Spiritual Advice and Guidance Blog: Urantia Book

Q: How can I change my life richer?

A:Thank you for your note to Truthbook.

It may be that you are not a native English-speaking person, so I am going to have to guess at the exact meaning of your question here...

You ask how you can change your life so that it is richer...? That could mean richer in a material sense, as in money or possessions, or it could mean richer in a spiritual sense. I will assume it is the latter - that you want to know how to make your spiritual life richer. I cannot give any advice to make your material life richer...

First, be encouraged to know that God lives within your mind, and that he is approachable in your thoughts. This is a powerful part of the revelation of The Urantia Book. God is your spirit Father, and he loves you with the affectionate love of a Father. This knowledge will help you to feel free to communicate with that most innermost part of yourself through quiet times of meditation and prayer. God hears our prayers, and if your aim is to enrich your inner spiritual life, you will be rewarded by an increased sense of peace and connection if you make the effort to reach up to God. As you reach up in your thoughts and prayers, God will reach down to meet you where you are and as you are. Share your inner life with God. Memorized words are not necessary...God answers the attitude of your soul.

Become interested in the people in your life - cultivate a friendly attitude towards all, and learn to love people, even with all their faults, for that is how God loves you. Know that God dwells within everyone else, too, and that makes all people your brothers and sisters. Learn to look for the beautiful in life, and cultivate the fruits of the Spirit.

From The Urantia Book:

(193:2.2) "Salvation is the free gift of God, but those who are born of the spirit will immediately begin to show forth the fruits of the spirit in loving service to their fellow creatures. And the fruits of the divine spirit which are yielded in the lives of spirit-born and God-knowing mortals are: loving service, unselfish devotion, courageous loyalty, sincere fairness, enlightened honesty, undying hope, confiding trust, merciful ministry, unfailing goodness, forgiving tolerance, and enduring peace

Know that you are part of a divine plan that promises you eternal life. This eternal life is yours by a simple act of acceptance of your status as a child of God.

To gain the most inspiration for improving and enriching your life in all ways, I recommend reading The Urantia Book. For starters, please feel free to subscribe to our free Quote of the Day service, which will deliver an inspirational message to you daily. Each quote will have a link to the text of The Urantia Book, which will enlarge your understanding.

And come back often. The Urantia Book is available to read on our site, and you can listen as well. We have a top-notch search engine, and many other features to help you on your spiritual path.

Labels: eternal life, fruits of the spirit, God within, inner life, The Urantia Book

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Friday, April 10, 2009

How is it possible for a first time personality to even be mature enough, wise enough to make eternal decisions?

Q: The Urantia Book describes the process by which we will eventually become one with our Thought Adjuster through "cooperating", submitting our will to God's will; making decisions, choices etc.... How is it possible for a first time personality to even be mature enough, wise enough to make eternal decisions?

A: It may not be possible to make eternal decisions in this earth life, although we can certainly make decisions that contribute to our eternal life. Like the process you describe in your question, we can choose to cooperate with our Thought Adjuster, we can decide that God's will is what we want in our lives, and we can reinforce those basic decisions with the every-day kinds of choices that we all face. By doing this, we grow our soul - the immortal part of us that will survive the death experience. And that is the eternal part of us that will eventually fuse with the TA. Even if we haven't made the "final decision" here - still, by contributing to our soul's growth, we are just that much better able to eventually make that decision when we are really ready.

Here's an abbreviated quote that might be helpful:

p449:4(40:8.1) ...practically all surviving mortals are fused with their Adjusters on one of the mansion worlds or immediately upon their arrival on the higher morontia spheres...

And this:

p538:1(47:8.3) This is a brilliant age for ascending mortals and usually witnesses the perfect fusion of the human mind and the divine Adjuster. In potential, this fusion may have occurred previously, but the actual working identity many times is not achieved until the time of the sojourn on the fifth mansion world or even the sixth.

For me, it is enough of a hope that my faith is sufficient to ensure that I will survive to wake up on the Mansion Worlds, and I think that is the best that most us can wish for at this juncture in our lives. And that's pretty good news! The Urantia Book teaches that fusion with the TA may be a long way off, even after we survive. That kind of decision is not made lightly, even though we may feel that we want it while we are here. As far as I know, only Enoch was able to achieve it here on Urantia, when he went up in a "flash of fire." The Urantia Book says that he was "the first," so maybe there have been others since then, but I don't know...Through our continuing purification, spirit identification, and education on the Mansion Worlds, we can hope to become far better equipped to make that kind of eternal decision when the time is right.

Just for interest, you might like to read about Death and Translation on the Spheres of Light and Life. I think we here on Urantia are going to be waiting a long time before that becomes a reality, but someday...

Thanks for this interesting question!

Labels: decision, eternal life, free will, personality, soul, The Urantia Book, Thought Adjuster

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Is God Playing Games?

Q: The Urantia Book speaks as though the Thought Adjuster and Personality are alien to each other, yet they both come from God-Father. Why would God play such a game with Him/Her self?

