Spiritual Advice and Guidance Blog: Urantia Book

Q: What kind of attitude should we Urantians have regarding problems like pornography, alcohol and drugs?

A: Jesus strove for a superb balance in his life. His first priority was to seek and find the Father's will, and to establish the kingdom on Earth. As his followers, that is also our mandate. Whatever may interfere with that high purpose should be discarded.

While I may have strong attitudes towards one or more of the things you mentioned, I cannot presume to say what your, or anyone else's attitude should be. It is the responsibility of each person to develop their conscience and their life according to what they consider to be important and of high value.

The Urantia Book gives us a very positive view of life. It has few "thou shall not" rules. Likewise, Jesus was very positive in his teachings:

Jesus had little to say about the social vices of his day; seldom did he make reference to moral delinquency. He was a positive teacher of true virtue. He studiously avoided the negative method of imparting instruction; he refused to advertise evil. He was not even a moral reformer. He well knew, and so taught his apostles, that the sensual urges of mankind are not suppressed by either religious rebuke or legal prohibitions. His few denunciations were largely directed against pride, cruelty, oppression, and hypocrisy. p1582:2 (140:8.21)

In the very first service that he conducted in the Nazareth synagogue, at age fifteen, he chose verses from Scripture. Among the other things he said, this passage pretty much says it all for me: He said:

"Seek good and not evil that you may live, and so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with you. Hate the evil and love the good...Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil and learn to do good..."
p1392:1 (126:4.3)

It is our job to discern what is evil and what is good. We have the perfect teacher in Jesus, and we have a perfect pilot in our minds - the Thought Adjuster. When we follow the leadings of our spiritual models, we will surely make the right decisions for ourselves.

Thank you for this important question.

Labels: alcohol, balance, drugs, evil, goodness, Jesus, pornography, The Urantia Book

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Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Drugs, Chemicals, Alcohol - And Their Effects On Spirituality

Q: What is the role of mind altering drugs, chemicals, alcohol and its effect on the body and spirituality?

A: That's a very good question worthy of consideration. Let's begin in this manner: some people abstain from all drugs, alcohol, and chemicals. Others will use any one or a combination of the 3 infrequently and sparingly. Still others indulge and yet others destroy their own lives and the lives of those close to them with these same substances. Ask anyone and they'll justify their abstinence or level of use, at least justify them within in their own minds. The main difference seems to be that most (or all that I am aware of) truly spiritually perceptive people are either abstainers or infrequent and frugal users, so the use-to-enlightenment curve appears to be logarithmic. An indiscriminate use at one time or another may have no long-term effects; it all depends upon how much risk one is willing to choose to indulge in.

Here are two passages from The Urantia Book that provide some insight into an answer to this question:

"Lack of spiritual capacity makes it very difficult to transmit to such a material intellect the spiritual truths resident in the higher superconsciousness. It is to the mind of perfect poise, housed in a body of clean habits, stabilized neural energies, and balanced chemical function â€” when the physical, mental, and spiritual powers are in triune harmony of development â€” that a maximum of light and truth can be imparted with a minimum of temporal danger or risk to the real welfare of such a being. By such a balanced growth does man ascend the circles of planetary progression one by one, from the seventh to the first."

"Mortal mind is a temporary intellect system loaned to human beings for use during a material lifetime, and as they use this mind, they are either accepting or rejecting the potential of eternal existence. Mind is about all you have of universe reality that is subject to your will, and the soul â€” the morontia self â€” will faithfully portray the harvest of the temporal decisions which the mortal self is making. Human consciousness rests gently upon the electro-chemical mechanism below and delicately touches the spirit-morontia energy system above. Of neither of these two systems is the human being ever completely conscious in his mortal life; therefore must he work in mind, of which he is conscious. And it is not so much what mind comprehends as what mind desires to comprehend that insures survival; it is not so much what mind is like as what mind is striving to be like that constitutes spirit identification. It is not so much that man is conscious of God as that man yearns for God that results in universe ascension. What you are today is not so important as what you are becoming day by day and in eternity."

These and other passages should help us realize that the connection between our minds and our soul and spiritual reality are very tenuous under the best of circumstances. With us even the best of circumstances aren't particularly good to begin with â€” our biological makeup is sub-par, our hereditary endowments are lacking, our family life as we grow and mature is often a shambles, society surrounding us exudes destructive and negative influences. Add to that what appears to be a predisposition toward ingesting mind and consciousness altering substances and one could begin to wonder why we were even chosen to receive the gift of this revelation; most of us give its messages and warnings little heed, preferring instead to follow our whims of predisposition.

The experimentation with and use of consciousness altering substances is a pervasive, and for the most part accepted, part of society. Many Urantians discovered the book during "the drug daze" that have transpired since the 1960s and many of them continue to feed their habits, justifying them within their own minds and exhibiting by example that they're willing to settle for less than the best in their spiritual discoveries here on earth. Both of what are considered to be benign substances, tobacco and marijuana, produce observable physical alterations to cell structure; it follows to reason that they influence the delicate body-mind connection as well.

"Always should the domains of the physical (electrochemical) and the mental response to environmental stimuli be differentiated, and in turn must they all be recognized as phenomena apart from spiritual activities. The domains of physical, mental, and spiritual gravity are distinct realms of cosmic reality, notwithstanding their intimate interrelations."

One of the differences that separate human beings from animals is that human beings can learn through observation and analysis; they don't have to have an experience in order to understand and learn. In the area of mind altering substances and the effects they have on the lives we live here in the material world most of us don't function as particularly high order human beings. We should be able to conclude without actually having the experience that the role of mind altering drugs, chemicals, alcohol and their effects on the body and on spirituality have so little to offer of any real value, so little that the risk is too great to be considered an appealing enticement.

Thank you for your question. May I also recommend that if you're not already signed up that you consider subscribing to the Quote of the Day. It's a free service from our site that offers a daily quote from the incomparable teachings of this marvelous book with an audio clip and a beautiful and inspiring image, a great way to start one's day as well as to begin to understand the teachings of the book. To subscribe click on the Quote of the Day link on the left side of our home page and follow the instructions.

Larry Watkins
Truthbook.com

Labels: alcohol, drugs, Larry Watkins, mind, mind-altering, spirituality, The Urantia Book

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