the
Conjoint Actor unerringly clutches all vital meanings of
intellectual existence.
115:6.2
But as each stage of creative activity proceeds out
through uncharted space, it functions and exists farther
and farther removed from direct action by the creative
forces and divine personalities of central emplacement
-- the absolute Isle of Paradise and the infinite
Deities resident thereon. These successive levels of
cosmic existence become, therefore, increasingly
dependent upon developments within the three Absolute
potentialities of infinity.
115:6.3
The Supreme Being embraces possibilities for cosmic
ministry that are not apparently manifested in the
Eternal Son, the Infinite Spirit, or the nonpersonal
realities of the Isle of Paradise. This statement is
made with due regard for the absoluteness of these three
basic actualities, but the growth of the Supreme is not
only predicated on these actualities of Deity and
Paradise but is also involved in developments within the
Deity, Universal, and Unqualified Absolutes.
115:6.4
The Supreme not only grows as the Creators and creatures
of the evolving universes attain to Godlikeness, but
this finite Deity also experiences growth as a result of
the creature and Creator mastery of the finite
possibilities of the grand universe. The motion of the
Supreme is twofold: intensively toward Paradise and
Deity and extensively toward the limitlessness of the
Absolutes of potential.
115:6.5
In the present universe age this dual motion is revealed
in the descending and ascending personalities of the
grand universe. The Supreme Creator Personalities and
all their divine associates are reflective of the
outward, diverging motion of the Supreme, while the
ascending pilgrims from the seven superuniverses are
indicative of the inward, converging trend of Supremacy.
115:6.6
Always is the finite Deity seeking for dual correlation,
inward toward Paradise and the Deities thereof and
outward toward infinity and the Absolutes therein. The
mighty eruption of the Paradise-creative divinity
personalizing in the Creator Sons and powerizing in the
power controllers, signifies the vast outsurge of
Supremacy into the domains of potentiality, while the
endless procession of the ascending creatures of the
grand universe witnesses the mighty insurge of Supremacy
toward unity with Paradise Deity.
115:6.7
Human beings have learned that the motion of the
invisible may sometimes be discerned by observing its
effects on the visible; and we in the universes have
long since learned to detect the movements and trends of
Supremacy by observing the repercussions of such
evolutions in the personalities and patterns of the
grand universe.
115:6.8
Though we are not sure, we believe that, as a finite
reflection of Paradise Deity, the Supreme is engaged in
an eternal progression into outer space; but as a
qualification of the three Absolute potentials of outer
space, this Supreme Being is forever see king for
Paradise coherence. And these dual motions seem to
account for most of the basic activities in the
presently organized universes.
7. THE NATURE OF THE SUPREME
115:7.1
In the Deity of the Supreme the Father-I AM has achieved
relatively complete liberation from the limitations
inherent in infinity of status, eternity of being, and
absoluteness of nature. But God the Supreme has been
freed from all existential limitations only by having
become subject to experiential qualifications of
universal function. In attaining capacity for
experience, the finite God also becomes subject to the
necessity therefor; in achieving liberation from
eternity, the Almighty encounters the barriers of time;
and the Supreme could only know growth and development
as a consequence of partiality of existence and
incompleteness of nature, nonabsoluteness of being.
115:7.2
All this must be according to the Father's plan, which
has predicated finite progress upon effort, creature
achievement upon perseverance, and personality
development upon faith. By thus ordaining the
experience-evolution of the Supreme, the Father has made
it possible for finite creatures to exist in the
universes and, by experiential progression, sometime to
attain the divinity of Supremacy.
115:7.3
Including the Supreme and even the Ultimate, all
reality, excepting the unqualified values of the seven
Absolutes, is relative. The fact of Supremacy is
predicated on Paradise power, Son personality, and
Conjoint action, but the growth of the Supreme is
involved in the Deity Absolute, the Unqualified
Absolute, and the Universal Absolute. And this
synthesizing and unifying Deity -- God the Supreme -- is
the personification of the finite shadow cast athwart
the grand universe by the infinite unity of the
unsearchable nature of the Paradise Father, the First
Source and Center.
115:7.4
To the extent that the triodities are directly operative
on the finite level, they impinge upon the Supreme, who
is the Deity focalization and cosmic summation of the
finite qualifications of the natures of the Absolute
Actual and the Absolute Potential.
115:7.5
The Paradise Trinity is considered to be the absolute
inevitability; the Seven Master Spirits are apparently
Trinity inevitabilities; the
power-mind-spirit-personality actualization of the
Supreme must be the evolutionary inevitability.
115:7.6
God the Supreme does not appear to have been inevitable
in unqualified infinity, but he seems to be on all
relativity levels. He is the indispensable focalizer,
summarizer, and encompasser of evolutionary experience,
effectively unifying the results of this mode of reality
perception in his Deity nature. And all this he appears
to do for the purpose of contributing to the appearance
of the inevitable
eventuation, the superexperience and superfinite
manifestation of God the Ultimate.
115:7.7
The Supreme Being cannot be fully appreciated without
taking into consideration source, function, and destiny:
relationship to the originating Trinity, the universe of
activity, and the Trinity Ultimate of immediate destiny.
115:7.8
By the process of summating evolutionary experience the
Supreme connects the finite with the absonite, even as
the mind of the Conjoint Actor integrates the divine
spirituality of the personal Son with the immutable
energies of the Paradise pattern, and as the presence of
the Universal Absolute unifies Deity activation with the
Unqualified reactivity. And this unity must be a
revelation of the undetected working of the original
unity of the First Father-Cause and Source-Pattern of
all things and all beings.
115:7.9
Sponsored by a Mighty Messenger temporarily sojourning
on Urantia.
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