A: I guess it might seem like some sort of a game that God is playing, but somehow, I don't think that is the case. To me, it is a very interesting, but also very logical thing he does...far more than a mere "game," it is an amazing opportunity that he gives to his mortal and finite children of time.

Mortal beings are endowed with personality, but Adjusters are not - they are designated "pre-personal," indicating that they have personality potential. But while Adjusters do not possess personality, they do possess divine "identity," while the mortal does not, except as potential in the evolving soul. And so, the eventual fusion of the pre-personal Adjuster and the personality of man constitutes the creation of a new kind of being altogether - one with the characteristics and the identity of both the human and the Divine.

In order for the human to achieve this divinity, s/he must make those kinds of decisions and choices throughout life that constitute "spirit-identification," by allying the self with the will of God. These kinds of decisions result in the growth of an immortal soul; it is this immortal entity that is able to eventually fuse with the pre-personal Adjuster. In this way, the Adjuster achieves fusion with that aspect of personality which was once bestowed upon the mortal, and with which that mortal was able to effect those decisions to be like God. In turn, the mortal becomes eternally God-identified. The two become one - a whole new creature capable of completing the Paradise ascent - the return to the Paradise Father who bestowed both of these components. Unless this happens, the mortal creature cannot make this supernal journey.

Far from being alien to each other, these two components of God do - with the consent of the mortal of their indwelling - conspire and cooperate in this amazing creation of a being of eternal status and dignity. The personality and the Thought Adjuster - both gifts of God to evolving mortals - are really the closest of associations in potential. It is the decision of the freewill mortal that activates and completes this liaison. By taking advantage of this opportunity, we can progress from the lowest of the low, to the highest of the high.

As an aside, you might enjoy this intriguing section about the Universal Father as The God of Personality.

I hope this answer has been helpful....

Labels: eternal life, fusion, personality, soul, spirit identification, Thought Adjuster

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Friday, March 13, 2009

What happens to the majority of humans after death?

Q: What happens to the majority of humans after death?

A: The Urantia Book has quite a lot of information regarding eternal life, e.g., what an ascension candidate is, what happens to us after we die, and what the eternal career has in store. Much time is spent in the discussion and revelation of the ascension plan for humans. Just as Jesus died a mortal death and resurrected in three days' time, so we, too, can anticipate resurrection - not here on earth, as in the case of Jesus, but in one of the Father's seven mansion worlds that Jesus told us about, and about which The Urantia Book devotes a great deal of its teachings

We are told that "Mortals are all animal-origin evolutionary beings of ascendant potential." (underline is mine) And as Adjuster-indwelt mortals, all of us here on Urantia have as our destiny the adventure of one day returning to the Father on Paradise.

The section titled The Ascending Mortals begins:

"The following narrative presents the universe career of an Adjuster-indwelt mortal. The Son- and Spirit-fused mortals share portions of this career, but we have elected to tell this story as it pertains to the Adjuster-fused mortals, for such a destiny may be anticipated by all of the human races of Urantia." (underline is mine)

I think it is safe to say that the majority of humans will follow this career. Of course, there are those who may not, but that remains an individual choice, and one which may not be able to be finally and rightly made until we have passed from death on this planet to the status of survivor.

As to the immediate experience of life after death, I would invite you to view our short and beautiful flash video called After You Die, which outlines in great detail the teachings of The Urantia Book about this fascinating subject.

Labels: ascension, eternal life, life after death, Mansion Worlds, mortals, The Urantia Book

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Monday, January 26, 2009

What is your belief about reincarnation and those intuitives/sensitives that promote past life readings?

A: Thank you for this timely and interesting question. The Urantia Book has the following to say about reincarnation:

The primitive doctrine of survival after death was not necessarily a belief in immortality. Beings who could not count over twenty could hardly conceive of infinity and eternity; they rather thought of recurring incarnations. href=" p953:4(86:4.5)

This idea of reincarnation originated in the observance of hereditary and trait resemblance of offspring to ancestors. The custom of naming children after grandparents and other ancestors was due to belief in reincarnation. Some later-day races believed that man died from three to seven times. p953:5(86:4.6)

The undue concentration on self led certainly to a fear of the nonevolutionary perpetuation of self in an endless round of successive incarnations as man, beast, or weeds. And of all the contaminating beliefs which could have become fastened upon what may have been an emerging monotheism, none was so stultifying as this belief in transmigrationâ€”the doctrine of the reincarnation of soulsâ€”which came from the Dravidian Deccan. This belief in the weary and monotonous round of repeated transmigrations robbed struggling mortals of their long-cherished hope of finding that deliverance and spiritual advancement in death which had been a part of the earlier Vedic faith.p1029:1(94:2.3)

The older Jewish teachers, together with Plato, Philo, and many of the Essenes, tolerated the theory that men may reap in one incarnation what they have sown in a previous existence; thus in one life they were believed to be expiating the sins committed in preceding lives. The Master found it difficult to make men believe that their souls had not had previous existences.p1811:5(164:3.4)

You can see from these quotes that reincarnation is not a belief that is fostered in the teachings of The Urantia Book, nor in the teachings of Jesus. However, it is a theory that many seeking souls adopt as a way of explaining survival of the self, as well as karma, the idea of reaping what we sow.

I was a believer in reincarnation at one point in my life, but I now much prefer the idea of "resurrection" of the immortal soul as presented in The Urantia Book:

On mansion world number one (or another in case of advanced status) you will resume your intellectual training and spiritual development at the exact level whereon they were interrupted by death. Between the time of planetary death or translation and resurrection on the mansion world, mortal man gains absolutely nothing aside from experiencing the fact of survival. You begin over there right where you leave off down here.p533:5(47:3.7)

This teaching relieves any fears I may have had about having to return to this planet over and over again as the result of some past sins - which to me, is a very depressing thought. Having to endure, all over again, a complete mortal life until I "get it right," seems terribly unappealing to me.

Given the sheer size and magnitude of the inhabited universe presented in The Urantia Book, it seems highly unlikely to me that we would be doomed to such a circular existence focused on only this little ball of dirt in space. Rather, we can look forward to resurrection on new worlds, with new challenges, and new opportunities for atoning for our shortcomings. The watchword of the universe is "progress." Personally, I see nothing progressive about reincarnation.

I am however, interested in the phenomena of the intuitives that you mention, and I notice that many people seem to gain a great deal of comfort from these "readings." I am sure that they believe in what they are doing, as well as do the people who seek them out, but to me, it is only a curiosity, and nowhere near reality. I don't consider it sinful or bad, just pointless. I know that good and sincere people can have a desire to know everything they can in order to help them through this present life we are living, but the surest way to handle life on a day-to-day basis is to stay present, ask God to guide you, and do the best you can with every situation that comes up in your life. From the Urantia Book:

Love of adventure, curiosity, and dread of monotonyâ€”these traits inherent in evolving human natureâ€”were not put there just to aggravate and annoy you during your short sojourn on earth, but rather to suggest to you that death is only the beginning of an endless career of adventure, an everlasting life of anticipation, an eternal voyage of discovery.p159:6(14:5.10)

Finally, as to the karmic idea, The Urantia Book has an interesting quote about reaping and sowing:

When you finish your earthly career, your body remains on this planet...You "sow a mortal body" in the grave; you "reap a morontia form" on the mansion worlds.p431:2(39:2.13)

(NB: "Morontia" is a term designating a stage of existence which is between material and spiritual - a transition state between being entirely mortal, and entirely spiritual: ed)

The Urantia Book teaches us that this new life vehicle will be a faithful reflection of the true inner person, so that the spiritual progress, or lack thereof, will be reflected in this new form. This is an intriguing concept, and to me, is a good reason continue to do all I can to progress spiritually right here and now...hey, I want to look good in my resurrected life!!!

I would like to invite you to take a look at our dedicated page called Life After Death. You'll find many things of interest there that will give you even more information about The Urantia Book's teachings on the subject of eternal life.

And if you have not done so, please susbscribe to Quote of the Day - a free service of Truthbook.com. You'll receive a daily quote from The Urantia Book to uplift and inspire you.

Labels: eternal life, intuitives, life after death, reincarnation, The Urantia Book

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I am concerned about the use of the term 'surviving mortal.'

Q: I am concerned about the use of the term 'surviving mortal.' How do I know if I am destined to survive, and is there any chance I will not survive between my planet of origin and the first Mansion world?

A: I guess there is always a chance, but it seems to me that the overwhelming feeling that one gets from reading the Revelation is that the vast majority of human beings WILL survive in eternity. And that includes you.

My understanding is that one must simply CHOOSE to survive, and then have FAITH that that survival is inevitable. Doubt is the one thing that the believer has to resist, and so Jesus always exhorted us to develop a living faith - one that leaves no room for doubt. Unless you deliberately choose otherwise, your survival is assured.

"The door of eternal life is wide open to all; "whosoever will may come"; there are no restrictions or qualifications save the faith of the one who comes."139:12.7

Even if you may fear that your own faith might be somewhat lacking, The Urantia Book says this:

... it is the nature of the Sons of God to give every created being a full and equal chance for salvation and survival. Jesus wanted not only the mortals of this world but the onlookers of innumerable other worlds to know that, when doubts exist as to the sincerity and wholeheartedness of a creature's devotion to the kingdom, it is the invariable practice of the Judges of men fully to receive the doubtful candidate. p1566:6 139:12.7

The Master looked upon men as the sons of God and foresaw a magnificent and eternal future for those who chose survival. He was not a moral skeptic; he viewed man positively, not negatively. He saw most men as weak rather than wicked, more distraught than depraved. But no matter what their status, they were all God's children and his brethren. p2093:3 196:2.9

I think you can rest assured that you will also be given every opportunity to survive, if that is your desire. Your faith and your own choice in this matter are the keys to eternal life.

I hope you will take a look at two of our short flash presentations regarding this issue. One is: You Can Live Forever and the other one is After You Die. Both of these presentation are beautiful condensations of Urantia Book truth regarding the surety of survival, and eternal life.

Labels: eternal life, faith, Jesus, Mansion Worlds, survival

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